Midcoast Maine Patient Safety With IT Integration

Project Details -
Completed

This grant assisted Northeast Health (NEH) and its partners in planning activities that would lead to successful implementation of health information technology (health IT). The three key objectives of this project were: 1) Assess and plan for the full integration of information across the entire Northeast Health system; 2) Study organizational change within a rural health care system and develop an effective intervention strategy that takes into account organizational culture and organizational structure; and 3) Introduce a more effective, consortium-wide planning process. The study included three assessments - quality/patient safety; organizational culture; and technology - and was a mixed-method design that included quantitative analysis of patient/procedure outcomes, qualitative interviewing, and observation. Because of previous socio-technical challenges to health IT implementation, mock scenarios were piloted during the implementation of a new Meditech health IT module. The study concluded that: 1) NEH had established a strong health IT infrastructure to build upon; 2) By fully adopting the Meditech health IT system, NEH would realize significant improvement in the majority of the quality standards assessed and accomplish clinical integration; and 3) To be successful, the implementation needed to consider the socio-technical system, shift the organization culture, and be mindful of human factors.