NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Dehcho Region, North Slave Region

Tags: health, health care evaluation, electronic health record, patient care

Objective(s): To conduct an evaluation of the HealthNet electronic health record implemented in the NWT to assess the impact on patient care and resource utilization as well as gather lessons learned that may be used to inform other clinical systems implementations.

Project Description: The overall aim of this research project is to conduct an evaluation of the HealthNet electronic health record implemented in the NWT to assess the impact on patient care and resource utilization as well as gather lessons learned that may be used to inform other clinical systems implementations. The evaluation will include quantitative and qualitative methods to assess clinical adoption and impact of the electronic health record system. The clinical adoption will be measured by using system usage statistics as well as interviews with a sampling on clinical users of the system. The Canada Health Infoway survey tool will also be used to assess user satisfaction, perceived benefits to patient care, and improvements in resource utilization. Interviews will be conducted to ask open ended questions to gather lessons learned from the end users. The researcher does not require access to patient identifiable information but hopes to gather de-identitied (anonymous) patient data to cross reference system usage to patient patterns. There are approximately 300 active users of the system. Interviews will be conducted with approximately 20 users that will provide a cross representation of clinician types (e.g. physicians, nursing, nurse practitioners), work settings (hospital vs. primary care), and community settings. The CEOs of the health authority will be contacted by the Department of Health and Social Services requesting permission for participation of their staff and clinicians. The Department of Health and Social Services will work with the health authority managers to recruit volunteers to participate in the survey and interview portion of the evaluation. All surveys and interviews will be held in confidence by the researcher. Any data extracts from the EHR are owned by the NWT Department of Health and Social Services and will be provided for the evaluation project after patient information has been de-identified. Results reported will be aggregated at the health authority level to protect the privacy of patients and healthcare providers. The NWT Department of Health and Social Services is involved in this research project and will benefit from the evaluation of the electronic health record that they have implemented. The results will be shared with the Department of Health and Social Services. It will be the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Services to share the results with the regional health authorities if they wish. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from December 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.