Perspect Health Inf Manag. 2022 Jan 1;19(1):1h. eCollection 2022 Winter.
Recently, several technologies have been developed for being used in the field of geriatric emergency medicine. As a large number of elderly patients visit emergency departments, the use of health information technology in this department can help to improve patient care and control the outcome of diseases. The present study aimed to identify opportunities for using various health information technologies for elderly care in the emergency department.
This qualitative study was conducted in 2020. The participants included geriatricians, geriatric nurses, emergency medicine specialists, and nurses who worked in the emergency department. In total, 33 semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data were analyzed by using framework analysis method and MAXQDA software.
The findings of the qualitative study included four main themes, nine subthemes, and 20 categories. The main themes were the common process of elderly care in the emergency departments, data required for elderly care in the emergency departments, the elderly treatment team, and current information technologies used in the emergency departments for elderly care. Overall, the results showed that there was no specific workflow for elderly care in the emergency departments; the great workload of this department prevents the clinicians to conduct cognitive and functional assessments; geriatricians were not involved in the care process; and none of the current information systems were designed specifically for elderly patients. It seems that using specific heath information technology for elderly care in the emergency department can help to overcome current challenges.
Identifying opportunities for using health information technologies for geriatric patients in the emergency department can lead to better use of financial, physical, and human resources, and improve staff performance. These systems can be designed and used for different purposes such as reducing work load, readmissions, and hospitalization. Improving access to data and better collaboration between different specialties are other benefits of using these systems. However, more research is required to evaluate the effectiveness of technology in this area.
最近，已经开发出了几种技术，用于老年急救医学领域。随着大量老年患者到急诊就诊，该部门使用健康信息技术有助于改善患者护理并控制疾病的结果。本研究旨在确定在急诊部门使用各种健康信息技术为老年人护理提供机会。
这是一项 2020 年进行的定性研究。参与者包括老年病医生、老年护士、急诊医学专家和在急诊部门工作的护士。共进行了 33 次半结构化访谈，使用框架分析方法和 MAXQDA 软件对数据进行分析。
定性研究的结果包括四个主要主题、九个子主题和 20 个类别。主要主题是急诊部门老年人护理的常见流程、急诊部门老年人护理所需的数据、老年人治疗团队和急诊部门当前用于老年人护理的信息技术。总体而言，结果表明急诊部门老年人护理没有特定的工作流程；该部门的工作量很大，妨碍了临床医生进行认知和功能评估；老年病医生没有参与护理过程；也没有任何现有的信息系统是专门为老年患者设计的。似乎在急诊部门为老年人护理使用特定的健康信息技术可以帮助克服当前的挑战。
确定在急诊部门为老年患者使用健康信息技术的机会，可以更好地利用财务、物力和人力资源，提高员工绩效。这些系统可以为不同的目的而设计和使用，例如减轻工作量、减少再入院和住院。改善数据的可及性和更好地促进不同专业之间的合作是使用这些系统的其他好处。但是，需要进一步研究来评估该领域技术的有效性。
