Authors (including presenting author) :
Lau JK (1), Tong AYH (1), Yiu KC (1), Ho WKH (1), Chow CKC (1), Lau KKY (1), Tang FCP (1), Chong NWS (1), Lau KW (1), Ngan HT (1)
Affiliation :
(1)Information Technology and Health Informatics Division(IT&HI), Hospital Authority Head Office(HAHO)
Introduction :
Palliative care (PC) spans across various care settings at Hospital Authority. It not merely involves a number of different disciplines; and also collaborates with other clinical teams and specialties. There are notable challenges under huge service demand:
• Lack of common electronic platform for clinical assessments
• Lack of integrated information for multidisciplinary input to facilitate care plan formulation
• Difficult to identify patients under care for better coordination of holistic PC services and performance monitoring of PC services
Objectives :
This project aims to address these obstacles by developing an electronic Palliative Care (e-PC) system which embeds IT solution:
(i) To tailor the electronic assessment form to facilitate the continuity of care for ongoing reviews;
(ii) To build up e-PC to support the clinical workflow as well as communication and care coordination across disciplines;
(iii) To enhance IT system to facilitate the service coordination and performance monitoring.
Methodology :
The project unfolds in several phases. The initial phase of the project, conducted during the 3Q 2023, entails the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) called the Palliative Assessment Form PC (PAF PC). This MVP is deployed across seven clusters to address the issues associated with manual and fragmented documentation practices.
The subsequent phase, scheduled for completion in the 1Q 2024, will focus on streamlining workflow and enhancing access to critical patient information. This phase entails the development of an MVP for electronic PC on the electronic Patient Record (ePR) 2.0, with the aim of alleviating challenges posed by fragmented data across various disciplines. Further enhancements are anticipated in the subsequent development phase in 2024/25, including the creation of a mobile version of PAF (PC) for non-hospital settings, a patient listing system, a standardized Smart PC Summary for enhanced clinical documentation, and reports on PC services with quality indicators to facilitate data-driven decision-making.
Result & Outcome :
By 4Q 23, the implementation of PAF PC had been successfully deployed across seven clusters and successfully processed over 12,000 submissions within three months. This achievement has led to a significant reduction of approximately 300,000 papers per year, resulting in the preservation of around 80 trees annually.
Overall, This comprehensive roadmap delineates a systematic approach to the development and implementation of an integrated IT platform for advancing palliative care services. By transitioning from paper-based to electronic assessment and documentation, this framework aims to improve efficiency, coordination, and the quality of care while addressing the existing pain points. The proposed roadmap provides a structured foundation for the enhancement of palliative care services and highlights the potential benefits of leveraging technology within this domain by strengthening multidisciplinary palliative and end-of-life care services within and beyond the PC setting working in collaboration with other specialties.
