Care coordination for chronically ill patients: Identifying coordination activities and interdependencies.

Care coordination is important for chronically ill patients who need assistance from a variety of healthcare professionals especially when they transition through different care settings. There has not been a clear definition of care coordination and its associated activities. This paper provides a two-dimension framework of care coordination for chronically ill patients: 1) coordination activities (i.

Perceived Impact of Care Managers' Work on Patient and Clinician Outcomes.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the contributions of care management as perceived by care managers themselves.

Study Design: Focus groups and interviews with care managers who coordinate care for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure patients, as well as patients undergoing major surgery.

Methods: We collected data in focus groups and interviews with 12 care managers working in the Keystone Beacon Community project, including 5 care managers working in hospitals, 2 employed in outpatient clinics and 4 telephoning discharged patients from a Transitions of Care (TOC) call center.

A systematic review of mixed methods research on human factors and ergonomics in health care.

This systematic literature review provides information on the use of mixed methods research in human factors and ergonomics (HFE) research in health care. Using the PRISMA methodology, we searched four databases (PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, and Engineering Village) for studies that met the following inclusion criteria: (1) field study in health care, (2) mixing of qualitative and quantitative data, (3) HFE issues, and (4) empirical evidence. Using an iterative and collaborative process supported by a structured data collection form, the six authors identified a total of 58 studies that primarily address HFE issues in health information technology (e.

Human factors and ergonomics as a patient safety practice.

Background: Human factors and ergonomics (HFE) approaches to patient safety have addressed five different domains: usability of technology; human error and its role in patient safety; the role of healthcare worker performance in patient safety; system resilience; and HFE systems approaches to patient safety.

Methods: A review of various HFE approaches to patient safety and studies on HFE interventions was conducted.

Results: This paper describes specific examples of HFE-based interventions for patient safety.