Authors (including presenting author) :
Lau JK (1), Yiu KC (1), Ho WKH (1), Chang FKW (1), Chow CKC (1), Yan BCM (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 :
The provision of palliative care (PC) often faces significant challenges due to fragmented systems and a lack of coordinated communication among healthcare providers. There are significant challenges arise in the face of high service demand. 1. Lack of a unified platform for clinical assessments, compromising evaluation consistency. 2. Absence of integrated information hinders the development of multidisciplinary care plans. 3. Coordination gaps lead to inefficiencies and a decline in service quality.
Objectives :
This study proposes a horizontally integrated Electronic Palliative Care Service platform to address care gaps, with the following objectives: 1. Develop a unified system for clinical assessments to enhance provider integration and palliative care delivery. 2. Enhance IT systems to support workflows and improve communication. 3. Improve care coordination across disciplines and settings in the palliative care continuum.
Methodology :
The project focused on creating a multidisciplinary platform within the electronic Patient Record (ePR) 2.0 framework to integrate essential assessment data from diverse professionals, including doctors, nurses, medical social workers (MSW), and clinical psychologists (CP). Total 25 data from patient assessment form (PC), laboratory result, Clinical Psychology Progress Note and Medical Social Service Discharge Summary were extracted and consolidated into a single platform, providing a comprehensive overview of the patient journey at a glance. This integrated view adhered to established practices across various disciplines within Hospital Authority (HA) systems and minimized duplicate entries through automated data extraction from existing HA systems.
Result & Outcome :
By 4Q 24, the implementation of the PC integrated view had been successfully deployed across seven clusters and successfully processed over 4000 inquiries within three months. More than 80% PC patients’ integrated view were accessed by various disciplines. This achievement has significantly reduced the time required to formulate palliative care plans and streamlined the workflow for care provision.
