Care transitions in the outpatient surgery preoperative process: facilitators and obstacles to information flow and their consequences

  • Authors:

  • Kara Schultz;Pascale Carayon;Ann Schoofs Hundt;Scott R. Springman

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dept. of Indust. and Sys. Eng., 610 Walnut Street, 575 WARF, WI 53726, Madison, USA and Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Ctr. for Quality and Productivity Improvement, ...;University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dept. of Indust. and Sys. Eng., 610 Walnut Street, 575 WARF, WI 53726, Madison, USA and Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Ctr. for Quality and Productivity Improvement, ...;University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement, 610 Walnut Street, 575 WARF, WI 53726, Madison, USA;University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Anesthesiology, Box 3272, Clinical Science Center-F6, 600 Highland Avenue, WI 53792, Madison, USA

  • Venue:
  • Cognition, Technology and Work
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Patient care transitions have been shown to be critical points at which failure as well as recovery from potential failure may occur. The purpose of this research was to identify transitions in patient care and the flow of associated information at different steps in the outpatient surgery preoperative care process and, in turn, attempt to identify breakdowns in the information flow process and their ramifications. A study of one organization’s preoperative process for outpatient surgery was conducted, employing four means of data collection to gather information on preoperative work processes: employee shadowing, patient shadowing, clinic observation, and dictated feedback. Various facilitators and obstacles in information flow were found to be present in the preoperative care process. Obstacles often resulted in negative consequences for healthcare providers and patients. Helping care providers understand how their actions affect the various elements of the preoperative process, through improved awareness, may be one way to improve information flow problems within the outpatient surgery process.