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Quality of care and interhospital collaboration: a study of patient transfers in Italy.

ABSTRACT: We examine the dynamics of patient-sharing relations within an Italian regional community of 35 hospitals serving approximately 1,300,000 people. We test whether interorganizational relations provide individual patients access to higher quality providers of care.We reconstruct the complete temporal sequence of the 3461 consecutive interhospital patient-sharing events observed between each pair of hospitals in the community during 2005-2008. We distinguish between transfers occurring between and within different medical specialties. We estimate newly derived models for relational event sequences that allow us to control for the most common forms of network-like dependencies that are known to characterize collaborative relations between hospitals. We use 45-day risk-adjusted readmission rate as a proxy for hospital quality.After controls (eg, geographical distance, size, and the existence of prior collaborative relations), we find that patients flow from less to more capable hospitals. We show that this result holds for patient being shared both between as well as within medical specialties. Nonetheless there are strong and persistent other organizational and relational effects driving transfers.Decentralized patient-sharing decisions taken by the 35 hospitals give rise to a system of collaborative interorganizational arrangements that allow the patient to access hospitals delivering a higher quality of care. This result is relevant for health care policy because it suggests that collaborative relations between hospitals may produce desirable outcomes both for individual patients, and for regional health care systems.

SUBMITTER: Lomi A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4036796 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Quality of care and interhospital collaboration: a study of patient transfers in Italy.

Lomi Alessandro A Mascia Daniele D Vu Duy Quang DQ Pallotti Francesca F Conaldi Guido G Iwashyna Theodore J TJ

Medical care 20140501 5

<h4>Objectives</h4>We examine the dynamics of patient-sharing relations within an Italian regional community of 35 hospitals serving approximately 1,300,000 people. We test whether interorganizational relations provide individual patients access to higher quality providers of care.<h4>Research design and methods</h4>We reconstruct the complete temporal sequence of the 3461 consecutive interhospital patient-sharing events observed between each pair of hospitals in the community during 2005-2008. ...[more]

PMID: 24714579

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Project description:ObjectivesThis quality improvement project sought to enhance clinical information sharing for interhospital transfers to an inpatient hepatology service comprised of internal medicine resident frontline providers (housestaff) with the specific aims of making housestaff aware of 100% of incoming transfers and providing timely access to clinical summaries.InterventionsIn February 2020, an email notification system to senior medicine residents responsible for patient triage shared planned arrival time for patients pending transfer. In July 2020, a clinical data repository ("Transfer Log") updated daily by accepting providers (attending physicians and subspecialty fellows) became available to senior medicine residents responsible for triage.MethodsLikert scale surveys were administered to housestaff before email intervention (pre) and after transfer log intervention (post). The time from patient arrival to team assignment (TTA) in the electronic medical record was used as a proxy for time to patient assessment and was measured pre- and postinterventions; >2 hours to TTA was considered an extreme delay.ResultsHousestaff reported frequency of access to clinical information as follows: preinterventions 4/31 (13%) sometimes/very often and 27/31 (87%) never/rarely; postinterventions 11/26 (42%) sometimes/very often and 15/26 (58%) never/rarely (p = 0.02). Preinterventions 12/39 (31%) felt "not at all prepared" versus 27/39 (69%) "somewhat" or "adequately"; postinterventions 2/24 (8%) felt "not at all prepared" versus 22/24 (92%) somewhat/adequately prepared (p = 0.06). There was a significant difference in mean TTA between pre- and posttransfer log groups (62 vs. 40 minutes, p = 0.01) and a significant reduction in patients with extreme delays in TTA post-email (18/180 pre-email vs. 7/174 post-email, p = 0.04).ConclusionEarly notification and increased access to clinical information were associated with better sense of preparedness for admitting housestaff, reduction in TTA, and reduced frequency of extreme delays in team assignment.

Project description:BackgroundHospitals are increasingly parts of larger care collaborations, rather than individual entities. Organizing and operating these collaborations is challenging; a significant number do not succeed, as it is difficult to align the goals of the partners. However, little research has focused on stakeholders' views regarding hospital collaboration models or on whether these views are aligned with those of hospital management. This study explores Belgian hospital stakeholders' views on the factors affecting hospital collaborations and their perspectives on different models for Belgian interhospital collaboration.MethodsQualitative focus group study on the viewpoints, barriers, and facilitators associated with hospital collaboration models (health system, network, joint venture).ResultsA total of 55 hospital stakeholders (hospital managers, chairs of medical councils, chair of hospital boards and special interest groups) participated in seven focus group sessions. Collaboration in health care is challenging, as the goals of the different stakeholder groups are partly parallel but also sometimes conflicting. Hospital managers and special interest groups favored health systems as the most integrated form. Hospital board members also opted for this model, but believed a coordinated network to be the most pragmatic and feasible model at the moment. Members of physicians' organizations preferred the joint venture, as it creates more flexibility for physicians. Successful collaboration requires trust and commitment. Legislation must provide a supporting framework and governance models.ConclusionsInvolvement of all stakeholder groups in the process of decision-making within the collaboration is perceived as a necessity, which confirms the importance of the stakeholders' theory. The health system is the collaboration structure best suited to enhancing task distribution and improving patient quality. However, the existence of networks and joint ventures is considered necessary in the process of transformation towards more solid hospital collaborations such as health systems.

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Quality of care and interhospital collaboration: a study of patient transfers in Italy.

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Quality of care and interhospital collaboration: a study of patient transfers in Italy.

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