Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS) Encounter Notification Service Pilot Project

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Home-dwelling Elderly; Health Care Recipient
• Interventions: Behavioral: Encounter notification service

• Registration Number: NCT04186351
• Lead Sponsor: The University of Hong Kong

Brief Summary

This study evaluates the value of the automated notification service that allows more timely information access and sharing. A 12-month RCT will be conducted to determine the efficacy of the provision of the service to an elderly care and service provider in improving care and health outcomes of the elderly. Researchers will also examine whether the notification service will better support the carers for the coordination and prioritization of care and service delivery.

Detailed Description

A research team at the University of Hong Kong is commissioned to conduct a study of the efficacy of providing an automated notification service, i.e., the "Encounter Notification Service," via the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS) to an elderly caring and service provider that aims to facilitate more timely provision and coordination of healthcare services for home-dwelling elderly. With the access to the automated notification service containing up-to-date encounter information of the elderly in the eHRSS (e.g. discharge date from the public hospital, outpatient appointments), it is expected that the elderly caring and service provider can improve its allocation of resources and prioritize the provision of service to elderly patients who are in need, i.e., during the transition of care. As a result, the caring support and services provided by the elderly caring and service provider to the elderly can be more timely and effective, and an improvement in patient health outcomes can be expected.

To obtain evidence to determine the value of the automated notification service, a systematic study of the efficacy is suggested. Thus, researchers set out to conduct a 12-month randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine whether the provision of the automated notification service to the caring and service provider will result in improvements in care and health outcomes of the elderly. Also, researchers will assess whether the notification service will better support the carers for the coordination and prioritization of care and service provision and improve workflow and administrative procedures amongst different sectors.

In this pilot study, the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association (SCHSA) is the participated elderly caring and service provider.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2019-11-25
• Study First Submitted QC: 2019-12-02
• Study First Posted: 2019-12-04
• Study Start: 2020-06-20
• Status Verified: 2020-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-11-05
• Last Update Posted: 2020-11-06
• Primary Completion: 2020-12-14
• Study Completion: 2021-12-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 864

Inclusion Criteria

• are aged 18 years or older
• have registered in eHRSS as healthcare recipients and given consent for sharing their records in the eHRSS with the SCHSA
• are able to understand spoken Cantonese

Read More

Exclusion Criteria

• with mental incapacity
• with hearing difficulties

Read More

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Encounter notification service	Encounter notification service	For participants randomized to the intervention group, their encounter information stored in the eHRSS will be provided to the SCHSA via the automated notification service. Healthcare professionals of the SCHSA would access the electronic health record and provide caring support and services via telephone calls during the 12-month study period.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
changes in the number of Accident and Emergency (A&E) visits	from baseline to 6 and 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
changes in the elderly's perceptions of the services	from baseline to 6 and 12 months	measured by a questionnaire with items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (worse outcome) to 5 (better outcome)
changes in the understanding of the arrangement of outpatient appointments	from baseline to 6 and 12 months	measured by a questionnaire with items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (worse outcome) to 5 (better outcome)
changes in the number of non-attendance to outpatient appointments	from baseline to 6 and 12 months
changes in the number of unplanned hospitalizations	from baseline to 6 and 12 months
changes in the stability of health condition	from baseline to 6 and 12 months	measured by a questionnaire with items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (worse outcome) to 5 (better outcome)
changes in the number of 30-day unplanned readmissions	from baseline to 6 and 12 months

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Senior Citizen Home Safety Association; 🇭🇰 Hong Kong, Hong Kong