Provider Perceptions Regarding Barriers to Health IT Adoption In Palliative Care (S734)

Abstract

1.Identify provider-perceived barriers to health information technology adoption in palliative care settings.2.Discuss potential challenges related to the development and implementation of an IT-powered data capture system for quality monitoring in palliative care. Health information technology (HIT) is an inevitability in the future of medicine. Simultaneously, increasing pressure from payers, policymakers, and accreditors demands the capture and reporting of quality conformance; HIT can be leveraged to execute such processes. What characteristics of palliative care (PC) pose challenges to HIT adoption? To describe the perceptions of PC providers vis-à-vis HIT data collection for quality monitoring. Eight 60-minute focus groups. This qualitative evaluation was embedded within a larger study assessing the feasibility of a novel HIT application to collect patient-reported outcomes in PC. Twenty-one PC providers from four organizations across North Carolina will be interviewed. The parent study contains two cycles of software implementation, testing, and updates, with focus groups after each cycle. Interview topics explore perceptions regarding: 1) usability of the software application; 2) implementation barriers; 3) effects on clinical performance; and 4) the use of HIT to capture data for PC quality assessment. Data will be analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Data collection and analysis are underway; four of eight groups have been convened. Preliminary findings indicate overall support for HIT-powered data capture; however, concerns regarding limitations of HIT tempered such enthusiasm. For example, providers worried that HIT will be unable to convey the complexity and nuance of PC practice. Additional themes include: interference of point-of-care data collection with patient-provider relationships; challenges of assessing patient-reported outcomes in seriously ill populations; and location-specific constraints (eg, contact precautions). Perceived limitations of HIT may stand as barriers to implementation in PC unless intentionally and constructively addressed.