 Quality patient-caregiver-provider communication can be challenging in a busy, high-stress environment like the emergency department (ED). When patients and caregivers leave the ED without fully understanding what happened during their visit or the information that was given to them, it can impact their ability to manage care at home and creates potential for return ED visits. That's why Dr. Janet Curran and Dr. Christine Cassidy are co-leading a national team to develop the Emergency Department Patient-Activated Transition from Care to Home (ED-PATCH) tool, which aims to help with these challenges. Co-designed with patients, caregivers and ED healthcare providers, ED-PATCH is a discharge communication tool that is activated and managed by patients or their caregivers to record important information shared during the ED visit. Patients receive ED-PATCH in the waiting room or immediately upon placement in an assessment room and use it to track important information throughout their visit. Information such as diagnosis given, details about treatments, tests, and procedures received, medications, and treatment plans. Before leaving, the patient or caregiver shares the summary of their notes with an ED healthcare provider who confirms or clarifies information captured. The summary is then available to be printed in the ED or emailed to the patient or caregiver for their own records. The ED-PATCH team has been awarded funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to run a trial of the tool over the next five years. The goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of ED-PATCH using an interrupted time series and to better understand the context for implementation of ED-PATCH in Canadian emergency practice settings. We will use a concurrent embedded mixed methods hybrid type 1 design with an integrated knowledge translation approach where we will work with patient and public partners, healthcare providers, and health system administrators. Want to learn more about the ED-PATCH project? Contact the Program Manager, Leah Boulos [email protected] for more information. |
RSS Feed