Biomedical subjects

Barbara Korabek

Publications and source records attributed to Barbara Korabek.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Moving research into practice: A decision framework for integrating home telehealth into chronic illness care.

Home telehealth is an effective alternative for some aspects of traditional care in chronic illnesses such as diabetes, congestive heart failure and asthma. However, in spite of evidence to support use of home telehealth technologies, they have not been adopted as predicted. A significant challenge for decision-makers is applying results from multiple small studies to the care of large numbers of clients in a health region. Aside from the technology, this complex decision must also include expected client outcomes, variations in nursing resources and their deployment in service delivery. This paper presents research evidence supporting the effectiveness of home telehealth for diabetes care, with attention to the range of technologies and outcome measures reported. It also discusses implications of a recently released national study on "Homecare Indicators" that reported resource allocation and outcomes in home care. The burden of illness, evidence of technology effectiveness and proposed home care outcome indicators are considered together in a decision framework to demonstrate an approach for decision-makers and practitioners to transfer home telehealth research into practice. The resulting decision framework is applied to diabetes care within one large health region in Canada to illustrate its utility as a research transfer strategy.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2004

Stakeholder readiness for telehomecare: implications for implementation.

Numerous pilot studies have demonstrated that telehomecare technology may improve client outcomes through timely intervention and health crises prevention, thereby reducing return visits to hospitals and physician offices. Although the potential of telehomecare to increase access to services and improve quality of care and health outcomes is recognized, expectations for its widespread adoption have not been realized. Factors affecting diffusion of innovations include, among other things, perceptions of the technology, organizational characteristics, and communication. These require further exploration for telehealth applications because evidence alone will not automatically produce large-scale conversions in practice. This 12-month study was designed to assess the readiness of clients, health care professionals, and organizations to adopt telehomecare services for adult diabetic clients within the Calgary Health Region. A qualitative approach was used to collect data through focus groups with clients and home care nurses along with interviews with family physicians and key informants responsible for planning and resource allocation in diabetic homecare and telehealth programs. The transcripts of these interviews were analyzed for themes, which were categorized with respect to their effect on quality of care (including structure, process or outcome of care), including those related to the individual client, the health care provider, and the organization as a whole. The study findings identified differences in stakeholder conceptions of the technology, including common themes among clients, providers, and organizations. Implications of study results for developing a strategy to incorporate telehomecare into routine community care are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Innovations in seniors' care: home care/physician partnership.

The Innovations in Seniors' Care (Primary Care Partnerships) Project was implemented in 2000 in the Calgary Health Region, Alberta, to look at integration of services for seniors. The goal was to develop a sustainable collaborative partnership between family physicians and Community Care Coordinators--RNs (Home Care). The design and model were established in Stage I of the project. Stage II addressed implementation, challenges, barriers, evaluation, learnings and successes to date. Stage III looked at refinement, revision, final evaluation of the processes and dissemination of learnings. This paper describes startup procedures and implementation (selection of participants, educational sessions, evolution of partnerships and development of the evaluation framework). As the focus of the project was quality improvement, the section on implementation will discuss how and why changes occurred in the course of the process. Key challenges related to the restructuring of Home Care, creating tools and fostering unique individualized partnerships are also discussed. The conclusion evaluates the project's benefits in relation to (1) participant satisfaction, (2) sustainability and (3) impact on the system. The initial partnerships were formed in May 2001. New partnerships continue to be developed and constitute a key strategy in the Calgary Health Region's Primary Care Initiative.

Aged↗