Views of patient, healthcare professionals and administrative staff on flow of information and collaboration in a regional health information exchange: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, patients can be more involved in developing healthcare services with their healthcare professionals. Patient-centred information is a key part of improving regional health information exchange (HIE), giving patients an active role in care management.

AIM: The aim was to get a deeper understanding of the flow of information and collaboration in one hospital district area from the viewpoint of patients, healthcare professionals and administrative staff.

METHODS: The data were collected by themed interviews and analysed using both deductive and inductive content analyses. The interview themes were the flow of information and collaboration after 5 years of HIE usage in one hospital district area in Finland.

FINDINGS: Health information exchange usage had changed the regional flow of information after the 5-year period. The patients were satisfied that their primary care physician was able to access their special care information. The experiences of healthcare professionals and administrative staff also showed that information availability and information exchange had improved regionally. HIE usage was also found to have improved regional collaboration between different organisations in patient health care.

CONCLUSIONS: It was recognised that patients had taken on more responsibility for transferring their follow-up treatment information. Healthcare information exchange between professionals not only improves patient care or patient involvement in their own care, but it also requires that patient self-care or self-care management is integrated into HIE systems to share information not only among professionals, but also between patients and professionals. This information will be used in the development of healthcare systems to meet more the developing of the continuity of care the patient's point of view.