Safe Interorganizational Health Information Exchange During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Area of Science:

• Healthcare logistics
• Health information management
• Infection control

Background:

• Transferring medical records between skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and acute care hospitals presents significant logistical challenges.
• Paper-based record transfer is prone to misplacement and delays, impacting patient care continuity.
• The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted risks of viral transmission via fomites in medical records, necessitating enhanced safety protocols.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe an innovative process for accurate and timely medical record transmission between SNFs and acute care settings.
• To address the logistical and safety challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To share critical success factors for implementing a new document transfer process.

Main Methods:

• A multidisciplinary team including hospital leadership and SNF collaborative members developed and evaluated solutions.
• A systematic review of potential solutions was conducted to select the optimal document transfer process.
• The chosen process was implemented and its critical success factors were identified.

Main Results:

• An innovative document transfer process was successfully developed and implemented.
• The new process addresses the logistical and safety concerns associated with traditional paper record transfer.
• Key factors for successful implementation were identified and delineated.

Conclusions:

• The developed process offers a viable solution for improving medical record transfer between SNFs and hospitals.
• This innovation can enhance patient safety, care coordination, and operational efficiency.
• Other healthcare systems and SNF collaboratives can adapt this model to improve their record transfer protocols.