Clinician Perspectives on Unmet Needs for Mobile Technology Among Hospitalists: Workflow Analysis Based on...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Informatics
• Medical Workflow Analysis
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Hospitalist workdays are cognitively demanding, with many tasks performed away from patients.
• Existing mobile technologies often fail to meet clinician expectations after implementation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify opportunities for integrating mobile technology into hospitalist workflows.
• To pinpoint difficult tasks and inefficiencies in hospitalist work.
• To understand hospitalists' perspectives on mobile technology adoption.

Main Methods:

• Workflow analysis through semistructured interviews with hospitalists, nurse practitioners, and residents.
• Focus on identifying frequent, redundant, and difficult tasks.
• Exploration of potential mobile technology interventions and app ideas.

Main Results:

• Chart reviews, orders, and documentation were identified as the most challenging tasks.
• Intake, discharge, and rounding workflows were inefficient, often due to lack of bedside electronic health record access.
• Poor usability, inconsistent IT availability, and organizational policies contributed to inefficiencies.
• Hospitalists favored mobile apps for team communication, data entry, and presentation.

Conclusions:

• Prioritized opportunities exist to enhance hospitalist workflow efficiency and reduce task difficulty with mobile technology.
• Task-specific mobile apps with improved usability can decrease reliance on memory and task fragmentation.
• Findings inform the design of future health information technologies to improve continuity in hospital medicine.