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Streamlining the Patient Journey Through Information Sharing

March 11, 2022

Kristie Loescher, Ph.D., academic director of the Health Care Innovation Initiative, teaches a course called Healthcare System Management at the McCombs School of Business. In this course, and throughout a semester-long consulting project, students are introduced to the business ecosystem of the U.S. health care industry to investigate the business structures, processes and outcomes of health services in America.

The following post is authored by Gina Nguyen, Vivek Ananda, Truc Ly, Andrew Lee and Grant Watzka, University of Texas students who completed Loeschner’s course.

In the fall of 2021, we partnered with the Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care at Dell Medical School to better understand the patient information sharing process between the Surgical Oncology Clinic at UT Health Austin and the Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas.

Specifically, we wanted to discover what information is needed pre- and post-surgery, when and by whom. We set out to define this process so we could provide recommendations to help streamline the information sharing process for internal stakeholders and provide a better care experience for patients. To facilitate this work, we collaborated with Declan Fleming, M.D., chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Dell Med, and Diana Mendoza, a health professional specialist in the Surgical Oncology Clinic.

Early in our project, we discovered that speed bumps in the referral process occur due to differences in electronic health record systems. Accordingly, our project included a series of information-transfer steps that had accompanying subcategories (information, location, process, time and people). Our team determined what types of information fell into each subcategory and then used this data to create a process map.

Once we understood the clinic’s workflow, we identified growth areas and provided recommendations. Our recommendations varied from connecting individuals to specific parts of the referral process to ensuring that fax information for the clinic is available to referring doctors. We also recommended reviewing current doctor information for accuracy, as sometimes the data input is the reason information sharing processes fail.

Through this project, we were able to get a closer look at real-world problems that many health care facilities in the U.S. face. Through the information-gathering process, we were exposed to various health care facilities and diverse health care professionals, and all in all, we got an inside look at how health care facilities function and how technology can both help and hinder care practices.