Research and Projects

Hawaii

Holomua Project Improving Transitional Care in Hawaii

Description:  Develops a patient Master Visit Registry (MVR), addressing the need for better information sharing among clinical organizations and enhancing their ability to give patients continuous high-quality care when they change providers. The MVR will expand upon an existing patient record-keeping system, while improving local handling and exchange of records.

Abstract:  DESCRIPTION (PROVIDED BY THE APPLICANT): The Holomua Project brings together the Hawaii Primary Care Association, the Kalihi-Palama Health Center, Kokua Kalihi Valley Health Center, Hawaii Pacific Health, and the Queens Medical Center in an approach to information sharing during transitional care. The overall goal of this project is to support the goals and aims directly derived from the Holomua planning process. The implementation plan will assist the Holomua partners in achieving the ultimate project goal to increase patient safety, quality and continuity of care during transitional care for vulnerable populations in Hawaii through improving the flow of information between patients/families, community health centers and hospitals using health information technology (HIT). The specific aims of the project are to: 1) Increase accuracy and timeliness of shared patient information during transitional care between primary care and tertiary care facilities; 2) Reduce incidence of medical errors that may occur due to linguistic and/or cultural barriers between patients and medical providers that prevent accurate communication of health information such as previous medical history and treatment, medications, referrals); 3) Reduce occurrences of duplicated diagnostic procedures performed on patients due to lack of communication between primary care and tertiary care facilities; 4) Increase participation and involvement in decision making by patients or family on health related matters; and 5) Determine mechanisms by which information resources, information systems, and other IT initiatives and/or networks in Hawaii can best support both short and long term implementation activities of the Holomua Project. The project will consist of both technological and non-technological solutions to the problem of transitional care. The technological solution involves the development and implementation of a Master Visit Registry (MVR) as a means of sharing health information between systems. The non-technological solutions involve charting workflow related to transitional care, polices and procedures relative to transitional care, and using dialogue and communication to facilitate transitional care. The technological method was chosen as it represents a scalable, interoperable solution that takes into account the disparate resources of all the partner organizations. The non-technological methods are based on abundant research that illustrates the necessity of attending to the human side of Information to ensure success of implementation efforts.

Year 1 Funding:  $476,200

Estimated Total Funding:  $1,476,200

Principal Investigator:  Christine M. Sakuda

Applicant Institution:  Hawai'i Primary Care Association

City/Town:  Honolulu, Hawaii

State:  Hawaii

Grant Number:  UC1 HS016160-01

Category:  Implementation Grants (THQIT)

Thesaurus Terms:  

Project Start Date:  Sep 30, 2005

Project End Date:  Sep 29, 2008