Health worker perspectives of Smart Triage, a digital triaging platform for quality improvement at a referral hospital in Uganda: a qualitative analysis

BMC Pediatrics

Research

Teresa Johnson¹  Mai-Lei Woo Kinshella²  Stefanie K Novakowski³  Jessica Rigg³  J Mark Ansermino³  Dustin Dunsmuir³  Yashodani Pillay³  Katija Pallot³  Abner Tagoola⁴  Niranjan Kissoon⁵  Bernard Toliva Opar⁶  Nathan Kenya-Mugisha⁶  Olive Kabajaasi⁶ 

[1] Centre for International Child Health, BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada;Centre for International Child Health, BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada;Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, BC Children’s and Women’s Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada;Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada;Centre for International Child Health, BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada;Department of Pediatrics, Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, Jinja, Uganda;Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada;WALIMU, Kololo, Kampala, Uganda;

关键词: Child;    Delivery of health care;    Digital technology;    Health personnel;    Triage;    Critical care;    Sepsis;    Telemedicine;    Point-of-care systems;    Quality improvement;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12887-022-03627-1

 received in 2022-06-09, accepted in 2022-09-20,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundEffective triage at hospitals can improve outcomes for children globally by helping identify and prioritize care for those most at-risk of death. Paper-based pediatric triage guidelines have been developed to support frontline health workers in low-resource settings, but these guidelines can be challenging to implement. Smart Triage is a digital triaging platform for quality improvement (QI) that aims to address this challenge. Smart Triage represents a major cultural and behavioural shift in terms of managing patients at health facilities in low-and middle-income countries. The purpose of this study is to understand user perspectives on the usability, feasibility, and acceptability of Smart Triage to inform ongoing and future implementation.MethodsThis was a descriptive qualitative study comprising of face-to-face interviews with health workers (n = 15) at a regional referral hospital in Eastern Uganda, conducted as a sub-study of a larger clinical trial to evaluate Smart Triage (NCT04304235). Thematic analysis was used to assess the usability, feasibility, and acceptability of the platform, focusing on its use in stratifying and prioritizing patients according to their risk and informing QI initiatives implemented by health workers.ResultsWith appropriate training and experience, health workers found most features of Smart Triage usable and feasible to implement, and reported the platform was acceptable due to its positive impact on reducing the time to treatment for emergency pediatric cases and its use in informing QI initiatives within the pediatric ward. Several factors that reduced the feasibility and acceptability were identified, including high staff turnover, a lack of medical supplies at the hospital, and challenges with staff attitudes.ConclusionHealth workers can use the Smart Triage digital triaging platform to identify and prioritize care for severely ill children and improve quality of care at health facilities in low-resource settings. Future innovation is needed to address identified feasibility and acceptability challenges; however, this platform could potentially address some of the challenges to implementing current paper-based systems.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022

【 图 表 】

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