Stakeholders barriers and facilitators for the implementation of a personalised digital care pathway: a qualitative study
Stakeholders barriers and facilitators for the implementation of a personalised digital care pathway: a qualitative study
Objective
A prerequisite for patient-centredness in healthcare organisations is offering patients access to adequate health information, which fits their needs. A personalised digital care pathway (PDCP) is a tool that facilitates the provision of tailored and timely information. Despite its potential, barriers influence the implementation of digital tools in healthcare organisations. Therefore, we investigated the perceived barriers and facilitators for implementation of the PDCP among stakeholders.
Design
A qualitative study was conducted to acquire insight into perceptions of the stakeholders involved in the implementation of a digital care pathway in three diverse patient groups.
Setting
This study is part of the PDCP research project in a large academic hospital in the Netherlands.
Participants
Purposive sampling was used to recruit internal stakeholders (eg, healthcare professionals, employees of the supporting departments) and external stakeholders (eg, employees of the external PDCP supplier). In addition, existing semistructured interviews with patients involved in pilot implementation (n=24) were used to verify the findings.
Results
We conducted 25 semistructured interviews using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Content analyses yielded four themes: (1) stakeholders' perceptions of the PDCP (eg, perceived usefulness); (2) characteristics of the individuals involved and the implementation process (eg, individuals express resistance to change); (3) organisational readiness (eg, lack of resources); and (4) collaboration within the organisation (eg, mutual communication, multidisciplinary codesign). The main barriers mentioned by patients were duration of first activation and necessity for up-to-date content. In addition, the most facilitating factor for patients was user-friendliness.
Conclusion
Our findings emphasise the importance of gaining insights into the various perspectives of stakeholder groups, including patients, regarding the implementation of the PDCP. The perceived barriers and facilitators can be used to improve the PDCP implementation plan and tailor the development and improvement of other digital patient communication tools.
Keywords
Dermatological tumours; PLASTIC & RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY; Paediatric plastic & reconstructive surgery; Sexual and gender disorders.
References
About The Author
Femke van Nassau is a senior researcher at the Amsterdam UMC, VUmc, specializing in human movement science. Her work at the Department of Public and Occupational Health and the Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute focuses on developing, implementing, and scaling up lifestyle interventions to promote physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior. With a PhD in scaling up school-based obesity prevention programs, she continues to lead innovative health promotion projects across various settings.
