Abstract
Workflow assessment, mapping and modeling often are used in well-resourced care settings. However, we can and must also understand healthcare workflow at the edges of care, defined as workflow at or across the boundaries between healthcare organizations. Examples include from inpatient to outpatient, from large healthcare systems to external health and social services, or between clinics and pharmacies or other community settings. The edges of care may also include settings or areas of healthcare where workflow is not normally considered due to resource limitations or other systemic barriers, such as small or rural primary care practices, community health centers, and community-based health organizations. The operational definition of the “edges of care” comes with the growing understand that most healthcare takes place beyond the four walls of a hospital, into home-based, community-based, and consumer health settings. In this chapter, we will further describe this concept of the “edges of care” and discuss (1) the importance of studying workflow at the edges of care; (2) the current state of workflow study at the edges of care; and (3) opportunities to more efficiently or innovatively study workflow at the edges of care.
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Doebbeling, B.N., Paode, P. (2019). Workflow at the Edges of Care. In: Zheng, K., Westbrook, J., Kannampallil, T., Patel, V. (eds) Cognitive Informatics. Health Informatics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16916-9_10
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