The Health Outcomes for Better Information and Care Initiative: Implementing Nursing Sensitive Outcomes Measurement Across Sectors of the Health Care System

Abstract

The measurement and assessment of patient health outcomes is important for ensuring that health care organizations are providing the best and most effective care. The Health Outcomes for Better Information and Care (HOBIC) initiative is looking to collect outcomes data from across various sectors which are considered sensitive to the care that nurses provide. These include measures related to functional status, symptom management, patient safety and therapeutic self-care. As the coordinator for the Champlain LHIN, I was able to work with organizations to introduce the HOBIC initiative and in some cases lead the implementation of data collection. During visits with health care organizations, it became increasingly clear that the lack of adoption of clinical documentation systems would prevent widespread uptake of HOBIC in acute care facilities. An evaluation examining possible reasons for the poor adoption of clinical documentation systems is included. Both short and long-term strategies are proposed which would allow for increased update of HOBIC data collection in the acute care sector.