Development of a Smartphone App for Regional Care Coordination Among High-Risk, Low-Income Patients.

Background: Despite widespread adoption of health information technology, U.S. providers face persistent barriers to coordination of care. We sought to develop and implement a patient-centered smartphone app that facilitates care coordination when patients receive care at any hospital in a region. Materials and Methods: Partnering with patients and primary care teams at a federally qualified health center (FQHC), we developed an app that (1) used real-time location data to identify encounters at 41 regional hospitals; (2) sent notifications to users' phones, asking them to confirm hospital arrival/discharge, and; (3) sent automated messages to primary care teams about confirmed hospital encounters. App design included multiple, successive rounds of active patient participation. In a small beta test of the initial version of the app, high-risk, low-income FQHC patients ran the app on their phone for 3 months. A formative mixed methods evaluation examined the app's technical performance and user experience. Results: Twelve patients enrolled in the beta test and provided follow-up data; 11 (92%) were racial/ethnic minorities. Participants obtained emergency or inpatient care at four regional hospitals. The app had 75% sensitivity to detect events when notifications should have fired, and 90% positive predictive value (PPV) of events when notifications fired. Barriers to implementation related to the app's user interface and the performance of its location tracking algorithm. Conclusions: We partnered with patients from a traditionally underserved population to develop a new smartphone-based approach to regional care coordination. The app had moderate sensitivity and high PPV for identifying regional hospital visits.

"The Doctor Needs to Know": Acceptability of Smartphone Location Tracking for Care Coordination.

BACKGROUND: Care coordination can be highly challenging to carry out. When care is fragmented across health systems and providers, there is an increased likelihood of hospital readmissions and wasteful health care spending. During and after care transitions, smartphones have the potential to bolster information transfer and care coordination. However, little research has examined patients' perceptions of using smartphones to coordinate care. OBJECTIVE: This study's primary objective was to explore patient acceptability of a smartphone app that could facilitate care coordination in a safety net setting. Our secondary objective was to identify how clinicians and other members of primary care teams could use this app to coordinate care. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted at a federally qualified health center in metropolitan Chicago, IL. We conducted four focus groups (two in English, two in Spanish) with high-risk adults who owned a smartphone and received services from an organizational care management program. We also conducted structured interviews with clinicians and a group interview with care managers. Focus groups elicited patients' perceptions of a smartphone app designed to: (1) identify emergency department (ED) visits and inpatient stays using real-time location data; (2) send automated notifications (ie, alerts) to users' phones, asking whether they were a patient in the hospital; and (3) send automated messages to primary care teams to notify them about patients' confirmed ED visits and inpatient stays. Focus group transcripts were coded based on emergent themes. Clinicians and care managers were asked about messages they would like to receive from the app. RESULTS: Five main themes emerged in patient focus group discussions. First, participants expressed a high degree of willingness to use the proposed app during inpatient stays. Second, participants expressed varying degrees of willingness to use the app during ED visits, particularly for low acuity ED visits. Third, participants stated their willingness to have their location tracked by the proposed app due to its perceived benefits. Fourth, the most frequently mentioned barriers to acceptability were inconveniences such as "false alarm" notifications and smartphone battery drainage. Finally, there was some tension between how to maximize usability without unnecessarily increasing user burden. Both clinicians and care managers expressed interest in receiving messages from the app at the time of hospital arrival and at discharge. Clinicians were particularly interested in conducting outreach during ED visits and inpatient stays, while care managers expressed more interest in coordinating postdischarge care. CONCLUSIONS: High-risk primary care patients in a safety net setting reported a willingness to utilize smartphone location tracking technology to facilitate care coordination. Further research is needed on the development and implementation of new smartphone-based approaches to care coordination.