Abstract
This paper describes a research project that investigates and evaluates the role of Knowledge Management (KM) in discharge planning (DP) within the UK National Health Service (NHS). KM has been promoted in the NHS for a little more than 13 years. The paper shows that the popular press frequently reports problems associated with DP and examines some more reliable sources, concluding that more research into the phenomenon is needed. The factors that contribute to inadequate DP are summarised as conclusions to the paper. This is therefore an extract from a wider research project into the use of KM in DP, which is aimed at suggesting some causes, indicating some possible solutions and producing a KM framework to guide the DP and decision-making process. The paper indicates the current status of the research, which is continuing. It is hoped that this paper highlights the problem, summarises the research to date and stimulates further discussion of this important topic. Further publications will disseminate the developed solution.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abidi, S.S.R.: Healthcare Knowledge Management: The Art of the Possible, pp. 1–20 (2008)
Abidi, S.S.R.: Knowledge management in healthcare: towards “knowledge-driven” decision-support services. International Journal of Medical Informatics 63, 5–18 (2001), http://ac.els-cdn.com/S1386505601001678/1-s2.0-S1386505601001678-main.pdf?_tid=553fb9d2-25b7-11e2-bf81-00000aacb362&acdnat=1351948191_25c6656dcc2be7462b339ac9fcf9957c (accessed January 28 2013)
Adams, S.: Intolerable bed-blocking crisis threatens NHS. The Telegraph (February 2011), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8343879/Intolerable-bed-blocking-crisis-threatens-NHS.html (accessed January 28, 2013)
Anthony, D. Chetty, V.K. Kartha, A. McKenna, K. DePaoli, M.R. Jack, B. (2005) Re-engineering the Hospital Discharge: An Example of a Multifaceted Process Evaluation. Advances in Patient Safety: From Research to Implementation. Volumes 1-4, AHRQ Publication Nos. 050021 (1-4). February 2005. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. Available at:http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/advances/ [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Ashmos, P. & Huber, P. (1987). The Systems Paradigm in Organization Theory: Correcting the Record and Suggesting the Future. JSTOR: The academy of management review. [Online]. 12 (4). p.pp. 607–621. Available from: http://jaylee.business.ku.edu/MGMT 916/PDF/Ashmos Huber 1987 AMR.pdf. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Bali, R.K., Dwivedi, A., James, A.E., Naguib, R.N.G. & Johnston, D. (2002). Towards a holistic knowledge management framework for healthcare institutions. In: Proceedings of the Second Joint EMBSBMES Conference. [Online]. 2002, Houston, Texas: IEEE, pp. 1894–1895. Available from: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=01053081. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Boseley, S. (2011). Andrew Lansley launches 60 NHS “patient outcome measures.” The Guardian. [Online]. December. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/07/andrew-lansley-patient-outcome-measures/print. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Chunsheng, T. (2000). The Research on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Portal Framework based on Agent Mechanism. Pp. 263–267.
Copper, A. (2007). We Haven’t Got a Plan, so What Can Go Wrong? Where is the NHS Coming from? In: R. K. Bali & A. Dwivedi (eds.). HEALTHCARE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT. New York: 2007Springer Science+Business Media, pp. 221–232.
Dwivedi, A., Bali, R.K., James, A. E., Naguib, R.N.G. & Johnston, D. (2002). Merger of knowledge management and information technology in healthcare: opportunities and challenges. In: IEEE CCECE2002. Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering. Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.02CH37373). [Online]. 2002, Ieee, pp. 1194–1199. Availableat : http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/lpdocs/epic03/wrapper.htm?arnumber=1013118. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Eardley, W.A. & Czerwinski, A. (2007). Knowledge Management for Primary Healthcare Services. In: R. . Bali & A. Dwivedi (eds.). Knowledge Management: Issues, Advances and Successes. Springer Science + Business Media.
Fontaine, M. & Lesser, E. (2002). Challenges in managing organizational knowledge. [Online]. Available from: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/imc/pdf/g510-3234-00-esr-managing-organizational-knowledge.pdf. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Foss, I.C. and Hofoss, D. (2011). Elderly persons’ experiences of participation in the hospital discharge process. Patient Education and Counseling (85)1, pp 68-73.
Godden, S., McCoy, D. & Pollock, A. (2009). Policy on the rebound: trends and causes of delayed discharges in the NHS. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. [Online]. 102 (1). p.pp. 22–28. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19147853.
Hansen, T.M., Nohria, N. & Tierney, T. (1999). What’s Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge? Harvard Business Review. [Online]. p.pp. 1–11. Available from: http://consulting-ideas.com/wp-content/uploads/Whats-your-strat-art.pdf. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Improving Patient Flow at Bon Secours Venice Hospital (2011). Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Available at: http://www.ihi.org/knowledge/Pages/ImprovementStories/ImprovingPatientFlowBonSecoursVeniceHospital.aspx. [Accessed 28 Jan 2013].
Ishikawa, K. (1990); (Trans: J. H. Loftus); Introduction to Quality Control. 3A Corporation, Tokyo.
Knott, L. (2012). Records, Computers and Electronic Health Record. [Online]. 2012. Patient.co.uk. Available from: http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Records-Computers-and-Electronic-Health-Record.htm. [Accessed: 7 January 2013].
Laszlo, Ervin. 1996. The Systems View of the World. Hampton Press, N.J.
Levenstein, H.J., McCracken, C.E., Ian, M.R., Stewart, A.M. & Brown, B.J. (1986). The Patient-Centred Clinical Method. Family Practice. [Online]. 3 (1). p.pp. 24–30. Available from: http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/content/3/1/24.full.pdf+html. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Liao, S. (2002). Problem solving and knowledge inertia. Expert Systems with Applications. [Online]. 22 (1). p.pp. 21–31. Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S095741740100046X. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Mills, A.M. & Smith, T. a. (2011). Knowledge management and organizational performance: a decomposed view. Journal of Knowledge Management. [Online]. 15 (1). p.pp. 156–171. Available from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/13673271111108756. [Accessed: 10 October 2012].
Mishler, E.G. (2012) Meaning in Context: Is There Any Other Kind? Harvard Educational Review. Pp. 1-19.
NHS (2012a). About the NHS. [Online]. 2012. NHS. Available from: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/overview.aspx. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
NHS (2012b). Leaving Hospital. [Online]. 2012. NHS. Available from: http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/aboutnhsservices/nhshospitals/pages/leaving-hospital.aspx. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Nonaka, I. & Lewin, A.Y. (1994). Dynamic Theory Knowledge of Organizational Creation. Organization Science. [Online]. 5 (1). p.pp. 14–37. Available from: http://www.e-campus.uvsq.fr/claroline/backends/download.php?url=L05vbmFrYTk0LnBkZg%3D%3D&cidReset=true&cidReq=MDSDM105. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Nonaka, I. & Toyama, R. (2003). The knowledge-creating theory revisited: knowledge creation as a synthesizing process. Knowledge Management Research & Practice. [Online]. 1 (1). p.pp. 2–10. Available from: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/doifinder/10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500001. [Accessed: 2 November 2012].
Polanyi, M. (1966). Tacit Knowing. In: M. Polanyi (ed.). The Tacit Dimension. New York: Doubleday & Company, Pp. 3–25.
Pratt, J., Gordon, P. & Lamping, D. (1999). System that knows itself. In: Working Whole Systems: Putting Theory Into Practice in Organisations. Radcliffe Publishing, Pp. 22–24.
Ramesh, R. (2011). One in four hospital patients “could be recovering at home.” The Guardian. [Online]. December. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/29/hospital-patients-discharge-bed-blocking. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Reychav, I. & Weisberg, J. (2010). Bridging intention and behavior of knowledge sharing. Journal of Knowledge Management. [Online]. 14 (2). p.pp. 285–300. Available from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/13673271011032418. [Accessed: 10 October 2012].
Roberts, M. (2010). Hospitals to face financial penalties for readmissions. BBC News. [Online]. 8 June. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10262344. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Ross, T. (2011). Rise in “bed blocking” is costing the NHS £500,000 every day. The Telegraph. [Online]. December. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/elderhealth/8929747/Rise-in-bed-blocking-is-costing-the-NHS-500000-every-day.html.
Roy, R., Rey, F.M., Wegen, B.V. & Steele, A. (2000). A Framework To Create Performance Indicators In Knowledge Management. In: Proc. of the Third Int. Conf. on Practical Aspects of Knowledge Management (PAKM2000). [Online]. 2000, Basel, Switzerland, pp. 30–31. Available from: http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Publications/CEUR-WS/Vol-34/. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Sg2 Healthcare Intelligence (2011). Reducing 30-Day Emergency Readmissions. [Online]. Available from: http://www.hsj.co.uk/Journals/2/Files/2011/6/15/Sg2_Service Kit_Reducing 30-Day Readmissions.pdf. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Shepperd, S., McClaran, J., Phillips, C., Lannin, N., Clemson, L., McCluskey, A., Cameron, I. & Barras, S. (2010). Discharge planning from hospital to home. The Cochrane Library. [Online]. (1). p.pp. 1–75. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD000313.pub3/pdf. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Sharp, P. J., Eardley, W. A, Shah, H. (2003) Visual Tools within MakE - A Knowledge Management Method, Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 1(2), Pp. 177-186.
Social Care Institute for Excellence. SCIE Research Briefing 12: Involving individual older patients and their carers in the discharge process from acute to community care: implications for intermediate care. Available at http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/briefings/briefing12. [Accessed 28 Jan 2013].
The Press Association (2011). Bed blocking ’on the increase.’ Nursing Times. net. [Onli http://www.nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice/clinical-zones/critical-care/bed-blocking-on-the-increase/5023593.article. [Accessed 28 January 2013].
Triggle, N.: Organise urgent care better, NHS told. BBC News (August 2012), http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19181905 (accessed November 8, 2012)
Wickramasinghe, N., Mills, G.L.: Knowledge Management Systems: a Healthcare Initiative with Lessons for us all. Knowledge Management, pp. 763–774 (2001)
Winnett, R.: Scandal of NHS “production line” as readmissions soar. The Telegraph, December 29 (2011), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8983505/Scandal-of-NHS-production-line-as-readmissions-soar.html (accessed January 28, 2013)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kamalanathan, N., Eardley, A., Chibelushi, C., Kingston, P. (2013). The Discharge Planning Dilemma in the UK NHS: The Role of Knowledge Management. In: Huang, G., Liu, X., He, J., Klawonn, F., Yao, G. (eds) Health Information Science. HIS 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7798. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37899-7_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37899-7_15
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-37898-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-37899-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)