RESEARCH ARTICLE
Development of an Information System to Support Occupational Therapy Services from Hospital to Community
Supawadee Putthinoi1, *, Suchitporn Lersilp1, Napalai Chaimaha1, Rujirek Chaiwongsa2, Peerasak Lerttrakarnnon3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2022Volume: 15
E-location ID: e187494452212160
Publisher ID: e187494452212160
DOI: 10.2174/18749445-v15-e221219-2022-88
Article History:
Received Date: 5/6/2022Revision Received Date: 18/10/2022
Acceptance Date: 28/10/2022
Electronic publication date: 30/12/2022
Collection year: 2022
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Information systems for occupational therapy (OT) services need to adapt effectively for improving performance by taking advantage of digital technology.
Objective:
This research aimed to develop an information system for supporting occupational therapy services in the community.
Methods:
This study used a mixed methods research design divided into two phases. Phase I: system requirements were gathered from nine occupational therapists who represented each of the nine provinces in northern Thailand. Focus groups and in-depth interviews were used in detail to explore the system requirements for occupational therapy services in the community. This information system applied a responsive web design. Phase II: usability testing, involved thirty occupational therapists in a northern network, who were selected to evaluate an information system by using a questionnaire.
Results:
Results showed that participants requested two components: 1) Occupational Therapist data, and 2) a referral system. The information system could be used by occupational therapists in a northern Thai OT network to insert their own information actively for providing a referral system. The overall usability assessment was at a high level (mean ± SD = 4.27 ± 0.07).
Conclusion:
This study concluded that an OT digital network system may offer a strategy to support OT services from hospital to community in a complex system of healthcare.
