A Collaborative model for supporting shared healthcare in Kenya

Abstract

Shared care is the joint participation of primary and secondary healthcare professionals in a planned care delivery informed by an enhanced information exchange. To effectively practice shared care both the primary and secondary healthcare professionals must be able to collaborate effectively in order to coordinate their activities and assume complementary roles in formulating and carrying out patients’ care plans. Currently, the collaborative shared care schemes implemented in Kenya use inefficient collaboration tools which have made healthcare professionals face various challenges that can results in medical errors, misuse of resources, poor patient outcomes and unnecessary or even harmful services that ultimately raise the healthcare costs and degrade the quality and continuity of healthcare services. This study aimed to come up with a web based collaborative model for supporting shared healthcare. The model was integrated with an analytical back-end system for generating reports on patients, healthcare professionals, diagnosis and referrals as requested by the users. The model was developed using V-process methodology since the user requirements were clear and well defined and the technical expertise needed was available. The research results showed that the proposed model enabled effective collaboration between health professionals. Therefore, if implemented, the model can contribute significantly to the improvement of the quality and continuity of healthcare as well as the patients’ safety.