Demonstrating the financial impact of clinical libraries: a systematic review

Critical incident technique helps determine how health library and information services influence clinical decision making and patient care: A literature review

BACKGROUND

The Critical incident technique (CIT) has been used for decades in the assessment of the impact of library and information services on patient care and clinical decision making.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this article is to identify and review the studies that have used CIT approach to assess the impact of library and information services on patient care and clinical decision making.

METHODS

Related articles were searched in the information resources of Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Google Scholar and LISTA.

RESULTS

From among 1346 articles obtained, 22 met the inclusion criteria. The analysis of the articles indicated that CIT has been used for various purposes such as assessing the information value, assessing the information resources and librarians in their clinical practice and decision making, examining information-seeking behaviour and analysing cost- benefits.

DISCUSSION

Critical incident technique is a flexible approach for libraries and information services, based on individuals' experiences of finding and using information to help resolve a perceived problem.

CONCLUSIONS

The studies identified in this review offer a variety of methods for using CIT that other libraries might consider for their own impact studies.

The Never-Ending Evolutionary Saga of Assessing and Demonstrating the Value of Information Services in a Biomedical Library

Demonstrating added value can be very challenging, yet it is becoming important in academic libraries. The current literature primarily discusses citation analysis and usage reports to demonstrate return on investment for collections or impact on scholarly activity. However, value is not only in our collections but also in the library staff who support the institutional mission. Vanderbilt University's Annette and Irwin Eskind Family Biomedical Library and Learning Center has been experimenting with several methods to supplement the collections data with services performed by the staff. This article discusses the project's four phases as part of the goal to strategically demonstrate the biomedical library's added value to the university and medical center.

A clinical librarian in a hospital critical care unit may generate a positive return on investment

BACKGROUND

Timely information provided by clinical librarians can contribute to outcomes such as improved patient care and time savings for hospital staff. What is unknown is the return on investment (ROI) of a clinical librarian on a critical care unit.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to assess the ROI, from the employer perspective, of placing a clinical librarian in a critical care unit in a large UK acute hospital.

METHODS

Using a mixed methods approach, ROI was estimated by comparing the total costs with the total monetised benefits of implementing the clinical librarian intervention. Total costs included salary and equipment costs. Total monetised benefits included time saving for hospital staff, support for professional development and improved patient care.

RESULTS

When total monetised benefits were compared with total costs, the 15-month clinical librarian intervention generated a positive ROI of £1.18-£3.03 for every £1 invested.

DISCUSSION

Using outcome measures derived from previous research, this novel study generated promising results indicative for commissioners seeking to improve patient care and deliver value for money. To improve generalisability, multisite studies using standardised ROI tools are recommended.

CONCLUSION

Employing a clinical librarian in a critical care unit can generate a positive ROI.

The value of librarians for clinical and health governance (a view from Europe)

Purpose

Governance of healthcare organisations and health systems requires many different competencies, with a great emphasis on evidence and information governance, which are traditional fields of librarians’ expertise. However, stakeholders are unaware of how health and hospital libraries are contributing with specific activities and what are the trends in library support for health/clinical governance in Europe, mainly because traditional methods of measuring impact are restricted to specific library activities or are not showing direct impact long term. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

A model combining components of clinical and health governance (C/HG), related library activity types, and the possible impact was developed based on a literature review and tested by a European expert panel. A web-based survey was offered to the members of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) to offer further insight into activities and examples of contribution to C/HG.

Findings

Librarians from 25 European countries participated in the survey. The model proves that librarians in Europe are involved in supporting most identified components of C/HG, with examples of clinical effectiveness and research, education and training, patient and public involvement, partnership engagement, formulating strategic direction, etc.

Research limitations/implications

The authors were unable to cover the roles of libraries in all European countries in this paper, but dialogue and research will continue within the EAHIL group.

Originality/value

No such comparative research has been undertaken before, looking at what activities and tasks libraries undertake to support C/HG. This research has highlighted valuable services and tools that can be replicated in libraries across health care organisations and at the same time promote libraries and librarians as significant actors in organisational governance.

Learning while doing: program evaluation of the Medical Library Association Systematic Review Project

OBJECTIVES

The Medical Library Association (MLA) Systematic Review Project aims to conduct systematic reviews to identify the state of knowledge and research gaps for fifteen top-ranked questions in the profession. In 2013, fifteen volunteer-driven teams were recruited to conduct the systematic reviews. The authors investigated the experiences of participants in this large-scale, volunteer-driven approach to answering priority research questions and fostering professional growth among health sciences librarians.

METHODS

A program evaluation was conducted by inviting MLA Systematic Review Project team members to complete an eleven-item online survey. Multiple-choice and short-answer questions elicited experiences about outputs, successes and challenges, lessons learned, and future directions. Participants were recruited by email, and responses were collected over a two-week period beginning at the end of January 2016.

RESULTS

Eighty (8 team leaders, 72 team members) of 198 potential respondents completed the survey. Eighty-four percent of respondents indicated that the MLA Systematic Review Project should be repeated in the future and were interested in participating in another systematic review. Team outputs included journal articles, conference presentations or posters, and sharing via social media. Thematic analysis of the short-answer questions yielded five broad themes: learning and experience, interpersonal (networking), teamwork, outcomes, and barriers.

DISCUSSION

A large-scale, volunteer-driven approach to performing systematic reviews shows promise as a model for answering key questions in the profession and demonstrates the value of experiential learning for acquiring synthesis review skills and knowledge. Our project evaluation provides recommendations to optimize this approach.

Ten years of reviews

The March 2017 issue of the Health Information and Libraries Journal marks the 10 year anniversary of the inaugural review published in the journal's review series. The review series was conceived to meet the growing appetite of health library and information workers to access synthesised evidence to inform their practice; something we'd already been doing to support medics in their practice. This editorial looks back on the 10 years and the inspiration which saw the development of a typology of review types and associated methodologies to address the lack of consistent guidelines on the features a review should incorporate.

Becoming business critical: Knowledge for Healthcare

Significant progress has been made in implementing Knowledge for Healthcare. This editorial reports the central contribution of effective partnerships and the involvement of librarians and knowledge specialists in this work. There are compelling business priorities. Key elements of work-streams on demonstrating impact, workforce development and streamlining are indicated, along with areas of growing importance - knowledge management, embedded roles and health information for the public and patients. Knowledge, and the skills to help people to use it, are business critical.

Transforming your service: the right evidence at the right time and place

This virtual issue is published to coincide with the CILIP Health Libraries Group Conference 2016. The theme of the conference is Knowledge for Healthcare (KFH), the development framework for health care library and knowledge services (LKS), published by Health Education England. Transforming the service, and delivering the right evidence at the right time and place, is a key strategic focus of KFH. Therefore, this virtual issue draws on content published in Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ) in the last 2 years, which demonstrate initiatives in health care LKS in line with the transformation strands outlined in KFH. The virtual issue follows the same structure as a regular issue of HILJ, containing one review article, a series of original articles and our three regular features: Dissertations into Practice, Teaching and Learning in Action and International Perspectives and Initiatives.