{
  "abstract": "Objectives: To examine the occurrence and severity of information gaps across care interfaces in home care networks and to identify priority interfaces for improving information continuity and patient safety.\n\nDesign: Cross-sectional survey study.\n\nSetting: Four publicly funded home care organisations in Finland, covering approximately 22% of Finland’s long-term home care clients nationally.\n\nParticipants: 555 home care professionals engaged in direct client care, including practical nurses, registered nurses, physicians and physiotherapists.\n\nPrimary outcome measures: Frequency of information gaps across 11 predefined care interfaces (reported as always, often, sometimes, seldom or never) and severity of associated patient safety incidents (near miss, minor/moderate or severe) in the past 3 months, reported by the participants based on their experience.\n\nResults: The number of professionals working across the analysed interfaces ranged from 326 to 441. Information gaps were reported across all 11 interfaces, with those occurring always or often most frequently associated with emergency departments (21.5%), hospital discharge (19.1%) and private health centre (16.9%). Patient safety incidents were identified across all interfaces, particularly in relation to hospital discharge (44.1%) and emergency department (40.4%). Severe adverse events were most frequently reported in emergency care (4.3%), informal care (3.7%) and hospital discharge (3.4%), indicating variation in both occurrence and severity across interfaces.\n\nConclusions: Information gaps and related patient safety incidents may concentrate at time-critical transitions but extend across the wider care network including informal care. These findings highlight system-level vulnerabilities and the need to prioritise safety-critical interfaces and strengthen information continuity in home care.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland",
    "Department of Geriatrics, HUS Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland",
    "Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland",
    "Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, LUT University, Lappeenranta, Finland"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
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        0
      ],
      "name": "Inka Sylgren",
      "orcid": "0009-0005-5946-5595"
    },
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        2
      ],
      "name": "Esa Jämsen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Paulus Torkki",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1127-4205"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/88ysmn7fgvrce.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1136/bmjopen-2026-121950",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13711515/",
  "id": "88ysmn7fgvrce",
  "issns": [
    "2044-6055",
    "2044-6055"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://bmjopen.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/bmjopen-2026-121950",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
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  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
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    ],
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    [
      "heading",
      "Health Services Research"
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      "heading",
      "Original Research"
    ],
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      "openalex",
      "2711|Hospital Admissions and Outcomes"
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  "openalex": "W7223701610",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC13711515",
  "pmid": "42933835",
  "published": "2026-10-26",
  "publisher": "BMJ",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/88ysmn7fgvrce.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:44Z",
      "native_id": "10.1136/bmjopen-2026-121950",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://bmjopen.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/bmjopen-2026-121950"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T12:22:16Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13711515",
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      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2026-121950"
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  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2711|Hospital Admissions and Outcomes",
      "subfield": "general"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Information gaps across care interfaces in home care and patient safety incidents: a cross-sectional survey of home care professionals in Finland",
  "title_text": "Information gaps across care interfaces in home care and patient safety incidents: a cross-sectional survey of home care professionals in Finland",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-31T12:22:16Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/88ysmn7fgvrce",
  "venue": "BMJ Open",
  "versions": []
}