The value and impact of information provided through library services for patient care: a systematic review

Weightman, Alison Lesley ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5210-3798 and Williamson, Jane 2005. The value and impact of information provided through library services for patient care: a systematic review. Health Information & Libraries Journal 22 (1) , pp. 4-25. 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2005.00549.x

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Abstract

Objective: An updated systematic review was carried out of research studies looking at the value and impact of library services on health outcomes for patients and time saved by health professionals. Methods: A comprehensive systematic search was undertaken of the published literature to September 2003 in ERIC, LISA, Medline, PreMedline, Embase, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register and Google. Some handsearching was carried out, reference lists were scanned and experts in the field were contacted. 28 research studies of professionally led libraries for healthcare staff, including clinical librarian projects, met the inclusion criterion of at least one health or 'time saved' outcome. Papers were critically appraised using internationally accepted criteria. Data were extracted and results were summarised using a narrative format since the studies were heterogeneous and precluded a statistical analysis. Results: There is evidence of impact from both traditional and clinical librarian services. The higher quality studies of traditional services measured impacts of 37-97% on general patient care, 10-31% on diagnosis, 20-51% on choice of tests, 27-45% on choice of therapy and 10-19% on reduced length of stay. Four studies of clinical librarian projects suggested that professionals saved time as a result of clinical librarian input, and two of these studies showed evidence of cost-effectiveness. However, the clinical librarian studies were generally smaller, with poorer quality standards. Conclusions: Research studies suggest that professionally-led library services have an impact on health outcomes for patients and may lead to time savings for health care professionals. The available studies vary greatly in quality but the better quality studies also suggest positive impacts. Good practice can be gathered from these studies to guide the development of a pragmatic survey for library services that includes the direct effects for patients among the outcome measures.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Academic & Student Support Service
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General) Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z665 Library Science. Information Science
Uncontrolled Keywords:	impact ; value ; library ; libraries ; information service ; clinical librarian ; health outcomes ; systematic review
Additional Information:	This is an electronic version of an article published in Health Information and Libraries Journal: complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Health Information and Libraries Journal, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's website at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/hir or http://www.blackwell-synergy.com <http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/>.
Publisher:	Blackwell Publishing
ISSN:	1471-1834
Last Modified:	02 May 2023 14:38
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/5088

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