Analysis

As a first step, the first author thoroughly reviewed charts and created chronological summaries of each of the sampled patients’ health and housing trajectories. Writing summaries effectively synthesizes longitudinal chart data (Shaw et al., 2014) and provides an immersion in data prior to coding (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The first author conducted an initial round of coding, then consulted with the anchor author, who provided questions and comments on coding and case summary. The second author, a direct service provider with first-hand knowledge within the organizational institution and personal recollection of patients, assisted in subsequent coding, fact-checking summaries, prioritizing themes, and further interrogating the initial analysis.

Members of the larger research team then considered institutional changes in the efforts to de-congregate shelter care throughout the pandemic. They clarified three time points: pre-pandemic (before March 2020), Phase I of the pandemic (March-December 2020), and Phase II of the pandemic (January-September 2021). The research team reviewed the prioritized findings and organized them into the three time points. Themes were then finalized by a consensus process among the research team. Members of the research team represented a spectrum of closeness to the data (Ritchie et al., 2009) as some of the authors came into utilizing the data as secondary analysis of qualitative data bringing their experiences with various older adult populations along the housing continuum (Lewinson, Hughes, & Hurt, 2015; Perry, 2016).