Implementation of a closed-loop reporting system for critical values and clinical communication in compliance with goals of the joint commission.

BACKGROUND: Current practices of reporting critical laboratory values make it challenging to measure and assess the timeliness of receipt by the treating physician as required by The Joint Commission's 2008 National Patient Safety Goals. METHODS: A multidisciplinary team of laboratorians, clinicians, and information technology experts developed an electronic ALERTS system that reports critical values via the laboratory and hospital information systems to alphanumeric pagers of clinicians and ensures failsafe notification, instant documentation, automatic tracking, escalation, and reporting of critical value alerts. A method for automated acknowledgment of message receipt was incorporated into the system design. RESULTS: The ALERTS system has been applied to inpatients and eliminated approximately 9000 phone calls a year made by medical technologists. Although a small number of phone calls were still made as a result of pages not acknowledged by clinicians within 10 min, they were made by telephone operators, who either contacted the same physician who was initially paged by the automated system or identified and contacted alternate physicians or the patient's nurse. Overall, documentation of physician acknowledgment of receipt in the electronic medical record increased to 95% of critical values over 9 months, while the median time decreased to <3 min. CONCLUSIONS: We improved laboratory efficiency and physician communication by developing an electronic system for reporting of critical values that is in compliance with The Joint Commission's goals.

Generating complex clinical documents using structured entry and reporting.

Structured entry and reporting in medicine remains an elusive goal. Poor adoption of clinical structured entry for documentation results in part from the inherent complexity of entering patient histories, which are generally unstructured. The authors have developed a structured entry tool that has been adopted by practicing physicians for documentation of clinical encounters. To evaluate the impact of this tool on clinical documentation, the authors have performed two comparative studies investigating note complexity. Authors compared documents generated with a standard dictation/transcription model with documents generated with structured entry. Overall, documents generated with the structured entry and reporting tool contained 64% more concepts (P<0.01) than dictated documents while maintaining the same complexity. Depth and complexity of documentation with the structured entry and reporting tool varied by clinician user and by note sub-section.

Implementing an interface terminology for structured clinical documentation.

Clinically oriented interface terminologies support interactions between humans and computer programs that accept structured entry of healthcare information. This manuscript describes efforts over the past decade to introduce an interface terminology called CHISL (Categorical Health Information Structured Lexicon) into clinical practice as part of a computer-based documentation application at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Vanderbilt supports a spectrum of electronic documentation modalities, ranging from transcribed dictation, to a partial template of free-form notes, to strict, structured data capture. Vanderbilt encourages clinicians to use what they perceive as the most appropriate form of clinical note entry for each given clinical situation. In this setting, CHISL occupies an important niche in clinical documentation. This manuscript reports challenges developers faced in deploying CHISL, and discusses observations about its usage, but does not review other relevant work in the field.

Optimizing personalized bone marrow testing using an evidence-based, interdisciplinary team approach.

OBJECTIVES: To address the overuse of testing that complicates patient care, diminishes quality, and increases costs by implementing the diagnostic management team, a multidisciplinary system for the development and deployment of diagnostic testing guidelines for hematologic malignancies. METHODS: The team created evidence-based standard ordering protocols (SOPs) for cytogenetic and molecular testing that were applied by pathologists to bone marrow biopsy specimens on adult patients. Testing on 780 biopsy specimens performed during the six months before SOP implementation was compared with 1,806 biopsy specimens performed during the subsequent 12 months. RESULTS: After implementation, there were significant decreases in tests discordant with SOPs, omitted tests, and the estimated cost of testing to payers. The fraction of positive tests increased. Clinicians reported acceptance of the new procedures and perceived time savings. CONCLUSIONS: This process is a model for optimizing complex and personalized diagnostic testing.

Return on investment point of service Computerized Provider Charge Entry.

Provider charge entry systems offer many benefits to users and organizations. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a web-based provider charge entry system promises to deliver benefits in reducing days in accounts receivable, reducing labor required for claims and edit processing, and implementing business rules that deliver both strategic and financial benefits.

Implementing outpatient order entry to support medical necessity using the patient's electronic past medical history.

Physician order entry is difficult to implement, both in inpatient and outpatient settings. Such systems must integrate conveniently into clinical workflows, and provide sufficient benefit to offset the burden of system use. For outpatient order entry, significant advantages can accrue when systems incorporate medical necessity guidelines - improved billing and adherence to governmental policies. The authors developed and implemented an outpatient order entry system that utilizes an electronically accessible history of patient, provider, and clinic-related diagnoses in assisting providers (when possible and appropriate) to select compliant justifications for tests and procedures. The pilot implementation site, active for more than six months, has been the Vanderbilt University Page Campbell Cardiology Clinic, with 34 providers.