Challenges to depression care documentation in an EHR.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Patients with depression most frequently present in primary care. Electronic health records (EHR) have the potential to improve depression care through improved clinical documentation and information exchange. This report provides an example of how an EHR can fail to capture important information regarding depression care. METHODS: A 6-month baseline period in 2009 was defined to identify ambulatory patients age 18 or older in the EHR with an ICD-9 coded new depression diagnosis. Data was abstracted electronically, and charts were reviewed by hand for patient demographics and to assess the clinical documentation of depression screening, diagnosis, and treatment practices among four community-based family medicine clinics. RESULTS: Electronic abstraction of baseline data identified 200 adult patients with a documented new diagnosis of depression. Review of charts by hand was required to obtain clinical documentation of screening (9% of patients), use of diagnostic tools (73%), discussion of treatment options (83%), medication treatment (71%), and follow-up characteristics (75%). CONCLUSIONS: Despite having a robust EHR, we encountered significant challenges finding documentation of depression care, which also made it difficult to track and evaluate the implementation of evidence-based treatment. Clinical documentation in the EHR needs to be simplified and standardized if data extraction and exporting processes of clinician performance data are to become efficient and routine practice.

Correlates of higher-dose opioid medication use for low back pain in primary care.

UNLABELLED: Factors associated with high-dose opioid therapy for noncancer pain are poorly understood. We documented the prevalence of high-dose opioid use as well as associated demographic, clinical, and health service utilization correlates among low back pain patients. Patients prescribed higher doses of opioids (≥100 mg/day morphine equivalent at last dispensing; n = 453) and receiving opioids for 90+ consecutive days were compared to 2 groups: lower-dose opioid group (1-99 mg/day; n = 4,815) or no-opioid group (n = 10,184). Higher-dose opioid use occurred in 2.9% of patients who received any opioids and in 8.6% of patients who received opioids long-term. The median dose in the higher-dose group was 180.0 mg/day. Compared to the no-opioid group, higher-dose users reported poorer health. Compared to either comparison group, patients in the higher-dose group had higher rates of mental health and substance use disorders, concurrent sedative-hypnotic use (60.5%; n = 274), and health service utilization. After adjusting for select covariates, male gender (odds ratio [OR] = 1.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.37-2.06), higher comorbidity, Medicare coverage (OR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.22-2.23), any mental health or substance use diagnosis (OR = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.28-1.95), co-prescriptions of sedative-hypnotics (OR = 1.75, 95% CI = 1.42-2.16), and more emergency department and specialty pain clinic visits were associated with higher likelihood of high-dose prescriptions. PERSPECTIVE: Higher-dose opioid therapy is being prescribed to 8.6% of back pain patients who receive long-term opioids. These patients had higher mental health and medical comorbidities and co-prescriptions of sedative-hypnotics, raising potential safety concerns.

The legacy of altruism in health care: the promotion of empathy, prosociality and humanism.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine concepts of altruism and empathy among medical students and professionals in conjunction with health care initiatives designed to support the maintenance of these qualities. METHODS: We searched for the terms 'altruism', 'altruistic', 'helping', 'prosocial behaviour' and 'empathy' in the English-language literature published from 1980 to the present within the Ovid MEDLINE, PsycInfo and PubMed databases. We used conceptual analysis to examine the relationships among altruism, empathy and related prosocial concepts in health care in order to understand how such factors may relate to emotional and career burnout, cynicism, decreased helping and decreased patient-centredness in care. RESULTS: Altruistic ideals and qualities of empathy appear to decrease among some medical students as they progress through their education. During this process, students face increasingly heavy workloads, deal with strenuous demands and become more acquainted with non-humanistic informal practices inherent in the culture of medicine. In combination, these factors increase the likelihood that emotional suppression, detachment from patients, burnout and other negative consequences may result, perhaps as a means of self-preservation. Alternatively, by making a mindful and intentional choice to endeavour for self-care and a healthy work-life balance, medical students can uphold humanistic and prosocial attitudes and behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Promoting altruism in the context of a compensated health care career is contradictory and misguided. Instead, an approach to clinical care that is prosocial and empathic is recommended. Training in mindfulness, self-reflection and emotion skills may help medical students and professionals to recognise, regulate and behaviourally demonstrate empathy within clinical and professional encounters. However, health care initiatives to increase empathy and other humanistic qualities will be limited unless more practical and feasible emotion skills training is offered to and accepted by medical students. Success will be further moderated by the culture of medicine's full acceptance of empathy and humanism into its customs, beliefs, values, interactions and daily practices.