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A Custom-Developed Emergency Department Provider Electronic Documentation System Reduces Operational Efficiency.

ABSTRACT: STUDY OBJECTIVE:Electronic health record implementation can improve care, but may also adversely affect emergency department (ED) efficiency. We examine how a custom, ED provider, electronic documentation system (eDoc), which replaced paper documentation, affects operational performance. METHODS:We analyzed retrospective operational data for 1-year periods before and after eDoc implementation in a single ED. We computed daily operational statistics, reflecting 60,870 pre- and 59,337 postimplementation patient encounters. The prespecified primary outcome was daily mean length of stay; secondary outcomes were daily mean length of stay for admitted and discharged patients and daily mean arrival time to disposition for admitted patients. We used a prespecified multiple regression model to identify differences in outcomes while controlling for prespecified confounding variables. RESULTS:The unadjusted change in length of stay was 8.4 minutes; unadjusted changes in secondary outcomes were length of stay for admitted patients 11.4 minutes, length of stay for discharged patients 1.8 minutes, and time to disposition 1.8 minutes. With a prespecified regression analysis to control for variations in operational characteristics, there were significant increases in length of stay (6.3 minutes [95% confidence interval 3.5 to 9.1 minutes]) and length of stay for discharged patients (5.1 minutes [95% confidence interval 1.9 to 8.3 minutes]). There was no statistically significant change in length of stay for admitted patients or time to disposition. CONCLUSION:In our single-center study, the isolated implementation of eDoc was associated with increases in overall and discharge length of stay. Our findings suggest that a custom-designed electronic provider documentation may negatively affect ED throughput. Strategies to mitigate these effects, such as reducing documentation requirements or adding clinical staff, scribes, or voice recognition, would be a valuable area of future research.

SUBMITTER: Feblowitz J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5653416 | biostudies-other | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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A Custom-Developed Emergency Department Provider Electronic Documentation System Reduces Operational Efficiency.

Feblowitz Joshua J Takhar Sukhjit S SS Ward Michael J MJ Ribeira Ryan R Landman Adam B AB

Annals of emergency medicine 20170714 5

<h4>Study objective</h4>Electronic health record implementation can improve care, but may also adversely affect emergency department (ED) efficiency. We examine how a custom, ED provider, electronic documentation system (eDoc), which replaced paper documentation, affects operational performance.<h4>Methods</h4>We analyzed retrospective operational data for 1-year periods before and after eDoc implementation in a single ED. We computed daily operational statistics, reflecting 60,870 pre- and 59,3 ...[more]

PMID: 28712608

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Physician chart documentation can facilitate patient care decisions, reduce treatment errors, and inform health system planning and resource allocation activities. Although accurate and complete patient chart data supports quality and continuity of patient care, physician documentation often varies in terms of timeliness, legibility, clarity and completeness. While many educational and other approaches have been implemented in hospital settings, the extent to which these interventions can improve the quality of documentation in emergency departments (EDs) is unknown. METHODS:We conducted a systematic review to assess the effectiveness of approaches to improve ED physician documentation. Peer reviewed electronic databases, grey literature sources, and reference lists of included studies were searched to March 2015. Studies were included if they reported on outcomes associated with interventions designed to enhance the quality of physician documentation. RESULTS:Nineteen studies were identified that report on the effectiveness of interventions to improve physician documentation in EDs. Interventions included audit/feedback, dictation, education, facilitation, reminders, templates, and multi-interventions. While ten studies found that audit/feedback, dictation, pharmacist facilitation, reminders, templates, and multi-pronged approaches did improve the quality of physician documentation across multiple outcome measures, the remaining nine studies reported mixed results. CONCLUSIONS:Promising approaches to improving physician documentation in emergency department settings include audit/feedback, reminders, templates, and multi-pronged education interventions. Future research should focus on exploring the impact of implementing these interventions in EDs with and without emergency medical record systems (EMRs), and investigating the potential of emerging technologies, including EMR-based machine-learning, to promote improvements in the quality of ED documentation.

Project description:OBJECTIVE:Benzodiazepines and opioids are prescribed simultaneously (i.e., "coprescribed") in many clinical settings, despite guidelines advising against this practice and mounting evidence that concomitant use of both medications increases overdose risk. This study sought to characterize the contexts in which benzodiazepine-opioid coprescribing occurs and providers' reasons for coprescribing. METHODS:We conducted focus groups with emergency department (ED) providers (resident and attending physicians, advanced practice providers, and pharmacists) from three hospitals using semistructured interviews to elicit perspectives on benzodiazepine-opioid coprescribing. Discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed. We performed qualitative content analysis of the resulting transcripts using a consensual qualitative research approach, aiming to identify priority categories that describe the phenomenon of benzodiazepine-opioid coprescribing. RESULTS:Participants acknowledged coprescribing rarely and reluctantly and often provided specific discharge instructions when coprescribing. The decision to coprescribe is multifactorial, often isolated to specific clinical and situational contexts (e.g., low back pain, failed solitary opioid therapy) and strongly influenced by a provider's beliefs about the efficacy of combination therapy. The decision to coprescribe is further influenced by a self-imposed pressure to escalate care or avoid hospital admission. When considering potential interventions to reduce the incidence of coprescribing, participants opposed computerized alerts but were supportive of a pharmacist-assisted intervention. Many providers found the process of participating in peer discussions on prescribing habits to be beneficial. CONCLUSIONS:In this qualitative study of ED providers, we found that benzodiazepine-opioid coprescribing occurs in specific clinical and situational contexts, such as the treatment of low back pain or failed solitary opioid therapy. The decision to coprescribe is strongly influenced by a provider's beliefs and by self-imposed pressure to escalate care or avoid admission.

Dataset Information

A Custom-Developed Emergency Department Provider Electronic Documentation System Reduces Operational Efficiency.

Publications

A Custom-Developed Emergency Department Provider Electronic Documentation System Reduces Operational Efficiency.

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