Healthy, Medical Record Systems, Computerized
Conditions
Keywords
Electronic Medical Record, Electronic Results Tracking, Patient Safety, Post-Discharge Test Results
Brief summary
This project aims to define the problem of results that return after patient discharge and to study the implementation of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR)-based system for tracking these results.
Detailed description
The transfer of care at hospital discharge is complex and requires the transmission of large amounts of data between inpatient physicians (hospitalists) and outpatient physicians (PCPs), including information about pending tests. Frequently, laboratory and radiology tests are not finalized until after a patient is discharged, and when the responsibility for these pending results is not clearly defined, they can be missed. Our project aims to define the problem of these post-discharge results and to study the implementation of an EMR-based system (Hospitalist Results Manager, HRM) for tracking these results on the hospitalist services at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The project consists of two phases: a cross-sectional study before intervention to define the epidemiology of post-discharge results, and a randomized trial of HRM to determine its effect on physician awareness of these results.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALHospitalists Results Manager
Sponsors
Harvard Risk Management Foundation
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
ECT
Masking
SINGLE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Admitted under enrolled study Attendings at the two study locations * Patient had test result finalized after discharge and prior to subsequent admission
Exclusion criteria
* Test result noted in discharge summary * Test result not clinically actionable
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed