205350 Using Research Information technology to Improve Rehabilitation Care in Spinal Cord Injury

Sunday, November 8, 2009

C. Jean Hsieh, PhD , Center for Post-acute Studies, National Rehabilitation Hospital, Washington, DC
Objective: Explore and determine the uses of a research-based, innovative, timely electronic clinical reporting system that facilitates managerial decisions on spinal cord injury/disease therapy and staff time allocation. The system's ability to monitor patient progress, track treatment trajectories and measure goal attainment will also be observed.

Design: Prospective observational cohort study.

Methods: Research data contain detailed treatment information, including time, therapeutic activities, therapy provider, and patient's participation, etc. for physical and occupational therapy on participating patients. The data are recorded in hand-held devices and synched with the study database server on a daily basis. Currently, the database contains information on 57 SCI and 125 SCD patients.

Results: We use accumulative treatment data up-to-date to generate patient and clinician specific reports both numerically and graphically and present to clinical leaders bi-weekly to obtain feedback and continue to refine the report format. The prototype is positively received by clinical supervisors that it helps objectively examine the current staffing model by enabling them to monitor overall therapist-patient assignment, scheduling of treatment provision, etc.

Conclusion: Clinical leaders are convinced that this tool will help them identify and propose feasible plans for program improvement and develop innovative educational materials for therapists. Clinicians find graphical presentations extremely helpful to visualize and study treatment trajectories. Associations between staffing model and treatment profiles, and patient's progress over time are the focus of next phase of investigation. Ultimately, the study team will produce recommendations on how the technology can be used to enhance electronic medical records for rehabilitation.

Learning Objectives:
Attendees will be able to 1) understand how using the proposed information technology can enhance and facilitate better clinical managerial decisions; 2) identify the major factors that influence physical and occupational therapy staffing models and learn how these models can improve a clinical program; and 3) identify key elements incorporated into electronic medical record systems.

Keywords: Decision-Making, Technology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am Co-Investigator of the study. I've worked with SCI team on patient care for 2+ years. We proposed the present study, using advanced technologies, to develop a real-time report system.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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