291191
Effectiveness of an integrated patient information system evaluated: Using two medical record platforms and clinic settings
Tim Dunnagan, Ph.D.
,
Center for Health Policy, Boise State University, Boise, ID
Shawn Adams, MBA
,
Performance Evaluation, Healthwise, Boise, ID
Martin Gabica, MD
,
Research and Content Development, Healthwise, Boise, ID
Background: Health IT standards constantly evolve as services expand to meet societal needs and technology trends. New “meaningful use” policies have been defined by the Health IT Standards Committee. A cornerstone of these changes involve projects to ensure that new IT solutions can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of patient care. Objectives: The goal of this project was to evaluate the performance of the application in the daily workflow of primary care clinics. Provider perceptions of satisfaction with the Patient Information (PI) handouts, variety of handouts, and ease in accessing and delivering these materials to patients was assessed. We also surveyed patients who received the PI handouts. Methods: An application was developed which uses patient age, gender, and diagnosis codes to automatically pull up a list of PI handouts that the clinician might want to give to the patient at the time of their visit. Two organizations, using different electronic platforms, were recruited for this project. Providers were trained to use the system and followed for 4 months. Results: Providers were satisfied with the application and reported significant improvements in the variety, ease of accessing, and ease of providing printed materials to their patients at the time of the visit. Over 90% of providers reported finding other, non-autogenerated PI handouts from the system in less than 1 minute. The patient survey also showed high levels of satisfaction with the PI handouts received. Conclusions: Studies show that patients who receive printed information at their visit have an improved understanding of their care. This application provided clinicians access to >2,000 PI handouts which can be delivered during the visit. Increasing the variety and ease of providing PI handouts should result in informed patients who are more likely to adhere to their treatment plans, eventually translating to higher quality care at lower costs.
Learning Areas:
Communication and informatics
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
Describe the importance of linking Patient Information materials into the patient health record to measure the percentage of the patient population receiving educational materials.
Identify some of the barriers to effective use of Patient Information handouts at the clinic level.
Assess the changes in provider perception of variety, ease of access and ease of delivering Patient Information after implentation of the application.
Describe patients opinions of the Patient Information materials they received at their clinic visit.
Keywords: Information System Integration, Patient Education
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I designed the evaluation protocol, collected and analyzed the data and am assisting in writing the final report and manuscript. I have worked on several Electronic Medical Records quality improvement projects over the years.
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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