By implementing electronic medical record (EMR)-based interventions, Boston Medical Center was able to reduce unnecessary diagnostic testing while increasing the use of postoperative order sets.
These actions signal two markers of providing high-value medical care, according to hospital officials. Indeed, the data from Boston Medical Center’s efforts demonstrates the impact of deploying multiple interventions simultaneously within the EMR as a way to deliver high-value care, they attest. This study was published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
The focus on providing high-value medical care was renewed in 2012 with the release of the Choosing Wisely campaign, an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation that identifies common tests and procedures that may not have clear benefit for patients and should sometimes be avoided. Many institutions have responded to this campaign by developing EMR-based interventions that target individual recommendations.
Boston Medical Center (BMC) specifically focused on five areas in the Choosing Wisely recommendations: the overutilization of chest x-rays, routine daily labs, red blood cell transfusions, and urinary catheters, and underutilization of pain and pneumonia prevention orders for patients after surgery. To do this, the researchers worked with the hospital’s IT team to incorporate new recommendations into the EMRs that would alert the provider to best practice information. The researchers examined data between July 2014 and December 2016 to look at how the interventions played out clinically.
At six months following BMC’s intervention, which was activated hospital-wide for specific patients using the Epic EMR, the proportion of patients receiving pre-admission chest x-rays showed a significant decrease of 3.1 percent, and the proportion of labs ordered at routine times also decreased 4 percent. Total lab utilization declined with a post-implementation decrease of 1,009 orders per month, the study revealed.
The researchers found no significant difference in the estimated red blood cell transfusion utilization rate or the number of non-ICU urinary catheter days, but the proportion of postoperative patients who received appropriate pain and pneumonia prevention orders showed an absolute increase of 20 percent, according to the researchers.
“The results from our interventions suggest that they alone show promise in improving high-value care, but using only an electronic medical record intervention may not be adequate to achieve optimal outcomes emphasized by Choosing Wisely,” said Nicholas Cordella, M.D., the study’s corresponding author, a fellow in quality improvement and patient safety at BMC, and an assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine.
Cordella added, ““In order to move the needle on reducing unnecessary healthcare costs, we need to consider multi-pronged approaches in order to engage providers in ways that can truly make a difference in how we deliver exceptional, high-value care to every patient.” He suggested that future efforts aimed at increasing high-value care should consider other elements, such as clinician education, audits and feedback, and peer comparison.
