Mohammad K Mohammad1, Melanie S Wooten2, Cheryl L Maier2, Charles E Hill2, Jeannette Guarner2, John D Roback2, Anne M Winkler3, Harold C Sullivan2. 1. Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Geisinger Medical Center, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, PA, USA. 2. Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Emory University Hospital, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA. 3. Instrumentation Laboratory, A Werfen Company, Reagent R&D and Medical Affairs, Burlington, MA, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Joint Commission lists improving staff communication (handoffs) as part of several National Safety Goals. In this study, we developed an electronic web-based charting system for clinical pathology handoffs, which primarily consist of transfusion medicine calls, and evaluated the advantages over a paper-based handwritten call log. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A secure online web browser application using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) was designed to document on-call pathology resident consults. A year after implementation, an online survey was administered to our pathology residents in order to evaluate and compare the usability of the electronic application (e-consults) to the previous handwritten call log, which was a notebook where trainees hand wrote different components of the consult. RESULTS: The REDCap web-based application includes discrete fields for patients' information, requesting physician contact, type of consult, action items for follow-up and faculty responses, as well as other information. These components have eventually progressed to be an online consult call catalog. With approximately 1079 consults per year, transfusion medicine-related calls account for ~90% of the encounters, while clinical chemistry, microbiology and immunology calls constitute the remainder. The overall response rate of the survey was 96% (29 of 30 participants). Of the 16 respondents who experienced both call log systems, 100% responded that REDCap was an improvement over the handwritten call log (P < 0·0001). CONCLUSION: E-consult documentation entered into a web-based application was a user-friendly, secure clinical information access and effective handoff system as compared to a paper-based handwritten call log.
BACKGROUND: The Joint Commission lists improving staff communication (handoffs) as part of several National Safety Goals. In this study, we developed an electronic web-based charting system for clinical pathology handoffs, which primarily consist of transfusion medicine calls, and evaluated the advantages over a paper-based handwritten call log. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A secure online web browser application using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) was designed to document on-call pathology resident consults. A year after implementation, an online survey was administered to our pathology residents in order to evaluate and compare the usability of the electronic application (e-consults) to the previous handwritten call log, which was a notebook where trainees hand wrote different components of the consult. RESULTS: The REDCap web-based application includes discrete fields for patients' information, requesting physician contact, type of consult, action items for follow-up and faculty responses, as well as other information. These components have eventually progressed to be an online consult call catalog. With approximately 1079 consults per year, transfusion medicine-related calls account for ~90% of the encounters, while clinical chemistry, microbiology and immunology calls constitute the remainder. The overall response rate of the survey was 96% (29 of 30 participants). Of the 16 respondents who experienced both call log systems, 100% responded that REDCap was an improvement over the handwritten call log (P < 0·0001). CONCLUSION: E-consult documentation entered into a web-based application was a user-friendly, secure clinical information access and effective handoff system as compared to a paper-based handwritten call log.
Authors: Matthew A Warner; Nilesh S Jambhekar; Salwa Saadeh; Eapen K Jacob; Justin D Kreuter; William C Mundell; Alberto Marquez; Andrew A Higgins; Nageswar R Madde; William J Hogan; Daryl J Kor Journal: Transfusion Date: 2019-06-20 Impact factor: 3.157
Authors: Paul A Harris; Robert Taylor; Robert Thielke; Jonathon Payne; Nathaniel Gonzalez; Jose G Conde Journal: J Biomed Inform Date: 2008-09-30 Impact factor: 6.317
Authors: Simon J Stanworth; Lise J Estcourt; Gillian Powter; Brennan C Kahan; Claire Dyer; Louise Choo; Lekha Bakrania; Charlotte Llewelyn; Timothy Littlewood; Richard Soutar; Derek Norfolk; Adrian Copplestone; Neil Smith; Paul Kerr; Gail Jones; Kavita Raj; David A Westerman; Jeffrey Szer; Nicholas Jackson; Peter G Bardy; Dianne Plews; Simon Lyons; Linley Bielby; Erica M Wood; Michael F Murphy Journal: N Engl J Med Date: 2013-05-09 Impact factor: 91.245