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The impact of electronic health records on care of heart failure patients in the emergency room

The impact of electronic health records on care of heart failure patients in the emergency room AbstractObjective To evaluate if electronic health records (EHR) have observable effects on care outcomes, we examined quality and efficiency measures for patients presenting to emergency departments (ED).Materials and methods We conducted a retrospective study of 5166 adults with heart failure in three metropolitan EDs. Patients were termed internal if prior information was in the EHR upon ED presentation, otherwise external. Associations of internality with hospitalization, mortality, length of stay (LOS), and numbers of tests, procedures, and medications ordered in the ED were examined after adjusting for age, gender, race, marital status, comorbidities and hospitalization as a proxy for acuity level where appropriate.Results At two EDs internals had lower odds of mortality if hospitalized (OR 0.55; 95% CI 0.38 to 0.81 and 0.45; 0.21 to 0.96), fewer laboratory tests during the ED visit (−4.6%; −8.9% to −0.1% and −14.0%; −19.5% to −8.1%) as well as fewer medications (−33.6%; −38.4% to −28.4% and −21.3%; −33.2% to −7.3%). At one of these two EDs, internals had lower odds of hospitalization (0.37; 0.22 to 0.60). At the third ED, internal patients only experienced a prolonged ED LOS (32.3%; 6.3% to 64.8%) but no other differences. There was no association with hospital LOS or number of procedures ordered.Discussion EHR availability was associated with salutary outcomes in two of three ED settings and prolongation of ED LOS at a third, but evidence was mixed and causality remains to be determined.Conclusions An EHR may have the potential to be a valuable adjunct in the care of heart failure patients. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association Oxford University Press

The impact of electronic health records on care of heart failure patients in the emergency room

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References (35)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© 2012, Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.
ISSN
1067-5027
eISSN
1527-974X
DOI
10.1136/amiajnl-2011-000271
pmid
22071528
Publisher site
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Abstract

AbstractObjective To evaluate if electronic health records (EHR) have observable effects on care outcomes, we examined quality and efficiency measures for patients presenting to emergency departments (ED).Materials and methods We conducted a retrospective study of 5166 adults with heart failure in three metropolitan EDs. Patients were termed internal if prior information was in the EHR upon ED presentation, otherwise external. Associations of internality with hospitalization, mortality, length of stay (LOS), and numbers of tests, procedures, and medications ordered in the ED were examined after adjusting for age, gender, race, marital status, comorbidities and hospitalization as a proxy for acuity level where appropriate.Results At two EDs internals had lower odds of mortality if hospitalized (OR 0.55; 95% CI 0.38 to 0.81 and 0.45; 0.21 to 0.96), fewer laboratory tests during the ED visit (−4.6%; −8.9% to −0.1% and −14.0%; −19.5% to −8.1%) as well as fewer medications (−33.6%; −38.4% to −28.4% and −21.3%; −33.2% to −7.3%). At one of these two EDs, internals had lower odds of hospitalization (0.37; 0.22 to 0.60). At the third ED, internal patients only experienced a prolonged ED LOS (32.3%; 6.3% to 64.8%) but no other differences. There was no association with hospital LOS or number of procedures ordered.Discussion EHR availability was associated with salutary outcomes in two of three ED settings and prolongation of ED LOS at a third, but evidence was mixed and causality remains to be determined.Conclusions An EHR may have the potential to be a valuable adjunct in the care of heart failure patients.

Journal

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association – Oxford University Press

Published: May 9, 2012

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