Doctors who go digital provide higher quality healthcare: Study says electronic health records help physicians provide better care

ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2012) — The use of electronic health records is linked to significantly higher quality care, according to a new study by Lisa Kern and her team, from the Health Information Technology Evaluation Collaborative in the US. Their work appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, published by Springer.

Electronic health records (EHRs) have become a priority in the US, with federal incentives for 'meaningful' use of EHRs. Meaningful use entails tracking and improving specific patient outcomes, as well as gathering and storing information.

Kern and colleagues examined the effect of EHRs on ambulatory care quality in a community-based setting, by comparing the performance of physicians using either EHRs or paper records. They assessed performance on nine specific quality measures for a total of 466 primary care physicians with 74,618 patients, from private practices in the Hudson Valley region of New York.

The quality measures included: eye exams, hemoglobin testing, cholesterol testing, renal function testing for patients with diabetes, colorectal cancer screening, chlamydia screening, breast cancer screening, testing for children with sore throat, and treatment for children with upper respiratory infections.

Approximately half of the physicians studied used EHRs, while the others used paper records. Overall, physicians using EHRs provided higher rates of needed care than physicians using paper, and for four measures in particular: hemoglobin testing in diabetes, breast cancer screening, chlamydia screening, and colorectal cancer screening.

The authors conclude: "We found that EHR use is associated with higher quality ambulatory care in a multi-payer community with concerted efforts to support EHR implementation. In contrast to several recent national and statewide studies, which found no effect of EHR use, this study's finding is consistent with national efforts to promote meaningful use of EHRs."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Springer Science+Business Media.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Lisa M. Kern, Yolanda Barrón, Rina V. Dhopeshwarkar, Alison Edwards, Rainu Kaushal. Electronic Health Records and Ambulatory Quality of Care. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2012; DOI: 10.1007/s11606-012-2237-8

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Read more »

Wondering About Your Hospital's Quality? Ask a Nurse

THURSDAY, Oct. 11 (HealthDay News) -- The easiest way to assess a hospital's quality of care might be to just ask the nurses, new research suggests.

One reason nurses tend to have accurate perceptions about quality of care in the hospital where they work is that they are on the front lines and are most familiar with the daily experiences of their patients, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing pointed out.

"For a complete picture of hospital performance, data from nurses is essential," the study's lead author, Matthew McHugh, a public health policy expert at Penn Nursing, said in a university news release. "Their assessments of quality are built on more than an isolated encounter or single process -- they are developed over time through a series of interactions and direct observations of care."

The study, which looked at the relationship between hospitals known for nursing excellence and reports from nurses on hospital quality, involved more than 16,000 nurses from nearly 400 hospitals in California, Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The nurses' perceptions of quality accurately reflected hospital outcome measures, such as complications after surgery and patients' views on the level of their care. And, the researchers found, more nurses working in hospitals known for outstanding care and quality reported their workplace had an excellent level of care.

"Obtaining information from nurses takes advantage of their unique perspective within the caregiving context," McHugh noted. "Nurses have insights -- patient-provider interactions, integration of technology, patient and family education -- that are not always documented in the medical record but often make the difference between good and bad outcomes".

The study authors pointed out that health care quality measures are used to craft health care policy and also influence insurance and improvement efforts.

"Although the patient's perspective is the most relevant quality-of-care indicator, nurse-reported quality of care is clearly a valuable indicator of hospital quality," McHugh concluded in the news release.

The study was released online in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Research in Nursing and Health.

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, news release, Oct. 8, 2012

View the original article here

Read more »