National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
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AHRQ Research Studies Date
Topics
- Adverse Drug Events (ADE) (2)
- Adverse Events (3)
- Critical Care (1)
- Diagnostic Safety and Quality (4)
- (-) Electronic Health Records (EHRs) (9)
- Emergency Department (1)
- Emergency Medical Services (EMS) (1)
- Health Information Technology (HIT) (8)
- Health Systems (1)
- Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (2)
- Learning Health Systems (1)
- Medical Errors (2)
- Medication (3)
- Medication: Safety (2)
- Newborns/Infants (1)
- Patient Experience (1)
- (-) Patient Safety (9)
- Quality Improvement (1)
- Quality of Care (2)
AHRQ Research Studies
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Research Studies is a compilation of published research articles funded by AHRQ or authored by AHRQ researchers.
Results
1 to 9 of 9 Research Studies DisplayedBell SK, Bourgeois F, Dong J
Patient identification of diagnostic safety blindspots and participation in "good catches" through shared visit notes.
The goal of this study was to investigate whether sharing clinical notes with patients supported identification of potential breakdowns in the diagnostic process that might be difficult for clinical staff to observe -- "diagnostic safety blindspots." Researchers analyzed patient-reported ambulatory documentation errors among patients at 3 U.S. healthcare centers. Older, female, unemployed, disabled, or sicker patients, or patients who worked in healthcare, were more likely to identify blindspots; patients who self-identified as Black, Asian, multiple races and those with less formal education as well as those who deferred decision-making to their providers were less likely to report blindspots. The researchers concluded that patients who read notes have unique insight about potential errors in their medical records and that organizations should encourage patient review of notes and create systems to track patient-reported blindspots.
AHRQ-funded; HS027367.
Citation: Bell SK, Bourgeois F, Dong J .
Patient identification of diagnostic safety blindspots and participation in "good catches" through shared visit notes.
Milbank Q 2022 Dec; 100(4):1121-65. doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.12593..
Keywords: Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Patient Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT)
Ozonoff A, Milliren CE, Fournier K A, Milliren CE, Fournier K
Electronic surveillance of patient safety events using natural language processing.
The purpose of this study was to describe the surveillance of reportable safety events captured in hospital data including free-text clinical notes. The researchers created a training data set for a machine learning model and applied the model to complete sets of clinical notes which were then reviewed to identify safety events of interest. The study found that in Phase 1, the researchers reviewed 2,342 clinical notes of the 21,362 gathered. 125 PIV events were identified, of which 44 cases (35%) were not identified by other patient safety systems. In Phase 2 of the study, the researchers identified 440 infiltrate events of the 60,735 clinical notes collected. The study classifier provided accuracy above 90%.
AHRQ-funded; HS026246.
Citation: Ozonoff A, Milliren CE, Fournier K A, Milliren CE, Fournier K .
Electronic surveillance of patient safety events using natural language processing.
Health Informatics J 2022 Oct-Dec; 28(4):14604582221132429. doi: 10.1177/14604582221132429..
Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Patient Safety
Shafer GJ, Singh H, Thomas EJ
Frequency of diagnostic errors in the neonatal intensive care unit: a retrospective cohort study.
The objective of this study was to determine the frequency and etiology of diagnostic errors during the first 7 days of admission for inborn neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients. The "Safer Dx NICU Instrument" was used to review electronic health records. The reviewers discovered that the frequency of diagnostic error in inborn NICU patients during the first 7 days of admission was 6.2%.
AHRQ-funded; HS027363.
Citation: Shafer GJ, Singh H, Thomas EJ .
Frequency of diagnostic errors in the neonatal intensive care unit: a retrospective cohort study.
J Perinatol 2022 Oct;42(10):1312-18. doi: 10.1038/s41372-022-01359-9..
Keywords: Newborns/Infants, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Critical Care, Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Medical Errors, Adverse Events, Patient Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT)
Bradford A, Shofer M, Singh H
AHRQ Author: Shofer M, Singh H
Measure Dx: implementing pathways to discover and learn from diagnostic errors.
This paper discusses Measure Dx, a new AHRQ resource that translates knowledge from diagnostic measurement research into actionable recommendations. This resource guides healthcare organizations to detect, analyze, and learn from diagnostic safety events as part of a continuous learning and feedback cycle. The goal of Measure Dx is to advance new frontiers in reducing preventable diagnostic harm to patients.
AHRQ-authored; AHRQ-funded; 233201500022I; HS027363.
Citation: Bradford A, Shofer M, Singh H .
Measure Dx: implementing pathways to discover and learn from diagnostic errors.
Int J Qual Health Care 2022 Sep 10;34(3). doi: 10.1093/intqhc/mzac068..
Keywords: Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Patient Safety, Quality Improvement, Quality of Care, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Health Systems, Learning Health Systems
Yerneni S, Shah S, Blackley SV
Heterogeneity of drug allergies and reaction lists in two U.S. healthcare systems' electronic health records.
This study compared adverse drug reaction (ADRs) picklists for clinicians in the electronic health record (EHR) allergy list for two different healthcare institutions. The authors used data from the EHRs of patients who visited the emergency department or outpatient clinics at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) from 2013-2018. They investigated the reactions on each picklist and compared the top 40 reactions at each institution, as well as the top 10 reactions within each drug class. Out of 2,160,116 patients sampled, 30% reported active drug allergies. The most commonly reported drug class allergens were similar between the two institutions, however BWH’s picklist had 48 reactions while UCH’s had 160. Twenty-nine reactions were shared by both picklists. There was a lot more granularity with UCH’s picklist so that body locality, swelling and edema were described in much greater detail than for BWH. These picklists may partially explain variations in reported ADRs across healthcare systems.
AHRQ-funded; HS025375.
Citation: Yerneni S, Shah S, Blackley SV .
Heterogeneity of drug allergies and reaction lists in two U.S. healthcare systems' electronic health records.
Appl Clin Inform 2022 May 26;13(3):741-51. doi: 10.1055/a-1862-9425..
Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety
Giardina TD, Choi DT, Upadhyay DK
Inviting patients to identify diagnostic concerns through structured evaluation of their online visit notes.
This study’s objective was to test if patients can identify concerns about their diagnosis through structured evaluation of their online visit notes in an electronic health record (EHR) system. Patients aged 18-85 years in a large integrated health system who actively used the patient portal were invited to respond to an online questionnaire if an EHR algorithm detected any recent visit following an initial primary care consultation. The authors developed and tested an instrument (Safer Dx Patient Instrument) to help patients identify concerns related to the diagnostic process based on notes review and recall of recent “at-risk” visits. The algorithm identified 1282 eligible patients, of whom 486 responded. Of the 418 patients included in the analysis, 51 patients (12.2%) identified a diagnostic concern. Patients were more likely to report a concern if they disagreed with statements "The care plan the provider developed for me addressed all my medical concerns", "I trust the provider that I saw during my visit" and agreed with the statement "I did not have a good feeling about my visit".
AHRQ-funded; HS027363; HS025474.
Citation: Giardina TD, Choi DT, Upadhyay DK .
Inviting patients to identify diagnostic concerns through structured evaluation of their online visit notes.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2022 May 11;29(6):1091-100. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocac036..
Keywords: Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Patient Experience, Patient Safety
Collinsworth AW, Masica AL, Priest EL
Modifying the electronic health record to facilitate the implementation and evaluation of a bundled care program for intensive care unit delirium.
This case study describes how an integrated health care delivery system modified its inpatient electronic health record to accelerate the implementation and evaluation of ABCDE bundle deployment as a safety and quality initiative for the prevention of delirium in intensive care unit patients.
AHRQ-funded; HS021459
Citation: Collinsworth AW, Masica AL, Priest EL .
Modifying the electronic health record to facilitate the implementation and evaluation of a bundled care program for intensive care unit delirium.
eGEMS. 2014;2(1):1121. doi: 10.13063/2327-9214.1121..
Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Patient Safety, Quality of Care
Peterson SM, Gurses AP, Regan L
Resident to resident handoffs in the emergency department: an observational study.
This study aimed to identify hazards to patient safety and barriers to efficiency related to resident handoffs in the ED. It found that residents were interrupted, on average, every 8.5 min. The most common deficit in relaying the plan of care strategy was failing to relay medications administered (32 percent). In addition, there were ambiguities related to medication administration.
AHRQ-funded; HS018762.
Citation: Peterson SM, Gurses AP, Regan L .
Resident to resident handoffs in the emergency department: an observational study.
J Emerg Med 2014 Nov;47(5):573-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jemermed.2014.06.027..
Keywords: Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Patient Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Medication
Pohl JM, Tanner C, Hamilton A
Medication safety after implementation of a commercial electronic health record system in five safety-net practices: a mixed methods approach.
This study, conducted in five safety-net practices, examined the impact of implementing a commercial electronic health records system on medication safety. The authors found 130 "true" drug-drug interaction (DDI) pairs, representing 149,087 visits and 62 providers, with the largest DDI categories being related to antihypertensive medications, which are often prescribed together. They found no significant differences between physicians and nurse practitioners on the rate of DDI pairs.
AHRQ-funded; HS017191.
Citation: Pohl JM, Tanner C, Hamilton A .
Medication safety after implementation of a commercial electronic health record system in five safety-net practices: a mixed methods approach.
J Am Assoc Nurse Pract 2014 Aug;26(8):438-44. doi: 10.1002/2327-6924.12089.
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Keywords: Medication: Safety, Medication, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medical Errors, Patient Safety