Point-of-care systems, informatics, and health care delivery

Evolving information technology has had profound effects on business operations and the marketplace. The health care services industry, particularly hospitals, clinics, and medical offices, has historically lagged behind other industries in the implementation of comprehensive, integrated, computerized data management tools. Health care reformers are looking to the promises of the information technology "revolution" as a means of improving systemic efficiency and health care quality. This study discusses the impact of informatics, or information technology, on the delivery of health care services. We present the evolution of informatics and the predicted future benefits of integrated computerized patient records and point-of-care systems.     

The role of clinical information systems in health care quality improvement

This article addresses the increasing use of electronic medical records and supporting clinical information systems in US hospitals. It also addresses the current barriers to implementation of digital technology, which include cost, cultural factors, and the reluctance to embrace new technology. However, despite the barriers, there is evidence from the Veteran's Administration, Partners' HealthCare, Kaiser Permanente, and other organizations that electronic medical records and clinical information systems are a worthwhile investment. The benefits of the electronic medical records include the reduction of errors, improvement in clinical decision making during patient encounters, and universal access to information in real time. From a managerial perspective, health care organizations should adopt such systems to improve quality of care and to stay competitive in the marketplace. From a policy perspective, the electronic medical record provides an opportunity for integration of patient information and improves efficiency and quality of care across a wide range of patient populations.     

Evaluation of the quality of medical records in the Monastir regional hospitals--Tunisia

The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of medical records throughout a sample of 380 records at the medicine ward of three regional hospitals in Monastir. The medical audit was performed using a reference standard previously developed by foreign teams and adapted to the health care features of our country. The results showed that the quality of medical records should be improved. It depends on the hospital and in 2/3 of cases there was a lack of information or sheets important for the coordination and the continuity of medical care. The quality improvement of medical records could be reached by the professional education, which should emphasise the importance of medical and administrative data in the health care management. This could be included in a continuous quality improvement program.     

Assessing providers of coronary revascularization: a method for peer review organizations.

OBJECTIVES. Current methods to evaluate quality of care are usually limited to reviews of individual cases or comparisons of hospital mortality rates. We present an alternative method that compares complication rates adjusted for patient characteristics. METHODS. Detailed clinical data that were specifically designed for quality comparisons of providers of revascularization procedures were abstracted from the medical records of 1998 Medicare patients, in 16 hospitals, who had coronary artery bypass surgery and 2091 patients, in 16 hospitals, who had angioplasty. Providers were ranked on the basis of an unadjusted risk, a risk adjusted for detailed clinical information, and a risk adjusted only for patient comorbidities. RESULTS. Complication rates differed significantly and substantially among the hospitals. Clinical adjustment changed the hospital rankings for the bypass surgery hospitals, but not for the angioplasty hospitals. Adjustment for comorbidities did not affect hospital rankings for either procedure. CONCLUSIONS. When sample sizes are limited, adverse outcome rates may be a more sensitive measure of quality of care than mortality rates. Rates that are unadjusted or adjusted only for comorbidities may be inadequate for evaluating some providers of bypass surgery.     

The strategic management of organizational knowledge exchange related to hospital quality measurement and reporting

CONTEXT/PURPOSE: With the growing momentum toward hospital quality measurement and reporting by public and private health care payers, hospitals face increasing pressures to improve their medical record documentation and administrative data coding accuracy. This study explores the relationship between the organizational knowledge-sharing structure related to quality and hospital coding accuracy for quality measurement. Simultaneously, this study seeks to identify other leadership/management characteristics associated with coding for quality measurement. THEORY AND METHODS: Drawing upon complexity theory, the literature on "professional complex systems" has put forth various strategies for managing change and turnaround in professional organizations. In so doing, it has emphasized the importance of knowledge creation and organizational learning through interdisciplinary networks. This study integrates complexity, network structure, and "subgoals" theories to develop a framework for knowledge-sharing network effectiveness in professional complex systems. This framework is used to design an exploratory and comparative research study. The sample consists of 4 hospitals, 2 showing "good coding" accuracy for quality measurement and 2 showing "poor coding" accuracy. Interviews and surveys are conducted with administrators and staff in the quality, medical staff, and coding subgroups in each facility. FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS: Findings of this study indicate that good coding performance is systematically associated with a knowledge-sharing network structure rich in brokerage and hierarchy (with leaders connecting different professional subgroups to each other and to the external environment), rather than in density (where everyone is directly connected to everyone else). It also implies that for the hospital organization to adapt to the changing environment of quality transparency, senior leaders must undertake proactive and unceasing efforts to coordinate knowledge exchange across physician and coding subgroups and connect these subgroups with the changing external environment.     

内蒙古某医联体110所二级医院病案质控现状调查

目的了解内蒙古自治区某医联体二级医院病案质控现状,为进一步规范病案管理工作提供参考。方法制定《病案管理及质量控制工作情况调查表》。定性资料采用频数和占比描述。结果共调查二级医院110所,平均编制床位与病案人员的配备比例为67.33:1。病案室属于独立科室的医院有22所,占20.00%。病案收集、病案整理、病案复印等工作开展比例较高,均＞80%。病案保存方式以纸质为主,占56.36%。对终末病案进行质控医院较多,对门诊病案开展质控医院较少。病案书写不及时、病案管理人员少、病案质检率未达到100%等是病案质量管理存在的主要问题。结论建议优化二级医院病案管理组织体系,完善病案室工作职能,增加病案管理人员配备,提高病案质量和管理水平,为医联体管理和运行奠定坚实基础。     

Knowledge sharing networks related to hospital quality measurement and reporting

BACKGROUND: With the growing momentum toward hospital quality reporting by public payers, hospitals face increasing pressures to improve their medical record documentation and administrative data coding performance. The literature on "professional complex systems" has put forth various strategies for improving the performance of professional organizations. In doing so, it has emphasized the importance of creating effective structures for knowledge sharing and organizational learning. This study integrates knowledge networks and professional organizations literatures to develop hypotheses related to knowledge sharing network effectiveness in professional organizations. PURPOSE: Correspondingly, this study explores the relationship between the organizational knowledge sharing structure related to quality and hospital coding performance related to quality. Simultaneously, this study seeks to identify other organizational characteristics associated with coding for quality measurement. The purpose is to identify strategies not only for improving hospital coding performance but also for the organization to adapt to the changing environment. METHODS: An exploratory and comparative research design is used. The sample is composed of four hospitals, two showing "good-coding" performance for quality measurement and two showing "poor-coding" performance. Interviews and surveys are conducted with administrators and staff in the quality, medical staff, and coding subgroups in each facility. Survey data are subjected to social network analysis to examine knowledge sharing structures. FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS: This study finds that good-coding performance is systematically associated with a knowledge sharing network structure rich in brokerage and hierarchy (with leaders connecting different professional subgroups to each other and to the external environment) rather than in density (where everyone is directly connected to everyone else). From a health care management perspective, this study suggests that to improve hospital coding performance, senior administrators must undertake proactive and unceasing efforts to coordinate knowledge exchange across physician and coding subgroups and connect these subgroups with the changing external environment.     

基于一体化模式的医院多院区智慧服务体系的研究

智慧医院的建设及其服务模式的创新,是公立医院高质量发展的重要评价指标.依托于共享服务模式和线上线下一体化互联网医疗服务模式,建设了大型医院的多院区智慧服务体系,实现了信息共享与医疗资源共享,实现了线上线下患者信息、业务流程、质控标准的统一.该体系解决了大型医院多院区的管理难题和患者看病难题,增强了优质医疗资源的可及性,...     

医疗质量管理委员会对医院管理持续改进的效能研究

目的：研究笔者所在医院质量管理委员会的效能与持续改进效果。方法：对2008-2011年医疗质量管理委员会的管理情况进行分析。结果：根据医院管理年评价体系标准,建立院、科两级管理体系,医疗质量管理委员会发挥持续改进优势作用,病历书写质量明显提高,诊疗行为进一步标准规范,医疗纠纷率下降,患者满意度提高。结论：完善医疗质量管理委员会的功能与职责,推进制度执行能力;改善院级质控方式,提升质控有效性。促进医疗质量持续改进。     

JCI国际医院认证标准与病案质量管理

医疗机构国际联合委员会的质置管理和医院评审是一套结构完整且科学的医疗质量评价体系，《JCI标准》的每一章内容均可用于指导医疗活动，规范医疗质量管理，标准的衡量要素在医疗文书病案中应有体现。文章以JCI国际医院认证对病案质量的评估，结合我国病案质量管理的现状，详述了《JCI标准》对加强病案质量管理、提升医疗质量管理的必要性。JCI国际医院认证对病案质量的评估是在医院评审中占有重要地位的项目之一。病案质量关系到医疗质量水平．因此加强病案质量管理是医疗质量管理中需持续改进的日常重要工作之一，规避因病案质量造成的医患纠纷．提高医疗质量，构建和谐医患关系．是我国医院管理者面临的重要课题之一。     

Multi-city study of quality of care for HIV-related Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia: successfully collecting highly sensitive information

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) has been the major cause of death and the most common opportunistic infection in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), with in-hospital mortality rates as high as 60% in some hospitals. To investigate whether there were large variations in quality of care for hospitalized patients with PCP, researchers at RAND Corporation, in 1989, designed and initiated a multi-city study of patterns of care. Mounting a successful primary data collection effort in several cities requires a substantial effort from collaborators in many different settings. In addition, studies of persons with AIDS require careful consideration of issues related to the highly sensitive nature of data sources such as medical records of persons with AIDS, collection of reliable and accurate information, and protection of hospital and patient confidentiality and anonymity. The research team developed an interactive well-coordinated program to select hospitals and patients for evaluation, ensure confidentiality and anonymity, prepare materials, recruit collaborators, and obtain detailed clinical data about the care of patients with PCP. This paper summarizes major data collection and related project activities including design and sampling decisions, fieldwork preparation and implementation, and patient and hospital characteristics.     

Implementing health information technology to improve the process of health care delivery: a case study.

Integration of health information is critical to the provision of effective, quality care in today's fragmented health care system. The increasing prevalence of chronic conditions and the demand for a comprehensive understanding of patient health on the part of providers are driving the need for the integration of health information through electronic health information systems. Two distinct health information systems currently utilized in the health care field include electronic medical records (EMR) and chronic disease management systems (CDMS). The integration of these systems is likely to enable the efficient management of health information and improve the quality of health care as it would provide real-time patient information in a coordinated manner. The lack of real-time information may result in delayed treatment, uninformed decisions, inefficient resource use, and medical errors. Despite their importance and widespread support, these systems have slow provider adoption rates. Our understanding of how health information technology may be used to improve health care is limited by the relative paucity of research on the adoption, integration, and implementation of these 2 types of systems. This paper documents the use of an EMR at Marshfield Clinic, a multidisciplinary group practice in the United States. We review the concomitant use of an EMR for clinical data capture and the implementation of a proprietary CDMS, InformaCare, for care management of chronic diseases. These 2 systems allow providers to deliver health care using evidence-based guidelines that meet the Institute of Medicine's aim of providing safe, efficient, patient-centered, and timely care.     

Using patient reports to measure health care system performance

We developed a self-administered patient questionnaire that asks for data concerning the time to receive services (access to care), communication between providers (coordination of care), and follow up after tests and treatment (continuity of care). From these data, we construct rates of performance about the clinical management systems that support provision of these services. Rates of system performance are calculated for indicators using patients' responses to survey questions. These indicators add the number of patients reporting a problem of those patients who have encountered a particular clinical management system. Information derived from 3000 patient questionnaires is matched with data abstracted from health care medical records. The sensitivity and specificity of patient reports are being evaluated for all indicators classified as gold standards for medical records. Indicators considered gold standard items for patient reports are matched for agreement with any information contained in the medical record. Also, patient characteristics associated with accurate reporting is to be assessed using multivariate logistic regression models.     

浅谈医疗质量与计量管理

医学计量的管理体系是医院分级管理中的重要组成部分。医学计量是确保医院的计量器具的量值准确统一;是保证医疗质量的重要环节,是提高治疗效果的重要技术保证。本文就医院在计量中确保医疗质量的重要性浅谈自己的看法。     

Addressing measurement error bias in nurse staffing research

OBJECTIVE: To assess the extent of measurement error bias due to methods used to allocate nursing staff to the acute care inpatient setting and to recommend estimation methods designed to overcome this bias. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Secondary data obtained from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Healthcare Cost Report Information System for 279 general acute care hospitals from 1996 to 2001. STUDY DESIGN: California OSHPD provides detailed nurse staffing data for acute care inpatients. We estimate the measurement error and the resulting bias from applying different staffing allocation methods. Estimates of the measurement errors also allow insights into the best choices for alternate estimation strategies. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The bias induced by the adjusted patient days method (and its modification) is smaller than for other methods, but the bias is still substantial: in the benchmark simple regression model, the estimated coefficient for staffing level on quality of care is expected to be one-third smaller than its true value (and the bias is larger in a multiple regression model). Instrumental variable estimation, using one staffing allocation measure as an instrument for another, addresses this bias, but only particular choices of staffing allocation measures and instruments are suitable. CONCLUSIONS: Staffing allocation methods induce substantial attenuation bias, but there are easily implemented estimation methods that overcome this bias.     

三级公立医院绩效考核背景下某省病案首页数据共性指标问题探析

目的 根据三级公立医院绩效考核制定标准,评价住院病案首页的数据现状,分析原因,提出改进措施.方法 从某省卫生健康管理服务评价中心提取2019年所有三级公立医院病案首页数据,从编码错误和非编码错误两方面进行统计分析.结果 抽取某省80家三级公立医院2019年病案首页2246799份,全省病案首页质控编码错误病案数为395...     

Taking the measure of the profession: Physician associations in the measurement age

Systematic measurement of healthcare services enables evaluation of health professionals' quality of work. Whereas policy makers find measurement a useful mechanism for quality improvement, a public choice perspective implies that physicians would resent such an initiative, which undermines their professional autonomy.In this article, we compare two healthcare systems of economically developed countries – Israel and the UK. Both systems share common features such as universal coverage, strong state intervention, and enthusiasm for New Public Management. In both countries, quality measurement was introduced in acute care hospitals at around the same time. However, while the UK succeeded in establishing a framework of surgical outcome measures during the 2000s, a similar initiative in Israel failed completely during the 1990s. We also refer to subsequent quality indicator efforts in Israel, in both community and hospital frameworks, that were more successful, but in a way that reinforces our central thesis.We contend that differences in reform outcomes stem from the medical profession's reaction to government's endeavors. This response, in turn, hinges on the professional organizations' relative institutional position vis-a-vis state authorities. This study constitutes a unique investigation of the medical profession's response to critical quality measurement reforms. Most importantly, it stresses the institutional position of medical associations as the primary factor in explaining cross-case variation in government's success in introducing quality measurement.     

Organization of Care for Acute Myocardial Infarction in Rural and Urban Hospitals in Kansas

CONTEXT: One in 4 Americans lives in a rural community and relies on rural hospitals and medical systems for emergent care of acute myocardial infarctions (AMI). The infrastructure and organization of AMI care in rural and urban Kansas hospitals was examined. METHODS: Using a nominal group process, key elements within hospitals that might influence quality of AMI care were identified, including personnel, equipment, organizational systems, and quality improvement activities. These elements were included in a survey of 45 rural and 12 urban Kansas hospitals. FINDINGS: Though emergency 911 systems were widely available in both urban and rural communities, paramedics and advanced cardiac life support were less likely to be available in rural communities. Few rural hospitals were capable of emergent catheterization, angioplasty, or coronary artery bypass surgery; cardiologists, though readily available by phone, were rarely available on-site. Nevertheless, most rural ambulances could not bypass local hospitals. Most rural hospitals transferred the vast majority of their patients to urban medical centers within an average distance of 78 miles. Standardized protocols were used for emergent AMI care in 67% of urban and 62% of rural hospitals. Hospitals included aspirin in 53% and beta-blockers in 28% of either protocols or standing orders. CONCLUSIONS: Although faced with more limited resources, some rural hospitals, like their urban counterparts, have implemented protocols to address emergent care of AMI patients. Nevertheless, many of these protocols omit crucial aspects of AMI care. Rural and urban hospitals should jointly develop systems that assure consistent, rapid delivery of AMI care.     

Information technology and today's health care management

With the move to CPR, health information managers will be challenged to reengineer the ways they manage processes within the medical record department. A lot of age-old health information problems (i.e., missing documents, lost test results, and missing records) can be solved and productivity improved with imaging. The digitized records will allow simultaneous access to readily available, legible, and usable information for patient care, research, audits, and correspondence. However, the transition from a manual to computerized record presents many challenges. Health information managers will have to monitor the changeover carefully, anticipating the needs for new information and developing the necessary mechanisms to produce it, as well as implementing new technologies as they emerge. Conditions are right for an advance in health care information systems. Pressures and changes in structure in the health care industry require better management tools. Acceptance of HIS as a management tool is growing rapidly among the health care provider community. The technology to realize the CPR and advanced decision support systems is available. All the pieces are there--they just need to come together. As the health care organization's view of and need for information systems change, medical record professionals must draw on their knowledge and experience and make the transition from managers of record systems to managers of health care information systems.