Childhood obesity: Can electronic medical records customized with clinical practice guidelines improve screening and diagnosis?

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to determine if customization of the electronic medical record (EMR) using evidence-based practice guidelines developed by the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and the Expert Panel recommendations for the prevention, screening, and treatment of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity would improve the rate of screening and diagnosis of obesity in children, 7 to 18 years of age. Data resources: A retrospective review of encounters before and after implementation of customized EMR was conducted in a community health center. Data collected were compared for documentation of body mass index (BMI), completion of growth charts, scoring of risk questionnaire, and diagnosis of overweight or obesity. Conclusions: There was a clear increase in the frequency of recording BMI, completing BMI growth charts, and scoring questionnaires between written and electronic medical records. The number of children diagnosed with overweight or obesity increased with customized EMR but still remains well below the rates of obesity for this community. Implications for practice: Customizing EMR with clinical practice guidelines improved adherence to recommendations for screening and identification of childhood overweight and obesity. Increased recognition and diagnosis will lead to improved interventions and improve outcomes for childhood obesity.     

Awareness of the Care Team in Electronic Health Records

OBJECTIVE: To support collaboration and clinician-targeted decision support, electronic health records (EHRs) must contain accurate information about patients' care providers. The objective of this study was to evaluate two approaches for care provider identification employed within a commercial EHR at a large academic medical center. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of EHR data for 121 patients in two cardiology wards during a four-week period. System audit logs of chart accesses were analyzed to identify the clinicians who were likely participating in the patients' hospital care. The audit log data were compared with two functions in the EHR for documenting care team membership: 1) a vendor-supplied module called "Care Providers", and 2) a custom "Designate Provider" order that was created primarily to improve accuracy of the attending physician of record documentation. RESULTS: For patients with a 3-5 day hospital stay, an average of 30.8 clinicians accessed the electronic chart, including 10.2 nurses, 1.4 attending physicians, 2.3 residents, and 5.4 physician assistants. The Care Providers module identified 2.7 clinicians/patient (1.8 attending physicians and 0.9 nurses). The Designate Provider order identified 2.1 clinicians/patient (1.1 attending physicians, 0.2 resident physicians, and 0.8 physician assistants). Information about other members of patients' care teams (social workers, dietitians, pharmacists, etc.) was absent. CONCLUSIONS: The two methods for specifying care team information failed to identify numerous individuals involved in patients' care, suggesting that commercial EHRs may not provide adequate tools for care team designation. Improvements to EHR tools could foster greater collaboration among care teams and reduce communication-related risks to patient safety.     

Documentation of Health Risks and Health Promotion Counseling by Emergency Department Nurse Practitioners and Physicians

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine medical record documentation of health risk factors and health promotion discharge counseling by nurse practitioners and physicians practicing in an emergency department in the U.S. midwest.
Methods: In this two-group comparative study researchers examined random-stratified medical records 305 nonacute ambulatory patients for selected health risk factors, including smoking, alcohol use, elevated blood pressure, obesity, and dental caries.
Results: Fifty-nine percent of this sample of relatively young adults (mean age = 33) had one or more health-risk factors. According to medical record documentation, only 22% of these adults, with nonacute problems, received health promotion counseling. Multivariate analyses indicated that nurse practitioners were slightly more likely to provide smoking cessation counseling than were physicians.
Conclusions: Many opportunities for identification of health risks and follow-up counseling, as recommended in Healthy People 2000 and by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, were not documented. To meet the new goals of Healthy People 2010, health care providers in all settings should identify health risk factors and document health promotion counseling during every patient encounter.     

Impact of an educational intervention on medical records documentation

BACKGROUND: Inaccurate and incomplete documentation can lead to poor treatment and medico-legal consequences. Studies indicate that teaching programs in this field can improve the documentation of medical records. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of an educational workshop on medical record documentation by emergency medicine residents in the emergency department.METHODS: An interventional study was performed on 30 residents in their first year of training emergency medicine (PGY1), in three tertiary referral hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The essential information that should be documented in a medical record was taught in a 3-day-workshop. The medical records completed by these residents before the training workshop were randomly selected and scored (300 records), as was a random selection of the records they completed one (300 records) and six months (300 records) after the workshop.RESULTS: Documentation of the majority of the essential items of information was improved significantly after the workshop. In particular documentation of the patients’ date and time of admission, past medical and social history. Documentation of patient identity, requests for consultations by other specialties, first and final diagnoses were 100% complete and accurate up to 6 months of the workshop.CONCLUSION: This study confirms that an educational workshop improves medical record documentation by physicians in training.     

Insights into creation and use of prescribing documentation in the hospital medical record

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Extraction of prescribing data from medical records is a common, albeit flawed, research method. Yet little is known about the processes that result in those data. This study explores the creation and use of prescribing documentation in the medical record, from the perspective of the hospital doctors who both create and use it. METHODS: Thirty-six hospital doctors were purposely selected for qualitative interviews, giving a maximum variability sample of grades of doctors across the range of major medical specialty areas and medical teams at a large teaching hospital in England. RESULTS: The findings suggest a number of reasons why hospital doctors fail to record prescribing decisions in the medical record. There was no set standard, record keeping was not formally taught and the hurried environment of the ward gave little time for documentation. The doctors also acknowledged that there was no need for completeness, as colleagues would be able to 'fill in the gaps' via an inferential process. Assumptions were made and although this was not seen as ideal, it was recognized as necessary if work was to be done efficiently. CONCLUSION: These results reinforce the suggestion that, despite the large number of potential users, the medical record is created for those with the right privileged knowledge. This has profound implications for those without that insider knowledge who are using medical records for research purposes. FUNDING: This work was funded by a North West Regional National Health Service Postdoctoral Fellowship.     

Diagnosis of obesity by primary care physicians and impact on obesity management

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether primary care physicians document obesity as a diagnosis and formulate a management plan. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Mayo Clinic primary care database was used to identify general medical examinations performed from November 1, 2004, to October 31, 2005, in a primary care clinic for obese patients (body mass index [BMI] equals 30). Data on demographic variables, BMI, comorbidities, documentation of obesity, and obesity management strategy were obtained through the database. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to estimate multivariate odds ratios (ORs) and 95 percent confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: A total of 9827 patients were seen for a general medical examination. Of the 2543 obese patients, 505 (19.9 percent) had a diagnosis of obesity documented, and 574 (22.6 percent) had an obesity management plan documented. Older patients (OR, 0.97 per year; 95 percent CI, 0.96-0.98) and men (OR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.47-0.76) were significantly less likely to be diagnosed as having obesity, whereas those with a BMI greater than 35 (OR, 2.54; 95 percent CI, 2.10-3.16), diabetes mellitus (OR, 1.40; 95 percent CI, 1.09-1.78), and obstructive sleep apnea (OR, 2.34; 95 percent CI, 1.79 to 3.07) were significantly more likely to have the diagnosis made. Staff physicians were less likely than residents to document obesity as a diagnosis (OR, 0.55; 95 percent CI, 0.44 to 0.69). Diagnosis of obesity was the strongest predictor of formulation of an obesity plan (OR, 2.39; 95 percent CI, 1.90 to 3.02). CONCLUSION: Most obese patients did not have a diagnosis of obesity or an obesity management plan made by their primary care physician. Diagnosis of obesity results in a higher chance of formulation of an obesity plan.     

Is the medical record an accurate reflection of patients' symptoms during acute myocardial infarction?

Documentation of symptoms in the medical record provides clinicians and researchers with valuable information about the patient's experience during acute myocardial infarction (AMI). To examine the consistency between the patient's reported symptoms and the medical record, 215 patients were interviewed and their medical records examined for information about their admission symptoms. Chest pain was the most frequently reported and recorded symptom, and there was good agreement between the patient's report and the medical record. Although fatigue was the second most frequently reported symptom by patients, it was rarely documented in the medical record. Time of symptom onset was identified by 87.9% of patients but only documented in 60.5% of medical records. Clinicians may be recording those symptoms that support the AMI diagnosis and not those perceived to be less relevant. Findings suggest that the medical record is an inaccurate and inadequate source of information about patients' actual experience of AMI symptoms.     

Improving documentation of endotracheal intubation in an adult emergency department

Objective: To evaluate the effect of an educational intervention and documentary pro forma on the adequacy of documentation of intubation in an adult ED. Methods: A structured medical record review was performed before and after a multi‐pronged educational programme and introduction of a specifically designed guide to documentation. Records were assessed for adequacy of documentation by the presence or absence of predetermined elements. Analysis focused on five aspects considered to be most important for future clinical care: drugs and doses used, grade of view, size of endotracheal tube, confirmation of placement and adverse events/difficulties encountered. Results: Sixty‐one and sixty‐eight charts were included in the pre‐intervention and post‐intervention groups, respectively. The drugs and doses used were documented in 92% and 93%. The endotracheal tube size was recorded 82% and 91% of the time. Grade of laryngoscopy was documented in 35% and 46%. Confirmation of endotracheal tube placement was 69% and 84%. Presence or absence of adverse events was recorded in 37% and 54%. All five elements were present in 8.2% and 25% of medical records. Conclusion: Documentation improved slightly following the intervention, but was still unsatisfactory. We believe that to achieve an adequate level of documentation in the medical record for an episode of intubation, there needs to be a formal and structured mechanism, either via mandatory use of a specifically designed form and/or by participation in an organized data registry.     

Identifying and collecting pertinent medical records for centralized abstraction in a multi-center randomized clinical trial: The model used by the American College of Radiology arm of the National Lung Screening Trial

BackgroundIn clinical trials and epidemiologic studies, information on medical care utilization and health outcomes is often obtained from medical records. For multi-center studies, this information may be gathered by personnel at individual sites or by staff at a central coordinating center. We describe the process used to develop a HIPAA-compliant centralized process to collect medical record information for a large multi-center cancer screening trial.MethodsThe framework used to select, request, and track medical records incorporated a participant questionnaire with unique identifiers for each medical provider. De-identified information from the questionnaires was sent to the coordinating center indexed by these identifiers. The central coordinating center selected specific medical providers for abstraction and notified sites using these identifiers. The site personnel then linked the identifiers with medical provider information. Staff at the sites collected medical records and provided them for central abstraction.ResultsMedical records were successfully obtained and abstracted to ascertain information on outcomes and health care utilization in a study with over 18,000 study participants. Collection of records required for outcomes related to positive screening examinations and lung cancer diagnosis exceeded 90%. Collection of records for all aims was 87.32%.ConclusionsWe designed a successful centralized medical record abstraction process that may be generalized to other research settings, including observational studies. The coordinating center received no identifying data. The process satisfied requirements imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and concerns of site institutional review boards with respect to protected health information.     

Documentation of contact precautions in an electronic health record

Contact precautions are implemented to reduce transmission of multidrug-resistant organisms but may also increase hospital costs and patient complications. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of documentation of contact precautions (provider orders and nursing flowsheet documentation) in an electronic health record. Orders and nursing documentation were simultaneously present for only 42.3% of patient rooms with contact precaution signs, and 17.8% of rooms with signs had neither orders nor nursing documentation.     

Differences in Cardiometabolic Comorbidities Between Black and White Persons Living With Multiple Sclerosis

ObjectiveTo determine differences in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension in Black patients compared with White patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).DesignCross-sectional database review.SettingLarge academic medical center research records database.ParticipantsA total of 3191 patient cases (N=3191; 77% female, 34% Black) identified by MS diagnosis within the medical record.InterventionsNot applicable.Main Outcome MeasuresDiagnosis codes for type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Body mass index (BMI), race, age, and sex were collected. Analysis of variance (continuous variables) and chi-square analyses (categorical variables) were conducted to determine differences in obesity, diabetes, and hypertension between race and sex. Logistic regression was conducted to determine odds ratios (ORs) of developing diabetes and hypertension based on race, sex, BMI, and age.ResultsBlack patients were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed as having diabetes (OR, 2.15 [95% CI, 1.70-2.72]; P<.0001) or hypertension (OR, 2.44 [95% CI, 2.05-2.91], P<.0001) compared with White patients. Sex did not present a greater likelihood of being diagnosed as having diabetes; however, men were 1.22 times more likely be diagnosed as having hypertension compared with women (95% CI, 1.01-1.49; P=.0439). Increased age and BMI were also significantly associated with likelihood of diagnosis of diabetes and hypertension (age: diabetes OR, 1.05 [95% CI, 1.04-1.06], P<.0001; hypertension OR, 1.06 [95% CI, 1.05-1.06], P<.0001; BMI: diabetes obese vs normal: OR, 2.11 [95% CI, 1.43-3.11], P=.0002; hypertension: obese vs normal: OR, 1.72 [95% CI, 1.39-2.13], P<.0001).ConclusionsBlack patients with MS are significantly more likely to have cardiometabolic conditions than White patients. These conditions have been associated with poorer health outcomes for people with MS and may have some effect on the differences in MS disease course reported in Black patients.     

A pain monitoring program for nurses: effects on communication, assessment and documentation of patients' pain

Nurses need to be informed about the patient's pain to be able to take appropriate measures to alleviate pain. However, communication, assessment, and documentation of pain by nurses is often a problem for hospitalized patients. In this study we aimed to overcome the main barriers by developing, implementing, and evaluating a Pain Monitoring Program (PMP) for nurses. The PMP consists of two components: educating nurses about pain, pain assessment and pain management; and implementing daily pain assessment by means of a numeric rating scale. We describe the effects of the PMP on communication about pain between nurses and patients and between physicians and patients, agreement between patients' pain intensity and nurses estimations of patients' pain intensity, and documentation about pain in the nursing records. Factors that might influence communication, assessment, and documentation are also discussed. The effects of the PMP were measured in a quasi-experimental design with a nonequivalent control group. In total, 703 patients participated: 358 patients in the control group and 345 in the intervention group. Results of the control group showed that communication about pain between nurses and patients, agreement between patients' and nurses pain ratings, and documentation about pain in nursing records, remain inadequate. Patients' pain intensity and age were related to communication, assessment, and documentation. Communication and documentation is better in patients with moderate to severe pain than in patients with mild pain, and assessment is better in patients with mild pain. Older patients communicate less with nurses and physicians about pain, and nurses document less about pain in nursing records for older patients compared with younger patients. The PMP proved to be effective in improving nurses' assessment of patients' pain and documentation about pain in nursing records. Patients' pain intensity and care setting were related to the efficacy of the PMP. Communication about pain between patients and nurses, and between patients and physicians did not improve as a result of the PMP. Based on this study it can be concluded that in using a simple method such as the numeric rating scale, together with an education program, attention is focused in a systematic way on patients' pain complaints and creates a common language between patients and nurses. Because the PMP proved effective in a heterogenous population in multiple care settings, it is recommended to implement the PMP in nursing practice.     

The relationship among medical diagnosis, nursing diagnosis, and nursing intervention and the implications for home health care.

The purpose of this study was to identify the most commonly used medical diagnoses, nursing diagnoses, and nursing interventions for home health care based on 244 patient records. Nursing interventions were categorized into three groups: assessment, instruction, and other. The results showed that for the three most commonly used medical diagnosis groups--"infectious and parasitic disease," "disease of the circulatory system," and "neoplasms"--the most related nursing diagnoses were "alteration in mobility," "alteration in cardiac status," and "alteration in comfort: pain." The most used nursing interventions were "instructions." The results indicated that nurses identified patients' physiological problems mostly in relation to medical diagnoses, and teaching was the most frequently used nursing intervention in home health care.     

Putting policy into practice: pre- and posttests of implementing standardized languages for nursing documentation

Aims and objectives. To describe the change in documentation of the nursing process in all inpatient wards in a 900‐bed university hospital. Major research question was what are the differences between before and after implementation of documentation policy related to the steps of the nursing process? Background. Implementation of standardized languages has been shown to be difficult to accomplish in clinical practice. Patients are the source of data and their conditions, responses and well‐being should be reflected in the nursing record. As such, nursing documentation can create the premises for the development of new knowledge in nursing and the improvement of nursing performance and can provide data and information necessary for nursing researchers to evaluate the quality of interventions and participate in the formulation of healthcare policy. This study is part of longitudinal project to prepare nurses for electronic documentation within the interdisciplinary health record and to improve documentation of nursing using standardized languages. Design and method. A cross‐sectional study design was used: a pretest (n = 355 nursing records) for baseline status of nursing documentation, an intervention and a post‐test (n = 349 nursing records) to obtain data on nursing documentation. The year‐long intervention comprised planned work in groups, and educational and supporting efforts. Results. A statistically significant improvement was found in the use of Functional Health Patterns for documentation of nursing assessment, NANDA for nursing diagnoses and Nursing Interventions Classification for nursing interventions in documentation of daily nursing care for inpatients. Conclusion. At all organizational levels intervention aimed at putting policy regarding documentation into clinical practice considerably improved daily use of standardized nursing languages. Relevance to clinical practice. Nurses need to use standardized language to document patient care data in the electronic health record and to demonstrate contributions to nursing care.     

Physical limitations and self-rated overall health in family medicine patients

OBJECTIVE: To assess how physical limitations relate to self-rated health among family medicine patients after adjustment for severity of illness. DESIGN: A telephone survey of family medicine patients, linked with medical record information. SETTING: A large family medicine department in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. SUBJECTS: Self-ratings of health were linked to medical records for 804 adult patients. RESULTS: Adjusting for severity and other confounders using multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that having physical limitations was inversely and independently related to good self-rated health (adjusted odds ratio = 0.20, P<0.001). Odds ratios also were lower for high severity of illness (adjusted odds = 0.43). Morbidly obese patients and patients older than 65 years of age also had reduced odds of good self-rated health. CONCLUSIONS: In our sample of family medicine patients, part of the disparity in health status experienced by people with physical limitations is attributable to greater severity of illness, age and obesity.     

Dying in Hospital: Medical Failure or Natural Outcome?

The purpose of this study was to describe patterns of medical and nursing practice in the care of patients dying of oncological and hematological malignancies in the acute care setting in Australia. A tool validated in a similar American study was used to study the medical records of 100 consecutive patients who died of oncological or hematological malignancies before August 1999 at The Canberra Hospital in the Australian Capital Territory. The three major indicators of patterns of end-of-life care were documentation of Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders, evidence that the patient was considered dying, and the presence of a palliative care intention. Findings were that 88 patients were documented DNR, 63 patients' records suggested that the patient was dying, and 74 patients had evidence of a palliative care plan. Forty-six patients were documented DNR 2 days or less prior to death and, of these, 12 were documented the day of death. Similar patterns emerged for days between considered dying and death, and between palliative care goals and death. Sixty patients had active treatment in progress at the time of death. The late implementation of end-of-life management plans and the lack of consistency within these plans suggested that patients were subjected to medical interventions and investigations up to the time of death. Implications for palliative care teams include the need to educate health care staff and to plan and implement policy regarding the management of dying patients in the acute care setting. Although the health care system in Australia has cultural differences when compared to the American context, this research suggests that the treatment imperative to prolong life is similar to that found in American-based studies.     

Prevalence of overweight,obesity, and associated diseases among outpatients in a public hospital

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of obesity is increasing and may be particularly high among indigent public hospital patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of obesity and its associated chronic medical conditions among outpatients at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport, an urban tertiary health center that serves a mostly black, indigent population. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 1,507 primary care patients. Age, sex, weight, height, and diagnoses were recorded, and body mass index (BMI) was calculated. RESULTS: Eighty-one percent of patients were overweight or obese and 75% had one or more obesity-associated conditions. Higher BMI was significantly associated with increased prevalence of obesity-related diseases (P < 0.001) even when adjusted for age and sex. CONCLUSION: Overweight and obesity rates at this public hospital are alarming and may indicate a problem in public hospitals across the United States. The process and structure of care for overweight and obese patients need to be evaluated, and training for residents needs to address this problem.