Electronic health records and support for primary care teamwork

Objective Consensus that enhanced teamwork is necessary for efficient and effective primary care delivery is growing. We sought to identify how electronic health records (EHRs) facilitate and pose challenges to primary care teams as well as how practices are overcoming these challenges.Methods Practices in this qualitative study were selected from those recognized as patient-centered medical homes via the National Committee for Quality Assurance 2011 tool, which included a section on practice teamwork. We interviewed 63 respondents, ranging from physicians to front-desk staff, from 27 primary care practices ranging in size, type, geography, and population size.Results EHRs were found to facilitate communication and task delegation in primary care teams through instant messaging, task management software, and the ability to create evidence-based templates for symptom-specific data collection from patients by medical assistants and nurses (which can offload work from physicians). Areas where respondents felt that electronic medical record EHR functionalities were weakest and posed challenges to teamwork included the lack of integrated care manager software and care plans in EHRs, poor practice registry functionality and interoperability, and inadequate ease of tracking patient data in the EHR over time.Discussion Practices developed solutions for some of the challenges they faced when attempting to use EHRs to support teamwork but wanted more permanent vendor and policy solutions for other challenges.Conclusions EHR vendors in the United States need to work alongside practicing primary care teams to create more clinically useful EHRs that support dynamic care plans, integrated care management software, more functional and interoperable practice registries, and greater ease of data tracking over time.     

基于肿瘤影像学异质性分析CT在诊断十二指肠恶性肿瘤的价值

目的 探讨十二指肠肿瘤血流量存在的异质性及容积灌注CT成像对降低肿瘤异质性的影响。方法 纳入我院2013年1月至2014年11月十二指肠结节病例的132例,其中腺癌48例,间质瘤52例,淋巴瘤32例。所有的病例均行单层面灌注CT和容积灌注CT成像扫描,比较两者对十二指肠恶性肿瘤的诊断效能,采用变异系数评价两者在影像学异质性的差异,评价肿瘤影像学异质性对十二指肠恶性肿瘤的影响。结果 容积灌注CT成像与单层面灌注CT诊断恶性结节的效能其敏感性、特异性、准确性、阴性预测值、阳性预测值比较均无明显差别(P0.05);中高分化组及低分化组两个亚组的容积灌注CT成像的变异系数也均小于单层面灌注CT的变异系数,组间相比具有统计学差异(P0.05);血流量差异性的大小相比具有统计学差异(P0.05)。结论 容积灌注CT成像与单层面灌注CT检查在诊断效能上无明显差异,稳定性好,肿瘤影像学异质性对评价十二指肠肿瘤血流量有着一定影响,容积灌注CT成像能够降低肿瘤异质性的影响。     

Healing the Professional Culture of Medicine

The past decade has been a time of great change for US physicians. Many physicians feel that the care delivery system has become a barrier to providing high-quality care rather than facilitating it. Although physician distress and some of the contributing factors are now widely recognized, much of the distress physicians are experiencing is related to insidious issues affecting the cultures of our profession, our health care organizations, and the health care delivery system. Culture refers to the shared and fundamental beliefs of a group that are so widely accepted that they are implicit and often no longer recognized. When challenges with culture arise, they almost always relate to a problem with a subcomponent of the culture even as the larger culture does many things well. In this perspective, we consider the role of culture in many of the problems facing our health care delivery system and contributing to the high prevalence of professional burnout plaguing US physicians. A framework, drawn from the field of organizational science, to address these issues and heal our professional culture is considered.     

Neighborhood: A Conceptual Analysis

Researchers interested in measuring neighborhood‐level effects should understand how “neighborhood” is defined within nursing sciences and other sciences, and the inherent strengths and weaknesses of current research methodologies. This concept analysis provides clarity around the concept of neighborhood within the context of health, analyzes the current state of development of the neighborhood concept, and proposes areas for future nursing research. Using the Rodger's Method of analysis, the concept of neighborhood within nursing and public health research is described based on existing literature. The concept's attributes, related concepts, antecedents, and consequences are given from the literature. Comparisons of the use of neighborhood are made between nursing, public health, sociology, and other sciences. The evolution of the concept of neighborhood throughout history is described, and important implications for future research are discussed.     

L’espace de la santé mentale : un paysage discursif et clinique en remaniement

Objectives

This paper introduces some epistemology about mental health developments and how it leads to reconsider the landscape of clinical practices.

Touring Arkansas: A Statewide Project to Instruct Nurses and Patient Educators on Consumer Health Resources

Abstract

This article follows up a pilot project to help educate local nurses and patient educators on freely available consumer health resources. The Outreach Coordinator and Clinical Librarian at an academic medical center created a one-hour in-person and online class with continuing education credit and an online guide. Nurses frequently act as patient educators at the bedside and are therefore an important target for consumer health education. While nurses in an urban setting may have more access to educational opportunities, these opportunities are needed even more in rural settings. Librarians can obtain funding to travel and teach classes at rural community hospitals.