Banner Health and the University of Arizona are using a $766,000 grant from AHRQ to develop EHR alerts that monitor heart health.
Researchers from University of Arizona teamed up with Banner Health to develop EHR alerts capable of estimating risk to prevent sudden cardiac death in elderly patients.
The EHR alerts are specifically designed to help providers monitor elderly patients admitted to acute-care settings who are exposed to several medications that may affect heartbeat. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is funding the project through a two-year, $766,000 grant.
Over 150 common medications administered to elderly patients can interfere with the heart’s ability to recharge between beats, which can cause health complications or increase patients’ length of stay in acute care hospitals.
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UA researchers will work with clinicians and researchers at 28 Banner Health facilities across Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, and Wyoming. Project participants will leverage patient EHRs and prescribing systems to identify patients at risk of adverse health effects resulting from multiple medications.
The health IT solution sends EHR alerts to clinicians to inform providers of the risk and offer recommendations to prevent life-threatening heart rhythm disorders and sudden death.
“Real-time precision-guided prescribing will save lives and prevent drug-induced arrhythmias for patients in all of the University’s clinical partners, including Banner Health,” said C. William Heise, MD, assistant professor in the Division of Clinical Data Analytics and Decision Support at the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix.
UA will also use the grant to support educational programs centered on training healthcare providers on how to most effectively use and respond to EHR alerts.
“We are excited to have this opportunity to work closely with Banner Health data scientists and to evaluate a medication safety program within the entire healthcare system,” said Daniel Malone, FAMCP, professor at the UA College of Pharmacy.
Researchers will leverage existing EHR data within Banner Health’s Cerner system to generate insights into patient heart health. The project will also analyze data from Banner Health’s electrocardiogram equipment.
Project participants will also maintain a focus on maximizing health IT usability while developing the tool.
“In addition to making this alert as specific and precise as possible, we will conduct usability testing to ensure it works in the provider’s workflow,” said Corneliu Antonescu, MD, clinical assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics, at the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix.
EHR alerts of all kinds can be effective in improving patient health outcomes and improving care quality.
Admission, discharge and transfer notifications can help to streamline transitions of care and care coordination, while EHR alerts related to clinical decision support can help with disease management.
A 2017 study found EHR alerts related to screening and treatment for hepatitis C virus infection can help to streamline patient diagnoses.
Researchers integrated EHR-based prompts into primary care clinics to promote HCV screening after noting evidence of low rates of HCV screening among the baby boomer population.
The EHR alert helped to eliminate the need for clinicians to remember to screen patients for HCV or verify prior HCV testing of individual patients. As a result, HCV screening rates jumped from 7.6 percent to 72 percent following the implementation of the EHR system alert. The alert also enabled 100 percent of newly-diagnosed patients to receive referrals to specialty care, with 67 percent of patients receiving prescribed HCV treatment through this follow-up care.
“Our EHR prompt was successful in significantly increasing overall HCV screening rates and in helping to get newly diagnosed patients connected with care and curative treatment for HCV,” stated head researcher Monica Konerman, MD.
Date: May 22, 2019
Source: EHR Intelligence