TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementing a social knowledge networking (SKN) system to enable meaningful use of an EHR medication reconciliation system
AU - Rangachari, Pavani
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by grant number R21HS024335 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), USA. The author wishes to express her sincere gratitude to the following members of the investigative team at AU Health, without whose collaboration and support, this project would not have been possible: 1) Dr Kevin Dells-perger, Chief Medical Officer; 2) Dr David Fallaw, Chief Medical Information Officer; 3) Dr Ian Davis, Chief Hospitalist; 4) Dr Michael Sumner, Hospitalist Medical Director; and 5) Mr Walter Ray, Chief Information Security Officer. The author would also like to thank the Cerner Inc. Jaguar Collaborative at AU Health, for making this collaborative research project possible. The author is especially grateful to Dr R Karl Rethemeyer, for his invaluable input and expertise as statistical consultant for the project; and Mss Shashana Fiedler and Tran Nguyen for their outstanding service as research assistants for this project.
Funding Information:
In October 2016, Augusta University received a 2-year research grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to implement a “Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) system” for enabling AU Health to progress from “limited use” of EHR MedRec technology to “meaningful use.” The 2-year project involves collaboration with both the medical leadership and health IT Division at AU Health to develop an EHR-integrated SKN system on MedRec and implement it over a 1-year/52-week period in select inpatient and outpatient units. The specific aims of the project are twofold:
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Rangachari.
PY - 2018/3/26
Y1 - 2018/3/26
N2 - Background: Despite the regulatory impetus toward meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) Medication Reconciliation (MedRec) to prevent medication errors during care transitions, hospital adherence has lagged for one chief reason: low physician engagement, stemming from lack of consensus about which physician is responsible for managing a patient’s medication list. In October 2016, Augusta University received a 2-year grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to implement a Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) system for enabling its health system (AU Health) to progress from “limited use” of EHR MedRec technology to “meaningful use.” The hypothesis is that SKN would bring together a diverse group of practitioners, to facilitate tacit knowledge exchange on issues related to EHR MedRec, which in turn is expected to increase practitioners’ engagement in addressing those issues and enable meaningful use of EHR. The specific aims are to examine: 1) user-engagement in the SKN system, and 2) associations between “SKN use” and “meaningful use” of EHR. Methods: The 2-year project uses an exploratory mixed-method design and consists of three phases: 1) development; 2) SKN implementation; and 3) analysis. Phase 1, completed in May 2017, sought to identify a comprehensive set of issues related to EHR MedRec from practitioners directly involved in the MedRec process. This process facilitated development of a “Reporting Tool” on issues related to EHR MedRec, which, along with an existing “SKN/ Discussion Tool,” was integrated into the EHR at AU Health. Phase 2 (launched in June 2017) involves implementing the EHR-integrated SKN system over a 52-week period in inpatient and outpatient medicine units. Discussion: The prospective implementation design is expected to generate context-sensitive strategies for meaningful use and successful implementation of EHR MedRec and thereby make substantial contributions to the patient safety and risk management literature. From a health care policy perspective, if the hypothesis holds, federal vendors could be encouraged to incorporate SKN features into EHR systems.
AB - Background: Despite the regulatory impetus toward meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) Medication Reconciliation (MedRec) to prevent medication errors during care transitions, hospital adherence has lagged for one chief reason: low physician engagement, stemming from lack of consensus about which physician is responsible for managing a patient’s medication list. In October 2016, Augusta University received a 2-year grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to implement a Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) system for enabling its health system (AU Health) to progress from “limited use” of EHR MedRec technology to “meaningful use.” The hypothesis is that SKN would bring together a diverse group of practitioners, to facilitate tacit knowledge exchange on issues related to EHR MedRec, which in turn is expected to increase practitioners’ engagement in addressing those issues and enable meaningful use of EHR. The specific aims are to examine: 1) user-engagement in the SKN system, and 2) associations between “SKN use” and “meaningful use” of EHR. Methods: The 2-year project uses an exploratory mixed-method design and consists of three phases: 1) development; 2) SKN implementation; and 3) analysis. Phase 1, completed in May 2017, sought to identify a comprehensive set of issues related to EHR MedRec from practitioners directly involved in the MedRec process. This process facilitated development of a “Reporting Tool” on issues related to EHR MedRec, which, along with an existing “SKN/ Discussion Tool,” was integrated into the EHR at AU Health. Phase 2 (launched in June 2017) involves implementing the EHR-integrated SKN system over a 52-week period in inpatient and outpatient medicine units. Discussion: The prospective implementation design is expected to generate context-sensitive strategies for meaningful use and successful implementation of EHR MedRec and thereby make substantial contributions to the patient safety and risk management literature. From a health care policy perspective, if the hypothesis holds, federal vendors could be encouraged to incorporate SKN features into EHR systems.
KW - Electronic health records
KW - Health it implementation
KW - Meaningful use
KW - Medication reconciliation
KW - Patient safety
KW - Risk management
KW - Social knowledge networks
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057106567&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85057106567&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2147/RMHP.S152313
DO - 10.2147/RMHP.S152313
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85057106567
SN - 1179-1594
VL - 11
SP - 45
EP - 53
JO - Risk Management and Healthcare Policy
JF - Risk Management and Healthcare Policy
ER -
