Endorsing: closing the loop on diagnostic tests in electronic health care records

[摘要] The Oxford University Hospital NHS Trust (OUH) had introduced a policy to improve the timely endorsement of diagnostic tests. However, performance in the Oxford Kidney Unit (OKU) has been consistently below the OUH target of 85%. This project was undertaken to improve endorsement within the OKU. Weekly percentages of all diagnostic test results that were endorsed within 7 days of reporting were monitored as our main outcome measurement. During the intervention period, four plan–do–study–act (PDSA) cycles were undertaken each lasting 6 weeks. Introduced changes included interventions to develop a team-based approach and practical tools to enhance compliance, such as creating clinical worklists, a guidance document on endorsement and an endorsement newsletter. Data was monitored for a further 6 months beyond the intervention period to ensure improvement was sustained. There was a significant improvement in endorsement to above 85% by the end of the second PDSA cycle. This was maintained throughout the project and for a further 6 months beyond the intervention period. Our systematic approach to improving the endorsement of results is potentially transferable to other healthcare organisations using electronic healthcare records for clinical care.Clinical AuditContinuous quality improvementElectronic Health RecordsProcess mappingQuality improvementData availability statementNo data are available.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

[学科分类] 药学

[关键词] Clinical Audit;Continuous quality improvement;Electronic Health Records;Process mapping;Quality improvement