Communication Patterns in the Perioperative Environment During Epic Electronic Health Record System Implementation

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• 作者：Tynan H. Friend ; Samantha J. Jennings ; Wilton C. Levine
• 关键词：Electronic health records ; Epic ; Vocera ; EHR/EMR implementation ; Perioperative communication
• 刊名：Journal of Medical Systems
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：41
• 期：2
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Mathematics and Statistics
• 刊物主题：Health Informatics; Health Informatics; Statistics for Life Sciences, Medicine, Health Sciences;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1573-689X
• 卷排序：41

文摘

In April 2016, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) went live with the Epic electronic health records (EHR) system, replacing a variety of EHRs that previously existed in different departments throughout the hospital. At the time of implementation, the Vocera® Badge Communication System, a wireless hands-free communication device distributed to perioperative team members, had increased perioperative communication flow and efficiency. As a quality improvement effort to better understand communication patterns during an EHR go-live, we monitored our Vocera call volume and user volume before, during and after our go-live. We noticed that call volume and user volume significantly increased during our immediate go-live period and quickly returned to baseline levels. We also noticed that call volume increased during periods of unplanned EHR downtime long after our immediate go-live period. When planning the implementation of a new EHR, leadership must plan for and support this critical communication need at the time of the go-live and must also be aware of these needs during unplanned downtime.