Data discipline in electronic medical records: Improving smoking status documentation with a standardized intake tool and process.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the transformation in smoking status documentation after implementing a standardized intake tool as part of a primary care smoking cessation program. DESIGN A before-and-after evaluation of smoking status documentation was conducted following implementation of a smoking assessment tool. To evaluate the effect of the intervention, the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network was used to extract aggregate smoking data on the study cohort. SETTING Academic primary care clinic in Kingston, Ont. PARTICIPANTS A total of 7312 primary care patients. INTERVENTIONS As the first phase in a primary care smoking cessation program, a standardized intake tool was developed as part of a vital signs screening process. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Documented smoking status of patients before implementation of the intake tool and documented smoking status of patients in the 6 months after its implementation. RESULTS Following the implementation of the standardized intake tool, there was a 55% (P < .001; 95% CI 0.53 to 0.56) increase in the proportion of patients with a completed smoking status; more than 1100 former smokers were identified and the documented smoking rate in this cohort increased from 4.4% to 16.2%. CONCLUSION This study shows that the implementation of an intake tool, integrated into existing clinical operational structures, is an effective way to standardize clinical documentation and promotes the optimization of electronic medical records.

[1]  Neil Dhoul,et al.  Quality of smoking data in GP computer systems in the UK , 2006 .

[2]  Ross C. Brownson,et al.  Chronic disease epidemiology and control. , 2010 .

[3]  A. Kuzel,et al.  EHRs in primary care practices: benefits, challenges, and successful strategies. , 2012, The American journal of managed care.

[4]  Ann P Rafferty,et al.  Healthy lifestyle characteristics among adults in the United States, 2000. , 2005, Archives of internal medicine.

[5]  T. Bodenheimer,et al.  Transforming primary care: from past practice to the practice of the future. , 2010, Health affairs.

[6]  T. Williamson,et al.  Caring for the whole practice: the future of primary care. , 2013, Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien.

[7]  S. Simon,et al.  Quality and correlates of medical record documentation in the ambulatory care setting , 2002, BMC health services research.

[8]  Simon de Lusignan,et al.  An educational intervention to improve data recording in the management of ischaemic heart disease in primary care. , 2004, Journal of public health.

[9]  Karim Keshavjee,et al.  Sentinel eye: improving usability of smoking data in EMR systems. , 2013, Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien.

[10]  A. Pipe,et al.  Strategies to increase the delivery of smoking cessation treatments in primary care settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis. , 2010, Preventive medicine.

[11]  C. Herbert Changing the culture: Interprofessional education for collaborative patient-centred practice in Canada , 2005, Journal of interprofessional care.

[12]  K. Thiru,et al.  Systematic review of scope and quality of electronic patient record data in primary care , 2003, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[13]  David Satcher,et al.  Women and smoking: a report of the Surgeon General. , 2002, Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.

[14]  T. Coleman,et al.  The potential to improve ascertainment and intervention to reduce smoking in Primary Care: a cross sectional survey , 2008, BMC health services research.

[15]  J. Kotecha,et al.  Trends in the use of electronic medical records. , 2012, Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien.

[16]  J. Assaad,et al.  Best practices for smoking cessation interventions in primary care. , 2009, Canadian respiratory journal.