Dictated versus database-generated discharge summaries: a randomized clinical trial.
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BACKGROUND: Hospital discharge summaries communicate information necessary for continuing patient care. They are most commonly generated by voice dictation and are often of poor quality. The objective of this study was to compare discharge summaries created by voice dictation with those generated from a clinical database. METHODS: A randomized clinical trial was performed in which discharge summaries for patients discharged from a general internal medicine service at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Ottawa were created by voice dictation (151 patients) or from a database (142 patients). Patients had been admitted between September 1996 and June 1997. The trial was preceded by a baseline cohort study in which all summaries were created by dictation. For the database group, information on forms completed by housestaff was entered into a database and collated into a discharge summary. For the dictation group, housestaff dictated narrative letters. The proportion of patients for whom a summary was generated within 4 weeks of discharge was recorded. Physicians receiving the summary rated its quality, completeness, organization and timeliness on a 100-mm visual analogue scale. Housestaff preference was also determined. RESULTS: Patients in the database group and the dictation group were similar. A summary was much more likely to be generated within 4 weeks of discharge for patients in the database group than for those in the dictation group (113 [79.6%] v. 86 [57.0%]; p < 0.001). Summary quality was similar (mean rating 72.7 [standard deviation (SD) 19.3] v. 74.9 [SD 16.6]), as were assessments of completeness (73.4 [SD 19.8] v. 78.2 [SD 14.9]), organization (77.4 [SD 16.3] v. 79.3 [SD 17.2]) and timeliness (70.3 [SD 21.9] v. 66.2 [SD 25.6]). Many information items of interest were more likely to be included in the database-generated summaries. The database system created summaries faster and was preferred by housestaff. Dictated summaries in the baseline and randomized studies were similar, which indicated that the control group was not substantially different from the baseline cohort. INTERPRETATION: The database system significantly increased the likelihood that a discharge summary was created. Housestaff preferred the database system for summary generation. Physicians thought that the quality of summaries generated by the 2 methods was similar. The use of computer databases to create hospital discharge summaries is promising and merits further study and refinement. (+info)
A model for enhancing Internet medical document retrieval with "medical core metadata".
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OBJECTIVE: Finding documents on the World Wide Web relevant to a specific medical information need can be difficult. The goal of this work is to define a set of document content description tags, or metadata encodings, that can be used to promote disciplined search access to Internet medical documents. DESIGN: The authors based their approach on a proposed metadata standard, the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, which has recently been submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force. Their model also incorporates the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) vocabulary and MEDLINE-type content descriptions. RESULTS: The model defines a medical core metadata set that can be used to describe the metadata for a wide variety of Internet documents. CONCLUSIONS: The authors propose that their medical core metadata set be used to assign metadata to medical documents to facilitate document retrieval by Internet search engines. (+info)
Improving clinician acceptance and use of computerized documentation of coded diagnosis.
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After the Northwest Division of Kaiser Permanente implemented EpicCare, a comprehensive electronic medical record, clinicians were required to directly document orders and diagnoses on this computerized system, a task they found difficult and time consuming. We analyzed the sources of this problem to improve the process and increase its acceptance by clinicians. One problem was the use of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) as our coding scheme, even though ICD-9 is not a complete nomenclature of diseases and using it as such creates difficulties. In addition, the synonym list we used had some inaccurate associations, contributing to clinician frustration. Furthermore, the initial software program contained no adequate mechanism for adding qualifying comments or preferred terminology. We sought to address all these issues. Strategies included adjusting the available coding choices and descriptions and modifying the medical record software. In addition, the software vendor developed a utility that allows clinicians to replace the ICD-9 description with their own preferred terminology while preserving the ICD-9 code. We present an evaluation of this utility. (+info)
Pharmacist compensation for ambulatory patient care services.
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This activity is designed for pharmacists practicing in ambulatory, community, and managed care environments. GOAL: To discuss issues involved in the transition from product-based to patient-care-based reimbursement and compensation systems for pharmacists. OBJECTIVES: 1. Differentiate between reimbursement and compensation. 2. Describe the limitations of current third-party reimbursement and compensation systems. 3. Describe ways in which compensation for seemingly identical products and services can vary. 4. Discuss the use of Medicare's Resource-Based Value Scale and the relative value unit. 5. Define and differentiate between ICD-9-CM codes and E/M CPT codes. 6. List the three key components needed to determine an E/M CPT code for a new patient seen in the pharmacy. 7. Describe and provide examples of the SOAP method of documentation. 8. Understand why the referral process is an important step in the compensation process. 9. Discuss the importance of Form HCFA-1500 and other documentation in the compensation process. (+info)
Mapping the literature of dental assisting.
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The purpose of this study was to identify core journals and the databases that provide access to these journals for the field of dental assisting. This study was completed as a part of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the literature of allied health. There were three original journals selected for analysis using the prescribed methodology, Dental Assistant, the journal of the American Dental Assistants Association; Journal of the CDAA, the journal of the Canadian Dental Assistants' Association; and Dental Teamwork, published by the American Dental Association. Dental Teamwork ceased publication in December 1996; however, it was considered a necessary part of the analysis due to its extensive coverage of dental assisting as well as its numerous scientific articles with references. In Dental Assistant, there were 16 source articles, containing 206 citations. In Dental Teamwork, there were 31 source articles with 308 citations. In Journal of the CDAA, there were only 3 source articles with 14 citations. Bradford's Law of Scattering was applied to the journal citations. Four databases, MEDLINE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, and HEALTH were analyzed for their coverage of these cited journals. This study may encourage the dental assisting profession to take a close look at its existing journals and to consider enhancing the content of these journals or the publication of additional journals in the field. Dental assistants of today need substantive literature that deals with all aspects of their chosen profession in order to meet the challenges of providing dental health care in the future. (+info)
Mapping the literature of dental hygiene.
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Despite the long history of the dental hygiene profession, little research has been conducted on the characteristics of its literature. In this study, the bibliometric method was used to identify the core journals in the discipline and the extent of indexing of these journals. The study was a part of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the allied health literature. Five journals were found to provide one-third of all references studied. Forty-two journals yielded an additional one-third of the references. MEDLINE had the best indexing coverage with 87% of the journals receiving indexing for at least one-half of the articles included. Limited coverage was provided by EMBASE/Excerpta Medica (11%) and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (9%). The findings identified titles that should be added by indexing services as well as those that should have more complete coverage. (+info)
Mapping the literature of diagnostic medical sonography.
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Diagnostic medical sonography has been evolving as a recognized allied health occupation since the early 1970s, but no bibliometric studies of the literature of the field have been published. This study, part of the Medical Library Association Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's Project for Mapping the Literature of Allied Health, attempted to identify the core journals in diagnostic medical sonography and determine how well these journals are indexed by MEDLINE, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). Citation analysis was done using the three journals listed for the field by the Brandon/Hill list. Characteristics of two of these three journals affected the results to the extent that more data should be gathered to reach conclusions about the literature of diagnostic medical sonography as a whole. Results of the analysis do suggest that the literature of echocardiography, which is a special area of diagnostic medical sonography, is indexed much more completely by MEDLINE and EMBASE/Excerpta Medica than by CINAHL. Suggestions are made for librarians making collection development decisions in this area of allied health. (+info)
Mapping the literature of dietetics.
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Research on the literature of dietetics, apart from the broader field of nutrition, has not been reported in the literature. The purpose of this bibliometric study was to identify the core journals of dietetics and to determine the extent of indexing coverage for these journals. The study was conducted as part of a larger project, the Project for Mapping the Literature of Allied Health, sponsored by the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association. Citations appearing in three journals between 1995 and 1997 were analyzed by the methodology common to studies in the project. Results revealed that dietetic literature relies heavily on journal literature and on those journals that are from associated health sciences fields. Of the indexing services examined, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica and MEDLINE provided the most complete coverage of the literature. The study's findings have implications for those involved with the literature of dietetics. (+info)