title: Computerized alerts improve outpatient laboratory monitoring of transplant patients.
abstract: Authors evaluated the impact of computerized alerts on the quality of outpatient laboratory monitoring for transplant patients. For 356 outpatient liver transplant patients managed at LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, this observational study compared traditional laboratory result reporting, using faxes and printouts, to computerized alerts implemented in 2004. Study alerts within the electronic health record notified clinicians of new results and overdue new orders for creatinine tests and immunosuppression drug levels. After implementing alerts, completeness of reporting increased from 66 to >99 %, as did positive predictive value that a report included new information (from 46 to >99 %). Timeliness of reporting and clinicians' responses improved after implementing alerts (p <0.001): median times for clinicians to receive and complete actions decreased to 9 hours from 33 hours using the prior traditional reporting system. Computerized alerts led to more efficient, complete, and timely management of laboratory information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah School of Medicine, (RSE, SMH, SPN, CJS), Salt Lake City, UT,USA. Catherine.Staes@hsc.utah.edu
authors.forename: Catherine J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Staes
authors.forename: R Scott
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Beatriz H S C
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Rocha
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Sorensen
authors.forename: Stanley M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Huff
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arata
authors.forename: Scott P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Narus
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D017010:Reminder Systems