title: Using a data entry clerk to improve data quality in primary care electronic medical records: a pilot study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The quality of electronic medical record (EMR) data is known to be problematic; research on improving these data is needed.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The primary objective was to explore the impact of using a data entry clerk to improve data quality in primary care EMRs.  The secondary objective was to evaluate the feasibility of implementing this intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a before and after design for this pilot study. The participants were 13 community based family physicians and four allied health professionals in Toronto, Canada. Using queries  programmed by a data manager, a data clerk was tasked with re-entering EMR information as coded or structured data for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), smoking, specialist designations and interprofessional encounter headers. We measured data quality before and three to six months  after the intervention. We evaluated feasibility by measuring acceptability to clinicians and workload for the clerk.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After the intervention, coded COPD entries increased by 38% (P = 0.0001, 95% CI 23 to 51%); identifiable data on smoking categories increased by 27%  (P = 0.0001, 95% CI 26 to 29%); referrals with specialist designations increased by 20% (P = 0.0001, 95% CI 16 to 22%); and identifiable interprofessional headers increased by 10% (P = 0.45, 95 CI -3 to 23%). Overall, the intervention was rated as being at least  moderately useful and moderately usable. The data entry clerk spent 127 hours restructuring data for 11 729 patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Utilising a data manager for queries and a data clerk to re-enter data led to improvements in EMR data quality. Clinicians found this approach to be  acceptable.
authors: North Toronto Research Network, Toronto, Canada. mgreiver@rogers.com
authors: Michelle
authors: M
authors: Greiver
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Barnsley
authors: Babak
authors: B
authors: Aliarzadeh
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Krueger
authors: Rahim
authors: R
authors: Moineddin
authors: Debra A
authors: DA
authors: Butt
authors: Edita
authors: E
authors: Dolabchian
authors: Liisa
authors: L
authors: Jaakkimainen
authors: Karim
authors: K
authors: Keshavjee
authors: David
authors: D
authors: White
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Kaplan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D005568:Forms and Records Control / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis; D058996:Quality Improvement; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012907:Smoking; D015443:Word Processing