Providing nutrition support in the electronic health record era: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
BACKGROUND
Data are not available on the quantity or quality of nutrition support content in the currently available electronic health record (EHR) systems.


METHODS
A survey study of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition membership regarding the safety and efficacy of nutrition documentation and the ordering process for oral diets, oral supplements, tube feedings, and parenteral nutrition in currently used EHRs was conducted. The responses were converted to a rating of excellent, good, fair, poor, or unacceptable for each component.


RESULTS
The survey responders rated all 5 of the above EHR nutrition components only as fair. There were no differences between disciplines regarding how they rated these nutrition components. The responders who had been using their EHR for more than 10 years rated these components as fair to good, which was significantly better than those responders who have been using their EHR for less than a year, who rated these components from poor to fair. There was some variation in ratings given to the 7 different EHR vendors used by the responders, with 2 vendors having significantly poorer ratings than the other vendors. However, even the top-rated vendors received ratings of only fair.


CONCLUSIONS
This study should be a wake-up call for EHR developers/vendors, healthcare systems, and clinicians that the nutrition and nutrition support content of the current EHRs needs significant improvements. Nutrition support clinicians need to be actively involved in optimizing this EHR content.
Humility Mary Health Partners, Youngstown, Ohio, USA. vince_vanek@hmis.org
Vincent W
VW
Vanek
D004282:Documentation; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000592:standards*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D010288:Parenteral Nutrition / Q000592:standards*; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards*; D016896:Treatment Outcome