title: Impact of an EMR-Based Daily Patient Update Letter on Communication and Parent Engagement in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
abstract: To evaluate the impact of using electronic medical record (EMR) data in the form of a daily patient update letter on communication and parent engagement in a level II neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
  
  
  
  Parents of babies in a level II NICU were surveyed before and after the introduction of an EMR-generated daily patient update letter,Your Baby's Daily Update(YBDU).
  
  
  
  Following the introduction of the EMR-generated daily patient update letter, 89% of families reported using YBDU as an information source; 83% of these families found it "very useful", and 96% of them responded that they "always" liked receiving it. Rates of receiving information from the attending physician were not statistically significantly different pre- and post-implementation, 81% and 78%, respectively (p= 1). Though there was no statistically significant improvement in parents' knowledge of individual items regarding the care of their babies, a trend towards statistical significance existed for several items (p<.1), and parents reported feeling more competent to manage information related to the health status of their babies (p=.039).
  
  
  
  Implementation of an EMR-generated daily patient update letter is feasible, resulted in a trend towards improved communication, and improved at least one aspect of parent engagement-perceived competence to manage information in the NICU.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Informatics, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Palo Alto, CA ; Division of Systems Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA ; Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.
authors.forename: Jonathan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Palma
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Margie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Godin
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wayman
authors.forename: Ronald S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Rhine
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Longhurst
keywords: Clinical Informatics; Electronic Medical Record; Family-Centered Care; Healthcare Information Technology; Neonatal Informatics