Go backSearch Session number: 1149

Workshop title: Clinical Reminders as Tools for Quality Improvement

Author(s):
AN Hedeen VA Puget Sound Health Care System, IHD QUERI
AE Sales VA Puget Sound Health Care System, IHD QUERI
JM Stevens VIReC
PA Murphy VIReC

Objective(s): Clinical Reminders can improve quality of care (1) by providing patient-specific guideline information to clinicians at the point of care, and (2) by providing data/reports to clinicians and quality managers assessing guideline performance. We will describe the conceptual framework for developing national clinical reminders and illustrate key process points using our experience developing national clinical reminders for the care of patients with ischemic heart disease.

Activities: 1. Describe the development of national practice guidelines and their relationship to clinical reminders. 2. Demonstrate the relationship of clinical reminders to key action or decision points in the practice guideline. This includes identifying patients for whom the guideline and reminders apply. 3. Describe the collaborative process involved in developing a national clinical reminder. 4. Demonstrate an example of a national clinical reminder and how it relates to the clinical information system and to clinical care at the point of service. 5. Describe features of the VA clinical information system available to maximize the usefulness of clinical reminders. 6. Describe the relationship between clinical reminders and data extraction/retrieval for evaluation purposes.

Target audience: Clinical researchers interested in using clinical reminders for quality improvement; clinical managers and quality managers interested in clinical reminders and methods of quality improvement.

Audience familiarity: Basic knowledge of clinical practice guidelines and their use in the VA.