Effectiveness of Electronic Health Record-Based Interventions for Improving Follow-Up in Primary Care
Completed · Not applicable
Conditions studied: Colon Cancer, Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer
In brief
Diagnostic delays in ambulatory care are often due to breakdowns of related care processes. Electronic systems can improve follow-up and reduce delays by detecting missed appointments or incomplete procedures so that patients are called back to conduct timely investigations when appropriate. To achieve high standards of patient safety in cancer diagnosis, the investigators not only need to use information technology appropriately but also improve the processes, policies, and procedures of monitoring, communication, and coordination of care. Given the importance of cancer-related diagnostic delays in ambulatory care, the investigators need effective methods to detect them, understand their causes, and intervene to reduce them. Manual techniques to detect these delays, such as spontaneous reporting and random chart reviews, have limited effectiveness. Our proposed study focuses on testing methods to proactively identify delays using certain "triggers" as they occur and intervene in a timely manner.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT01346839
- Run by
- Baylor College of Medicine
- People needed
- 1256
- Starts
- 2011-02-01
- Expected to finish
- 2012-08-01
- Last updated by the study team
- 2016-02-09
Who can join
Age: 18 and older, up to 65. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.
You may qualify if…
- All primary care providers at both study sites who agree to be in the study. Intervention will be performed on those whose patients are electronically identified to have suspected cancer defined as presence of any predefined clue for cancer that is not followed-up in a timely manner. Three cancers are included; colorectal, lung and prostate and their clues include • chest x-imaging suspicious for malignancy • suspected or confirmed iron deficiency anemia • positive FOBT • hematochezia • abnormal PSA Patients will be selected from the data warehouse .
You may not qualify if…
- Primary care providers who do not wish to be in the study.
Where it is running
- Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center — Houston, Texas, United States
- Scott and White Memorial Hospital — Temple, Texas, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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