Date of Award

1-1-2018

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Yale University School of Nursing

First Advisor

Ruth McCorkle

Second Advisor

Elizabeth Borycki

Abstract

Background: Electronic health records (EHRs) are transforming the way healthcare is delivered. They are central to improving the quality of patient care and have been attributed to making healthcare more accessible, reliable and safe. However, in recent years, evidence suggests that specific features and functions of EHRs can introduce new, unanticipated patient safety concerns that can be mitigated by safe configuration practices. Objective: To develop an evidence-based checklist of safe configuration practices for use by clinical informatics professionals to safely configure hospital-based EHRs. Methods: A literature review was conducted to synthesize evidence on safe configuration practices; data were analyzed to elicit themes of common EHR system capabilities. Two rounds of iterative testing were completed with end users to inform checklist design and usability. This was followed by a four-member expert panel review, where each item was rated for clarity (clear, not clear), and importance (high, medium, low). Results: An expert panel consisting of three clinical informatics professionals and one health information technology expert reviewed the checklist for clarity and importance. Medium and high importance ratings were considered affirmative responses. Of the 870 items contained in the original checklist, 535 (61.4%) received 100% affirmative agreement among all four panelists. Clinical panelists had a higher affirmative agreement rate of 75.5% (656 items). Upon detailed analysis items with 100% clinician agreement were retained in the checklist with the exception of 47 items and the addition of 33 items, resulting in a total of 642 items in the final checklist. Conclusions: Safe implementation of EHRs requires consideration of both technical and socio-technical factors through close collaboration of health IT and clinical informatics professionals. The recommended practices described in this checklist provide systems implementation guidance that should be considered when EHRs are being configured, implemented, audited, or updated, to improve system safety and usability.

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