Are You Getting Tired of Studies Showing Provider EHRs Make a Positive Difference?

The following release appeared from KP a few days ago.

Kaiser Permanente demonstrates success of large-scale total joint replacement registry

July 22, 2010

A total joint replacement registry based on carefully designed and integrated technology can enhance patient safety, quality of care, cost-effectiveness and research, according to a paper published in the online and print editions of Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research, a journal of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons.

Kaiser Permanente's Total Joint Replacement Registry- the nation's largest such registry -- allows caregivers to analyze specific data from standardized forms and Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect®, an electronic health record, on more than 100,000 joint replacement cases by more than 350 Kaiser Permanente surgeons nationwide.

Since its inception in 2001, the TJRR has helped health care providers identify best practices, evaluate risk factors associated with revision surgeries, and assess the clinical effectiveness of implants. It also provides information that can be used to study patient demographics, implant characteristics and surgical techniques in relationship to post-operative complications such as infections, revisions and re-operations.

The TJRR also allows Kaiser Permanente to immediately identify and notify patients about recalled or defective implants prior to an official recall notice. The TJRR was instrumental in assessing more than 15 advisories and concerns with implants in 2009 alone.

In the article, the authors share insights from the organization's experience in developing, implementing and integrating the registry into KP HealthConnect®, a comprehensive health information system that is one of the most advanced and largest private sector electronic health records in the world, securely connecting 8.6 million people to their health care teams.

"To be successful, a large registry must have physician involvement, integration into workflow including rigorous validation and quality control methods, and provide ongoing feedback to participating surgeons and staff," said paper lead author Elizabeth Paxton, director of surgical outcomes and analysis at Kaiser Permanente. "Having used our registry to conduct research and translate these findings into actionable clinical-care guidelines, our total joint replacement registry shows that a national registry has the potential to improve patient safety and quality across the industry."

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Provided by Kaiser Permanente (news : web)

Full release is here:

http://www.physorg.com/news199006746.html

Here we go again, actionable clinical improvement from having the information on what is happening to your patients over time in a detailed accessible form. It is this stuff the planned Patient Controlled EHR simply does not address – and where a lot of the value actually is!

Enough said.

David.