The Process by which Physicians Extract Information from Electronic Progress Notes During Handoffs

Amster, Brian D

Publication:
The Process by which Physicians Extract Information from Electronic Progress Notes During Handoffs

dc.contributor.advisor	Jenna L Marquard
dc.contributor.author	Amster, Brian D
dc.contributor.department	University of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.contributor.department	Industrial Engineering & Operations Research
dc.date	2023-09-23T07:22:21.000
dc.date.accessioned	2024-04-26T21:18:49Z
dc.date.available	2012-08-24T00:00:00Z
dc.date.issued	2012-01-01
dc.date.submitted	September
dc.description.abstract	A handoff requires that the responsibility for patient patient’s care is transferred from one healthcare professional to another. The goals of this research were to identify, evaluate, and use analytical methods to describe how physicians (n=10) extracted information from electronic progress notes, one important source of information used during handoffs. Participants also verbally summarized the notes as they would during handoffs. Six methods were used to analyze how participants read progress notes, each uniquely contributing to our understanding of physicians’ visual attention patterns during this process. The participants focused their visual attention on the Impression and Plan section of the progress notes in that over 60% of the participants’ total time was spent reading that section. Physicians could miss an error or critical piece of information if the information is not located in the Impression and Plan. The importance given by the participants to the Impression and Plan section was confirmed in that the majority of participants’ verbal handoff content focused primarily on information that could be found in the Impression and Plan. Participants relied on the Medication Profile section quite heavily if it was present in the progress note. We determined that if the participant was currently reading in one section (s)he most likely would transition his/her visual attention to the physically closest section in the note, meaning the format of progress notes may dictate how notes are read. We determined what the most likely paths were through the progress notes, which could be a first step in reordering of the progress note for evaluation in future studies. Participants’ responses to debriefing questions suggested that they were aware of their reliance on the Impression and Plan, but that they thought the way they read notes is context-specific, depending on factors such as their use of the note and the reputation of the author of the note. These findings suggest a need for more research that evaluates how different note structures and content affect how physicians and other health providers extract and use information in varied clinical contexts.
dc.description.degree	Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (M.S.I.E.O.R.)
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.7275/3258173
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/47823
dc.relation.url	https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2051&context=theses&unstamped=1
dc.source.status	published
dc.subject	handoff
dc.subject	sign out
dc.subject	EHR
dc.subject	Usability
dc.subject	Medicine and Health Sciences
dc.subject	Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering
dc.title	The Process by which Physicians Extract Information from Electronic Progress Notes During Handoffs
dc.type	open
dc.type	article
dc.type	thesis
digcom.contributor.author	isAuthorOfPublication\|email:bamster@engin.umass.edu\|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst\|Amster, Brian D
digcom.date.embargo	2012-08-24T00:00:00-07:00
digcom.identifier	theses/890
digcom.identifier.contextkey	3258173
digcom.identifier.submissionpath	theses/890
dspace.entity.type	Publication