Improving Efficiency and Reducing Administrative Burden through Electronic Communication

Primary Care Providers’ Opening of Time-Sensitive Alerts Sent to Commercial Electronic Health Record InBaskets

“…EHR notifications are delivered asynchronously to secure InBaskets (e.g., Epic's BInBasket,^GE Centricity's BDocuments,^Allscripts' BTask List^), and address a variety of clinical tasks including triage of urgent patient issues, care coordination, test result review, medication refill management, and direct patient communication via tethered patient portals. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] In the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), BView Alerts^fill a similar role and are used for some (though not all) of these tasks.…”

“…7,8,12,16 Previous studies have documented the burden associated with notifications (including View Alerts). [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] A nationwide survey of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) primary care providers (PCPs) found that more than two-thirds (69.6%) received more messages than they could effectively handle, and almost a third (29.8%) missed results that led to care delays. 17 These studies often focus on VHA systems; less is known about factors associated with timing of message opening outside VHA.…”