Electronic health records enable healthcare professionals to provide high-quality and cost-effective care. Nevertheless, this technological advancement is not utilized in some facilities, so healthcare practitioners may need to use diverse instruments to elicit the necessary data. The Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is one of the measurements that can help practitioners to collect data effectively. In the scenario, the staff nurse needs to estimate the number of patients with diabetes at a facility with approximately one thousand patients.
The first step is, of course, to analyze the available electronic records as the EHR came in use a year ago. After that, the records that are arranged historically will be analyzed in terms of such data as patients’ numbers, age, and some clinical results. The HEDIS tool can help in identifying the target population. The patients’ records will be examined based on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (below 100mg/dL), glycosylated hemoglobin (below 8.0%), nonsmoking, aspirin therapy in case of ischemic vascular disorder, and blood pressure below 140/90 mmHg (McCoy et al., 2016). The collection of this information will take a certain time, but the focus on particular tests will reduce the needed time substantially.
It is preferable to start patients’ records examination by concentrating on the most recent cases. The data will be inscribed and presented in the digital form, at least, the clinical data mentioned above, along with patients’ names and age. Once the bits of information are in electronic charts, it will be easy to estimate the number of patients meeting all or most of the components of the HEDIS. The digital charts will also include the type of treatment patients receive. Treatment types can be encoded for the convenience of further analysis. Thus, the HEDIS measurement tool can help improve the quality of provided care.
Reference
McCoy, R. G., Tulledge-Scheitel, S. M., Naessens, J. M., Glasgow, A. E., Stroebel, R. J., & Crane, S. J., Bunkers, K. S., & Shah, N. D. (2016). The method for performance measurement matters: Diabetes care quality as measured by administrative claims and institutional registry. Health Services Research, 51(6), 2206-2220.