Hardwiring diagnostic stewardship using electronic ordering restrictions for gastrointestinal pathogen testing.

Publication/Presentation Date

6-1-2019

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a hard stop in the electronic health record (EHR) on inappropriate gastrointestinal pathogen panel testing (GIPP).

DESIGN: We used a quasi-experimental study to evaluate testing before and after the implementation of an EHR alert to stop inappropriate GIPP ordering.

SETTING: Midwest academic medical center.

PARTICIPANTS: Hospitalized patients with diarrhea for which GIPP testing was ordered, between January 2016 through March 2017 (period 1) and April 2017 through June 2018 (period 2).

INTERVENTION: A hard stop in the EHR prevented clinicians from ordering a GIPP more than once per admission or in patients hospitalized for >72 hours.

RESULTS: During period 1, 1,587 GIPP tests were ordered over 212,212 patient days, at a rate of 7.48 per 1,000 patient days. In period 2, 1,165 GIPP tests were ordered over 222,343 patient days, at a rate of 5.24 per 1,000 patient days. The Poisson model estimated a 30% reduction in total GIPP ordering rates between the 2 periods (relative risk, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.63-0.78; P 72 hours.

Volume

40

Issue

6

First Page

668

Last Page

673

ISSN

1559-6834

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

PubMedID

31012405

Department(s)

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Document Type

Article

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