Internal Medicine Resident Engagement with a Laboratory Utilization Dashboard: Mixed Methods Study

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Medical Education

Background:

• Electronic medical records (EMRs) are crucial for healthcare delivery.
• Providing clinicians with performance feedback can improve practice patterns.
• Optimizing laboratory test utilization is a key area for quality improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess internal medicine resident engagement with an EMR-based dashboard.
• To evaluate the dashboard's feedback on routine laboratory test ordering compared to service averages.
• To identify barriers and facilitators to dashboard utilization.

Main Methods:

• Residents received personalized EMR dashboard data via email.
• Engagement was tracked through email read receipts and web analytics.
• Qualitative data were gathered via focus groups analyzed using grounded theory.

Main Results:

• 74% of residents opened the email; 21% accessed the dashboard.
• No statistically significant difference in lab ordering was observed based on dashboard use.
• Residents who accessed the dashboard showed a trend toward ordering fewer labs.

Conclusions:

• Resident engagement with the EMR dashboard was limited.
• Residents expressed positive attitudes towards receiving real-time, individualized feedback.
• Further strategies may be needed to enhance engagement with performance feedback tools.