Successful System, Incomplete Data: Caveats in Reusing Activity Data from Emergency Department Whiteboards

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Clinical Data Management
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Electronic health records (EHRs) facilitate data reuse for research and quality improvement.
• However, the utility of EHR data hinges on its completeness and accuracy.
• Emergency departments (EDs) generate substantial patient data during treatment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the completeness of recording main treatment activities on ED whiteboards.
• To determine if recording completeness varies with patient condition severity.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of data from 381,231 ED visits.
• Assessment of the completeness of recording four key treatment activities on ED whiteboards.
• Correlation of recording completeness with patient severity indicators (triage level, length of stay, age).

Main Results:

• Four out of five main treatment activities were recorded with less than 50% completeness.
• Recording completeness showed a trend of increasing with patient triage level, length of stay, and age.
• Despite several years of use, whiteboard data recording remained suboptimal.

Conclusions:

• Low completeness of recorded treatment activities on ED whiteboards likely impedes data reuse for research and quality improvement.
• The findings highlight a significant gap in clinical data capture within emergency settings.
• Strategies to improve data recording completeness are necessary to leverage EHR data effectively.