Improving Documentation of Pediatric Height, Weight, and Body Mass Index by Primary Care Providers
Coraine V Wray1, Paula M Brauer2, Roschelle A Heuberger3
1a Thamesview Family Health Team, Chatham, ON.
Insights
Electronic medical record (EMR) reminders slightly improved pediatric height and weight documentation by primary care physicians. Further strategies are needed to enhance this crucial monitoring of children's growth trajectories.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Health Informatics
- Primary Care Medicine
Background:
- Regular anthropometric data documentation in electronic medical records (EMRs) aids in tracking pediatric growth.
- EMR reminders are a proposed method to increase the recording of pediatric height and weight, potentially improving overweight/obesity detection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the impact of an EMR reminder alert tool on physician documentation rates of pediatric height and weight within a Family Health Team.
Main Methods:
- A pre-post study design was employed.
- An EMR reminder alert tool was implemented to prompt physicians.
- Documentation rates for children aged 4-7 years were compared before and after the intervention.
Main Results:
- The documentation rate for pediatric height and weight increased from 36% to 45% after implementing EMR reminder alerts.
- This represents a 9% increase in documentation, which was statistically significant (P < 0.01).
- The achieved increase fell short of the targeted 15% improvement.
Conclusions:
- While EMR reminders showed a modest improvement in pediatric anthropometric data documentation, they did not meet the desired target.
- Enhanced strategies are necessary to further improve the documentation of height and weight for better pediatric growth monitoring.
- Consistent and accurate documentation is vital for identifying and managing potential health issues like overweight and obesity in children.
Abstract:
The regular documentation of anthropometric data in an electronic medical record (EMR) is one tracking method used by primary care providers to follow the growth trajectory and development of children in their health care practices. EMR reminders have been proposed as a method to increase recording of pediatric height and weight by primary care providers, leading to potentially better detection and management of children classified as overweight or obese. The aim of this pre-post study was to improve a Family Health Team's physician documentation of pediatric height and weight through the implementation of an EMR reminder alert tool. The documentation rate for children 4-7 years old in the 6 months before intervention was 36% of children seen. After implementation of EMR reminder alerts, primary care physicians' documentation rate rose to 45% (9% increase; P < 0.01), but it was below the 15% target increase. Better documentation of pediatric height and weight by family physicians is needed to improve monitoring of children's growth trajectories. Additional strategies to increase documentation rates are needed.
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