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User Actions within a Clinical Decision Support Alert for the Management of Hypertension in Chronic Kidney Disease
Lipika Samal1,2, Sarah W Chen1, Stuart Lipsitz1,2,3
1Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Insights
Physicians often override or defer clinical decision support (CDS) alerts for hypertension in chronic kidney disease, indicating hesitation to act immediately within the alert system.
Area of Science:
- Clinical Informatics
- Nephrology
- Cardiology
Background:
- Clinical decision support (CDS) alerts aim to improve care for patients with hypertension (HTN) and chronic kidney disease (CKD).
- Understanding user interactions with these alerts is crucial for optimizing their effectiveness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze user actions and order completion rates within a CDS alert for HTN management in CKD patients.
- To identify patterns of override, deferral, and order signing within the alert system.
Main Methods:
- A pragmatic randomized controlled trial was conducted using a CDS alert with pre-checked orders for medication, lab tests (basic metabolic panel - BMP), and e-consults.
- User actions, including order placement and signing, were examined for different alert firings.
Main Results:
- High rates of alert override (59.6%) and deferral (14.6%) were observed.
- CDS-recommended orders were signed approximately one-third of the time within the alert.
- Order signing rates were higher for medication initiation compared to titration, with specific rates for ACE inhibitors and ARBs.
Conclusions:
- Physicians demonstrate hesitancy to commit to immediate actions directly within the CDS alert.
- Physician preferences and workflow nuances should guide future CDS alert design for better integration and adoption.
Abstract:
This study aimed to examine user actions within a clinical decision support (CDS) alert addressing hypertension (HTN) in chronic kidney disease (CKD).A pragmatic randomized controlled trial of a CDS alert for primary care patients with CKD and uncontrolled blood pressure included prechecked default orders for medication initiation or titration, basic metabolic panel (BMP), and nephrology electronic consult (e-consult). We examined each type of action and calculated percentages of placed and signed orders for subgroups of firings.There were firings for medication initiation (813) and medication titration (430), and every firing also included orders for nephrology e-consult (1,243) and BMP (1,243). High rates of override (59.6%) and deferral (14.6%) were observed, and CDS-recommended orders were only signed about one-third of the time from within the alert. The percentage of orders that were signed after being placed within the alert was higher for medication initiation than for medication titration (33 vs. 12.0% for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors [ACEi] and 38.8 vs. 14% for angiotensin II receptor blockers [ARBs]). Findings suggest that users are hesitant to commit to immediate action within the alert.Evaluating user interaction within alerts reveals nuances in physician preferences and workflow that should inform CDS alert design. This study is registered with the Clinicaltrials.gov Trial Registration (identifier: NCT03679247).
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