Background:
Physician awareness of tests pending at discharge (TPADs) is poor (∼40%). We designed and implemented an automated e‐mail notification system to “push” the finalized results of selected TPADs to responsible inpatient physicians. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of our automated e‐mail notification system on inpatient physician awareness of the finalized results of TPADs.
Methods:
We randomly assigned discharging inpatient attending physicians to receive automated e‐mail notification of the finalized results of pending chemistry and hematology tests for patients discharged from general medicine and cardiology services at Brigham and Women's Hospital from September 1, 2010, to date. For each discharged patient with TPADs, we surveyed physicians with regard to (1) awareness of any of the finalized test results and (2) whether they thought at least 1 result was actionable. Surveys were sent by e‐mail approximately 72 hours after the last pending test result was finalized. We assessed satisfaction with their current system and with e‐mail notification on a 5‐point Likert scale. We performed Fisher's exact test to compare outcomes.
Results:
We sent a total of 62 surveys to 49 inpatient physicians (25 intervention, 24 control). We received 43 responses (69% response rate) from 31 physicians (14 intervention, 17 control). Fifty‐eight percent of physician respondents assigned to automated e‐mail notification (10 of 17) were aware of any finalized result, compared with 38% (10 of 26) assigned to the control (unadjusted P = 0.23). Eighteen percent of intervention physicians thought at least 1 test result was actionable compared with 19% of control physicians (unadjusted P > 0.99). Overall, 32% of inpatient physician respondents stated that they were satisfied with their current system of managing TPADs. Fifty‐six percent of intervention physicians (9 of 17) stated that they were satisfied with the new e‐mail notification system.
Conclusions:
This interim analysis demonstrates a nonsignificant trend toward increased awareness of the finalized results of TPADs among physicians receiving automated e‐mail notifications. Inpatient physicians are not satisfied with their current system of managing TPADs, but those receiving the intervention were only modestly satisfied with the new e‐mail notification system. Automated e‐mail notification is a potentially promising strategy to manage the results of TPADs. Understanding how to improve the intervention to maximize user satisfaction will be important in future versions.
Disclosures:
A. Dalal ‐ none; C. Roy ‐ none; C. Liang ‐ none; J. Budris ‐ none; D. Williams ‐none; J. Schnipper ‐ none