Clinical Innovation + Technology: EMR alert system, training boosts cardiac rehab referrals from 12% to 75%

“Researchers established a system of alerts based on electronic medical records to identify patients who qualify for cardiac rehabilitation at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In just nine months, the program boosted referral rates from 12 percent to 75 percent. Elizabeth Jolly, RN, BSN, MBA, will present results of the study at American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Annual Conference in Orlando. ‘If a provider thought a patient would benefit from cardiac rehab, [he/she] would hand the patient a handwritten prescription but didn’t have the tools to get them there,’ said Jolly, interventional cardiology transitions coordinator at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. ‘At a big institution like ours, we have so many patients that it’s not always evident who qualifies for cardiac rehab. Now we know in real-time. We started bringing cardiac rehab into our conversations with patients and adding it to discharge documentation and conversations following discharge as well. Now this is part of our daily workflow.'” Read the rest of the article at Clinical Innovation + Technology.