AHRQ-CDS Workflow Integration

AHRQ Grant: Best Practices for Integrating CDS into Clinical Workflow

Grant Overview

• R18 to Northwestern University; 9/2013-9/2014 (See project description here on AHRQ website)
• Research on supporting care delivery and outcomes and in 32 Alliance of Chicago health centers
• Leverage CDS/PI Collaborative approaches and tools

Goal is to improve:

• Population health outcomes (heart disease prevention through statin use and appropriate asthma management)
• Patient experience (activation, engagement, care coordination)
• Care team collaboration
• Utility of CDS tools
• Local QI capacity

Accomplish above goals by:

• Improving communication, information flow, workflow
• Enhancing CDS tool value and use
• Augmenting QI Team Building and staff engagement

Achieve above by:

• Using a structured, validated approach and toolkit for documenting, analyzing, sharing, and improving target-focused information flows and workflows

Key finding (from project report):

• " The CDS 5 Rights framework and related CDS/QI worksheets enable care teams to move beyond a limited perspective on CDS (i.e., one emphasizing alerts and order sets) to a more robust and effective approach. That is, study FQHCs now see CDS more sharply as a process for optimizing target-related information flow and workflow by leveraging the full care team and all opportunities to support key decisions and actions - including those outside the traditional patient-clinician office visit. FQHCs were able to understand and successfully apply the CDS 5 Rights framework and worksheet after their introduction via 2-hours of training webinars, whether or not they received individualized practice coaching on these tools. "