The effect of routine use of computer-generated preventive reminders in a clinical practice

• HIT Description: Computerized prevention reminder system; Electronic health record More info...
  
• Purpose of Study: Examine whether computerized reminders for patients and physicians could increase delivery of preventive services to patients.
  
• Years of study: 1989-1990
  
• Study Design: Pre-Post
  
• Outcomes: Impact on health care effectivness/quality
  

• Settings: The study was conducted at an outpatient family medicine clinical practice. Subjects were all physicians and patients 18 years of age and older.
• Intervention: The intervention consisted of computer-generated physician reminders for any deficiencies in five preventive services at the time of patient visits, a personalized patient reminder letter sent just before a patient's birthday, and educational interventions.
• Evaluation Method: Measure was adherence to preventive services, defined as the percentage of all eligible patients who had received the preventive services within the recommended period of time.
• Quality of Care and Patient Safety Outcome: The percentage of patients who received preventive services either increased or remained stable during the 12-month study period. Adherence was greater for women, for older patients, and for those with Medicare/Medicaid and HMO insurance. The lowest adherence was found among uninsured patients. There were higher rates of adherence for all five preventive services (cholesterol, tetanus vaccine, fecal occult blood, mammography and pap smear), compared with baseline rates.