Author Archives: admin

Streamlining medical records into a centralised system at UMSC Malaysia

Posted on by
2

Image credit : CHIP Malaysia

I fist read about – from reading the September issue of CHIP Malaysia, an IT magazine I purchase from time to time, a move to streamline medical records into a centralised system utilising virtualisation technology supplied by VMware, the market leader in virtualisation at the University of Malaya Specialist Centre (UMSC). This article was too short and hard for me to understand about ‘virtualisation’. I decided to find out more, prepare a post on this blog, and here is what I like to share with you readers. In this post I shall focus a little on virtualisation techonlogy – hoping you and I can understand it better, and how UMSC hopes to decentralise medical records, and its benefits.

The UMSC is a private medical centre within a publicly funded, 1,300-bed teaching hospital called the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), both operated by the University of Malaya. UMSC provides the public access to world-class specialist clinical services with the support from about 200 clinicians and another 250 nursing and support staff.

Image credit : http://sprouti.com/

The VMware website explains that virtualisation is about how “today’s x86 computer hardware was designed to run a single operating system and a single application, leaving most machines vastly underutilized. Virtualization lets you running multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine, with each virtual machine sharing the resources of that one physical computer across multiple environments. Different virtual machines can run different operating systems and multiple applications on the same physical computer. “

You can watch this video and learn how virtualisation works.


Source of the video above : http://www.vmware.com/virtualization/

I am sure many of you readers out there will feel intimidated watching and understanding all the IT jargon in this video.

Allow me to describe a little about virtualisation, and tell you how servers we know about can be transformed into virtual machines, which is what basically virtualisation is all about.

Most of you will know and surely heard of servers and networks. A server is a physical computer dedicated to running one or more services to serve the needs of the users of other computers on the network, the “clients”. Servers usually run a single operating system and a single application. You would have heard the IT guy talking about a database server, file server, mail server, print server, web server, gaming server. Each of these kind of named serves run a single operating system and a single application, depending on the computing service that each of these servers offer. This is the traditional way servers are managed, in a simple way of understanding You would have noticed several servers (computers) all located in a server room. Since servers are designed to run a single operating system and a single application, these leaves most of such computers (machines) vastly underutilised. This is when the virtualisation technology steps in.

Virtualisation converts any one server which is a single physical machine, into mutliple virtual machines inside it, with each virtual machine sharing the resources – including the CPU, RAM, hard disk and network controller of that one physical computer across multiple environments. Different virtual machines inside any one server can run different operating systems including Windows, Linux and more and multiple applications, for example Oracle, Exchange, SQL Server, Sharepoint and SAP, on the same physical computer. Thus, the old “one server, one application” model is eliminated. This frees IT admins from spending so much time managing servers.

Healthcare IT infrastructure in healthcare settings in many places as it was at UMSC, is a very traditional environment of complex, device-centric computing made up of autonomous content factories or “silos” with inherently incompatible technologies, product-specific workflows, uncoordinated content development, efforts resulting in overlapping content, linear workflows to produce multiple deliverables from each product’s content.

Medical records in most hospitals in Malaysia are still not centralised, scattered across departments often keeping their own documents making it diffiucult to collate them. This often leads to long delays in patients getting treatment.

In the pursuit of a new strategy for content ubiquity (that is to say the state or capacity of the contents of medical records being everywhere, especially at the same time), UMSC seeked solutions to change its fragmented, legacy IT systems of a decentralised medical records system into cost-effective, agile computing infrastructure environments. UMSC wanted to concentrate the data and make it readily available for their medical personnel to access.

According to Leon Jackson, Head of IT, UMSC, in the past doctors could end up using as many as three terminals simultaneously to access the necessary information to treat a patient. Jackson was hired in 2009 to help develop UMSC’s IT system for its new premises in 2016. He started the hospital on a journey which would see the digitisation of existing workflow and adopting virtualisation to drive efficiency and making a move toward a unified virtualised IT environment. Jackson believes this is one of the easiest ways to gain a competitive edge in the medical industry.

The solution process faced a specialised set of infrastructure and end-user requirements to support the digitisation of biomedical imaging and other medical information, to enable/ease basic clinical processes via electronic workflows, and to provide personal desktop environments that could be accessed on mobile devices, and via terminals throughout UMSC including in sterile and electronically sensitive areas such as operating theaters which allow for more “sterile” equipment through the deployment of thin-client touchscreens with washable mice and keyboard.

UMSC wanted to deliver a more user-centric (that is to say in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of a product are given extensive attention) connected care computing infrastructure environment to boost the availability of systems needed to treat patients effectively, the encouragement of clinicians to embrace digitisation, and meet demand for new medical services applications.

After evaluating options, UMSC decided on VMware. VMware claims that VMware virtualisation solutions have been chosen by over 250,000 customers, including 100% of the Fortune 100.

VMware’s solution to UMSC was for a more user-centric computing infrastructure environment which enables higher quality on-demand experience which allows new ways for clinicians to collaborate across applications and data from any device, where and when they need. In this way, more clinicians and healthcare consumers were expected to leverage hybrid cloud resources, while maintaining a managed, secure environment to use their applications and services, through which healthcare providers will be able to deliver better services at lower costs.

We know for a fact that patient care happens everywhere – bedsides, remote offices, homes, labs and these days in the cloud. These varied locations require providers to manage a variety of unique desktop environments, ranging from workstations on wheels to high-traffic nursing stations to inpatient room computers.

UMSC hopes to benefit from this automated and efficient ubiquitous IT system in the following ways:

  1. speeding up clinicians’ access to various clinical information systems across different devices, including mobile and fixed terminals providing the continuous availability necessary to clinicians delivering tertiary care, and to all delivery units using IT to improve patient management.
  2. provides better decision support to clinicians and increases efficiency that will lead to reduced waiting times and UMSC being able to see more patients
  3. cutting server hardware and infrastructure spending to 60 percent of the cost of an all-physical infrastructure; vendors that could not adapt to its new infrastructure were gradually phased out
  4. a system that responds quickly to clinicians’ requirements and helps provide a better service to patients; minimising unplanned downtime; and redirects IT spending to support new application delivery
  5. deploy new virtual machines in minutes to support staff requirements, rather than waiting weeks or months to procure and implement new physical servers
  6. VMware View desktop virtualisation provides the surgical team with a ”follow-me desktop’ that helps them access the same data from multiple devices within the private network; surgical work is considered to be typically not conducive to carrying mobile devices, so for surgeons a ‘follow me’ desktop accessible from fixed terminals anywhere within the UMSC buildings is ideal
  7. clinicians will be able to consume and contribute information to and from the patients records at the point of care, improving efficiency, reducing errors and the need for clerical support plus time wasted treasure hunting for information; for example, that if a doctor was giving a lecture on campus and received a call from a nurse, he would be able to remotely access his files and provide the required information for a particular patient

For your information, UMSC is currently running about 100 VMware View desktops, and expects to increase this over the following year to 300 concurrent users. Jackson revealed that to support this migration, UMSC had invested up to 4 percent of its revenue each year for the last three years on IT.

Also on the pipeline by the end of Q3 2012, is when all clinicans will use iPads to access a virtual Windows 7 desktop incorporating legacy thick-client (thick-client meaning, “intelligent” regular Windows applications installed on the local machine i.e the client machine, capable to processing more data locally on the client) applications together with new mobile applications for its hospital information systems.

References:
Avanti, K 2012, How VMware is helping to ‘free’ Malaysian healthcare, Computerworld Malaysia, viewed 22 September 2012,  <http://www.computerworld.com.my/resource/applications/how-vmware-is-helping-to-free-malaysian-healthcare/>

CHIP Malaysia, Making Sense of Medicine, September 2012, Online Dynamics (M) Sdn. Bhd., Petaling Jaya, Selangor Malaysia

Farhan, G 2012,  01/08/2012, Cloud medicine at UMSC, PC.com Malaysia, viewed 25 September 2012, < https://www.liveatpc.com/cloud-medicine-at-umsc>

Ryan, H 2012, M’sia hospital prescribes virtualization for healthcare sector, ZDNet, viewed 25 September 2012, <http://www.zdnet.com/my/msia-hospital-prescribes-virtualization-for-healthcare-sector-7000002976/>

VMware, viewed 22 September 2012, <http://www.vmware.com/>

VMware Customer Case Study, Medical Center’s Virtualization Journey Boosts Patient Care and Transforms Medical Systems, VMware, viewed 26 September 2012,<http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/customers/
VMware_University_Malaya_Specialist_Centre_12Q2_EN_Case_Study.pdf>

When others can grant consent

Posted on by
1

Image credit : http://www.ophthalmologymanagement.com/

Previous posts about patient informed consent on this blog provided insight into required documentation in a medical record, and they were built upon requirements on:

  1. how a process defined by the hospital and carried out by trained staff in a language the patient can understand, facilitates acquiring patient informed consent
  2. how patients and families can make care decisions after they receive adequate information about the illness, proposed treatment(s), and about health care practitioners who have primary responsibility for the patient’s care or who is authorised to perform procedures or treatment(s)
  3. informed consent which is obtained before surgery, anaesthesia, use of blood and blood products, and other high-risk treatments and procedures

Image credit : http://www.eidohealthcare.com/

In this post I shall discuss about a hospital process within the context of existing law, culture, and custom when others can grant informed consent as the last required documentation in the medical record for patient informed consent.

Informed consent is based (Michelle & Mary, 2011) upon the principle of autonomy which refers to an individual’s right to choose and the ability to act on that choice. The individuality of a patient as an individual with a right to decide for them is respected when autonomy is maintained.

A frequently occurring ethical dilemma confronting autonomy is when informed consent for care sometimes requires that people other than (or in addition to) the patient be involved in decisions about the patient’s care. This is especially true when the patient does not have the mental or physical capacity to make care decisions, when culture or custom requires that others make care decisions, or when the patient is a child. It should not be surprising that the process of seeking informed consent when informed consent for care sometimes requires that people other than (or in addition to) the patient be involved in decisions about the patient’s care presents doctors and other health professionals with difficult ethical issues.

When the patient is a child, parental or guardian consent should be obtained before treatment is initiated on a minor. If a patient is a minor and the parents or legal guardian deny a lifesaving treatment, a court may be obtained by the hospital authorities to overrule the decision.

When a patient is either comatose or near death, there is usually knowledgeable concurrence by the prescribing doctor who writes a do not resuscitate (DNR) order and the patient’s family or guardian about actions to prolong the patient’s life. The principles of informed consent must be respected by the prescribing doctor. A hospital will have policies in place that provide a mechanism (process) that respects local law, culture, and custom for reaching a DNR decision as well as for resolving conflicts in decision-making.

At a later time, if a patient with dementia is unable to give informed consent for procedures and thus unable to make decisions competently, responsibility for decision-making often falls on the family. The family can make decisions on behalf of the patient, using the patient’s expressed preferences from an advance directive stating the his or hers preferences for caregiver procedures, treatments, and life-sustaining measures, completed while he or she was still mentally competent to understand and make health decisions.

Parents and guardians will be required to provide informed consent to disclose to those who need to know a minor’s human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status to provide medical care and services care. Such confidential HIV related information will indicate that the minor had an HIV-related test; or has HIV infection, HIV-related illness, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) or any information that could indicate that the minor has been potentially exposed to HIV.

The Joint Commission International (JCI) requires that a hospital “establishes a process, within the context of existing law and culture, for when others can grant consent” and “individuals, other than the patient, granting consent are noted in the patient’s record” through its Standard PFR.6.2 (JCI, 2011).

In all circumstances irrespective if the hospital is JCI accredited or not, Health Information Management (HIM) / Medical Records (MR) practitioners must look out for relevant informed consent form documentation that must be available in the medical record for a (i) minor, (ii) mentally incompetent patients, (iii) DNR patients, (iv) patients with dementia, and (v) minors diagnosed or suspected as HIV infected.

HIM/MR practitioners must be aware that informed consent will not be present in the medical record for patients in certain extreme emergencies such as when an unconscious patient is admitted to an emergency room and procedures may be performed without specific written or verbal consent, as no one may be available to give consent. HIM/MR p can update their awareness by checking out specific protocols in documentation maintained for example from their hospital Quality Department  that must be followed for example, (i) that allow for two doctors to sign an emergency consent, and (ii) a court order to administer treatment is obtained for cases of extreme emergencies.

A hospital policy usually contains clauses to the above exceptions for informed consent when others can grant consent within the context of existing law and culture. I like to advise HIM/MR practitioners to also check out relevant hospital policy to reference and formulate a section on informed consent HIM/MR best practices including circumstances when other can give consent on behalf of patients, in the Medical Records Policy.

References :
Joint Commission International 2010, Joint Commission International Accreditation Standards For Hospitals, 4th edn, JCI, USA

Michelle, AG & Mary, JB 2011, Essentials of Health Information Management: Principles and Practices, 2nd edn, Delmar, Cengage Learning, NY, USA

Sue, CD & Patricia, KL 2011, Fundamentals of Nursing: Standards & Practice, 4th edn, Delmar, Cengage Learning, NY, USA

Data must be aggregated, analysed, and transformed into useful information by expert individuals

Posted on by
1

A hospital’s primary purpose is to provide patient care and to work to improve patient care outcomes over time by applying quality improvement principles. To reach conclusions and to make decisions on how to work to improve patient care outcomes over time, requires access to a wide range of information from varying sources.

Each time patients receive health care, a record is generated to document the patient’s current symptoms,medical history, results of examination, treatments rendered along with outcomes, ancillary report results (e.g., laboratory), diagnoses, and plans for treatment. This patient data is organised, analysed, and maintained by Health Information Management (HIM) / Medical Records (MR) practitioners working in hospital settings to ensure the delivery of quality health care.

Data collection and analysis processes entail combining patient care data from various sources and transformed into useful information.  But the ability to collect and analyse data within and across hospitals is hampered by different information systems and processes, and by the highly complex and fragmented nature of health care systems.

Converting data into meaningful information for decision making calls for the expertise of trained and qualified professionals. The data analysis process involves individuals who will be among medical, nursing, and other departmental heads who participate in relevant quality improvement and patient safety processes. These indivuals must understand information management, have skills in data aggregation methods, and know how to use various statistical tools and techniques when suitable, and participate in the process.

Understanding statistical techniques is helpful in data analysis, especially in interpreting variation and deciding where improvement needs to occur. Every system has variation; some of this is due to the system itself, known as common cause variation; some of it is due to singular incidents or special situations; this is special cause variation. 94 percent of problems (or possibilities for improvement) lie with the system as common-cause variation; 6 percent are special causes (Deming, 1982). In understanding trends and variation in health care, statistical tools for example run charts, control charts, histograms, and Pareto charts can prove to be useful statistical tools to know. Examining data over a period of time and making decisions based on trends or other patterns, will save time, energy, and other resources.

HIM/MR practitioners are trained in managing patient health information and medical records, administering computer information systems, and coding diagnoses and procedures for health care services provided to patients, and have an understanding of statistical techniques as part of their training and education.  I believe their unique knowledge and expertise in hospital management information systems will enable strong partnerships beween them and with clinical and management teams to advance the quality and safety of patient care delivery.

Image credit : http://www.dashboardinsight.com/

Data analysis must provide continuous feedback of quality management information to help those individuals make decisions and providing continuous quality improvement, and allocating limited resources to optimise quality and effectiveness. Thus, results of data analysis need to be reported to those individuals responsible for the process or outcome being measured  and who are accountable for taking action of the results.

Hospitals which have adopted the Joint Commission International (JCI) hospital accreditation program, and who are already JCI acredited or hospitals seeking JCI accreditation status or hospitals that are seeking for a re-survey for JCI accreditation status, have to comply with JCI Standard QPS.4, which specifically requires that individuals in  a hospital with appropriate experience, knowledge, and skills systematically aggregate and analyze data using statistical tools and techniques when suitable and transform the data into useful information. This standard also requires that  “Results of analysis are reported to those accountable for taking action.”

It is imperative from the above that HIM/MR practitioners practicing in hosptitals with a quality improvement and patient safety program such as hospital accreditation are likely individuals who will be among medical, nursing, and other departmental heads who participate in relevant quality improvement and patient safety processes. HIM/MR practitioners as trained individuals to understand healthcare information management, have skills in data aggregation methods, and know how to use various statistical tools and techniques, and thus I believe they will be best suited for this role.

References :
American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) 2011, HIM Functions in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety, Viewed 15 September 2012 < http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/bok1_049122.hcsp?dDocName=bok1_049122>

Deming, WE 1982, Out of the Crisis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Joint Commission International 2010, Joint Commission International Accreditation Standards For Hospitals, 4th edn, JCI, USA

The assessment findings from patient’s and family’s ability to learn and willingness to learn are documented in the patient’s record

Posted on by
1

A patient education plan should be among the contents of a medical record. Health Information Management (HIM) / Medical Records (MR) practitioners need to know that assessment findings of patients and their family of their knowledge and skill strengths and deficits documented in the patient’s medical records, are used to plan the education.

I think HIM/MR practitioners also need to know and understand why this documentation forms part of a medical record.

HIM/MR practitioners must understand  that patient and family education is an integral part of patient care. Caregivers at a hospital must assist the patient to identify the learning needs and resources to help restore and maintain an optimal level of functioning. A knowledge deficit about the course of illness and self-care practices hinders a patient’s recovering from illness or engaging in health-promoting behaviors.

To help bridge the gap between what a patient knows and what a patient needs to know in order to achieve optimum health, a plan must be formulated to determine if the patient and family are willing and capable to learn. The patient and family ability to learn and willingness to learn are then assessed

Thus, the HIM/MR practitioners will find documentation of the assessment findings based on many patient variables that determine if the patient and family are willing and capable to learn. Therefore, to plan the education, the hospital assesses:

  1. the patient’s and family’s beliefs and values since different people attach different values to different types of risk. and patients of different cultures react to illness with their own ingrained broader health belief systems encompassing just about everything seen, heard or felt since their birth; this is especially so as the world becomes borderless and with the new wave of medical tourists searching for the cutting-edge medical expertise and technology, it is common in hospital settings to receive an increasing number of incoming medical tourism patients and immigrant patients from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds
  2. their literacy, educational level, and language as health care teaching involves the use of printed materials, involves reading, comprehension, basic mathematical abilities, and the ability to make health care decisions
  3. emotional barriers – anxiety, fear, anger, depression and inability to comprehend and motivations – frequent reinforcement of learning through immediate feedback and continual reassessment of effectiveness enhances the value of the learning
  4. physical limitations – affecting learning that involves physical application of knowledge for example when a patient learns to give himself or herself an injection, and cognitive limitations – affecting learning that involves the acquisition of facts and data often used in problem solving and decision-making
  5. the patient’s willingness to receive information

HIM/MR practitioners working in a hospital setting that has acquired the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation status or is planning to be accredited or been re-surveyed by JCI, must know that JCI mandates that medical records should contain documentation on patient teaching and learning. The JCI Standard PFE.2.1 requires that “The patient’s and family’s ability to learn and willingness to learn are assessed.” and also requires that “The assessment findings are documented in the patient’s record.”

However, HIM/MR practitioners need to realise that patient education is a standard and essential component of medical and nursing practice, teaching interventions and the patient’s response must be documented in all practice settings. Elements of a patient education plan include:

  1. content taught
  2. teaching methods used
  3. who was taught (e.g., patient, which family member, other caretaker)
  4. patient and family response to teaching activities

One approach of documentation for patient and family teaching is by using codes that helps nurses, doctors and other health care providers to document and track patient education in a Patient and Family Education Record. Nurses, doctors and other health care providers make an assessment of need, provide education and then document the encounter using codes found in the form. The codes allow the educator a quick method of documenting that education took place during a given patient visit or stay. The form informs everyone using the form that a given patient received education on specific topics and encourage subsequent health professionals to do the appropriate follow-up.

Click here (this link opens in a new tab of your current window browser) for an example of a Patient and Family Education Record.

Such documentation promotes (Sue and Patricia, 201) continuity of care and facilitates accurate communication to other health care providers.

References :
Joint Commission International 2010, Joint Commission International Accreditation Standards For Hospitals, 4th edn, JCI, USA

Sue, CD & Patricia, KL 2011, Fundamentals of Nursing: Standards & Practice, 4th edn, Delmar, Cengage Learning, NY, USA

University of Connecticut Health Center USA, PATIENT AND FAMILY TEACHING RECORD – Family Education of the Hospitalized Infant, viewed 12 September 2012 <http://nursing.uchc.edu/unit_manuals/ccmc_nicu/FORMS/FORM%20-%20Family%20Education%20of%20the%20Hospitalized%20Infant%20(9-1-11).pdf>

Plan of posts on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QPS) standards

Posted on by
Reply

I first introduced an approach to make real improvements that help patients and reduce risks through international accreditation standards in my post An overview of quality indicators under the JCI QPS approach (this link will open in a new tab of your current browser window).

In that post I prepared the ground for future posts on patient safety in the accreditation process of the Joint Commission International  (JCI) from the chapter “Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QPS)”. In promoting the quality agenda in hospitals, this QPS chapter from the  JOINT COMMISSION INTERNATIONAL ACCREDITATION STANDARDS FOR HOSPITALS, 4TH EDITION manual describes a comprehensive approach to quality improvement and patient safety.

In this post, I shall present my plan to discuss how best I think Health Information Management (HIM) / Medical Records (MR) practitioners can contribute and benefit by applying the QPS standards to their daily work to understand how processes can be more efficient, resources can be used more wisely, and physical risks can be reduced.

The QPS chapter presents the standards into five (5) sections (as I shall refer the layout of the standards from this chapter ) of standards as follows :

  1. Section 1 : Leadership and Planning
  2. Section 2 : Design of Clinical and Managerial Processes
  3. Section 3 : Measure Selection and Data Collection (Data Collection for Quality Measurement)
  4. Section 4 : Validation and Analysis of Measurement Data (Analysis of Measurement Data)
  5. Section 5 : Gaining and Sustaining Improvement (Improvement)

Section 1 is about hospital management (leaders) collaboration to carry out a quality improvement and patient safety program.

Design of new and modified systems and processes according to quality improvement principles is covered in standards from Section 2.

Selection and data collection of key measures for each of the hospital’s clinical and managerial structures, processes, and outcomes are requirements for standards under Section 3.

Section 4 has several standards that outlines what, when, who and how on validation and analysis stages of data collected from identified key measures in Section 3.

Knowledge gained from data analysis of Section 4 is gainfully used (acheieved) to identify potential improvements or to reduce (or prevent) adverse events and sustained through an ongoing program of risk management. Data collected is also used to identify improvement and safety activities for the priority areas identified. An ongoing program of risk management is used to identify and to reduce unanticipated adverse events and other safety risks to patients and staff. These are improvement and safety activities covered under the standards from Section 5.

I believe that HIM/MR practitioners will be involved from the initial stage of collaboration with hospital management and other departmental leaders to carry out a quality improvement and patient safety program to the period when risk management activities continue to sustain the hospital’s Quality Improvement and Patient Safety program.

My next post on QPS standards for quality improvement and safety activities will begin with standards found under Section 4. I plan to walk through these standards first as I think they will involve health information contained in medical records, directly involving HIM/MR practitioners in data collection and analysis of clinical structures, processes, and outcomes.

However, I shall be paying visits to the other standards in the QPS chapter and cross-referencing them or making separate posts for any QPS standard apart from those from Section 4. I believe there is no one right way to approach quality improvement and safety activities by using the framework enshrined in the JCI QPS chapter but I plan to approach the way I feel the best way I can do in benefit of HIM/MR practitioners.

References :
Joint Commission International 2010, Joint Commission International Accreditation Standards For Hospitals, 4th edn, JCI, USA