Partnership for Clinician Electronic Health Record Use and Quality of Care

Funding Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Project Period: September 2007 – August 2010

Project Coordinator: Judi Harris, MA

MPHI’s Institute of Nursing Centers (INC) and the Alliance of Chicago, are studying the effectiveness of a partnership that shares resources and utilizes a data-driven approach to promote full clinician use of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) in three Nurse Managed Health Centers and three Community Health Centers in order to improve the quality of care in prevention, chronic disease and medication management for vulnerable populations. These partners have a history of highly productive research, successful EHR implementation, commitment to data-supported high quality health care for vulnerable populations, and to building and maintaining strong collaborations. The goals of this project address the key problems in leveraging health IT to support high quality patient care: the fact that clinical decision support is often not used effectively or consistently by clinicians even when an EHR is available. The research design uses quantitative and qualitative methods as well as individual and center level analyses. The critical link between full EHR use and clinical performance and quality outcomes will be examined with rigorous quantitative methodology. Quality indicators are those that the Institute of Medicine has identified as priority areas for improvement, and are in areas where significant disparities across race, ethnic, and income groups exist. Qualitative research will improve understanding of leadership and change management required for success.

Project Type: Evaluation, Research, Program Management, Data Management