Turning Data Into Information: Opportunities to Advance Rehabilitation Quality, Research, and Policy.
Janet Prvu Bettger, Vu Q C Nguyen, J George Thomas and 11 others
PMID 29407515WHAT IT FOUND
EHR data for stroke rehabilitation were often stored in ways that made quality or research use unlikely.
For neglect, the occupational therapist's admission assessment was chosen as the first source; missing entries were counted as no neglect.
Key findings
01Valuable EHR data were less likely to be used for quality or research because of storage format, export limitations, and variation in unstructured notes.
02For spatial neglect, the team selected the occupational therapist's admission assessment as the highest source, then the occupational therapy neurologic examination, then the physiatrist's history and physical.
03Data quality had to be judged variable by variable, and information only in narrative notes required a retrieval plan.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
This is a data-readiness case example, not a trial or patient outcome study. It did not test whether using EHR data improved rehabilitation quality or patient outcomes. The work involved 4 rehabilitation facilities and 2 academic health systems, so it may not reflect other organizations. The authors did not extrapolate findings to EHR systems in other countries. The paper does not state how many patient records were reviewed.
Declared interests
The assessment efforts were in-kind. Internal funding came from the 2 academic health systems to prepare the dataset before applications for federal research funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that EHR-based rehabilitation networks improve patient care. It reports a data-readiness case example, not patient outcomes or a tested intervention.