Assessment of health information technology-related outpatient diagnostic delays in the US Veterans Affairs health care system: a qualitative study of aggregated root cause analysis data.
Powell L, Sittig DF, Chrouser K, et al. Assessment of health information technology-related outpatient diagnostic delays in the US Veterans Affairs health care system: a qualitative study of aggregated root cause analysis data. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(6):e206752-e. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.6752.
Using root cause analysis data submitted to the Veterans Affairs (VA) National Center for Patient Safety from 2013 to 2018, this study analyzed health information technology (HIT)-related outpatient diagnostic delays to identify common safety concerns. The study identified five high-risk areas for diagnostic delays involving HIT: managing electronic health record inbox notifications and communications, clinicians gathering key diagnostic information, technical problems, data entry problems, and failure of a system to track test results.