The Effect of Educational Intervention on Medical Diagnosis Recording among Residents

Medical record-keeping educational interventions for medical students and residents: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Medical records, encompassing patient histories, progress notes, and more, play a crucial role in patient care and treatment, healthcare communication, medico-legal matters, and supporting financial documentation.

OBJECTIVE

Despite their significance, literature suggests inconsistencies in record quality and insufficient formal medical record-keeping education for medical students and residents. The study aimed to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions by conducting a systematic review.

METHOD

A literature search covering 2003-2023 and review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines was undertaken.

RESULTS

The literature search identified 44 relevant studies for inclusion. Educational methods, including lectures, feedback, workshops and discussions, addressed different components of the clinical record. The review revealed positive impacts on participant satisfaction, skills and attitudes related to record-keeping. However, some studies reported no significant positive outcomes, emphasising the need for higher-level evidence. Most studies adopted a single-group pretest-posttest design, presenting challenges in control group implementation. The Kirkpatrick evaluation levels were primarily at level 2, with few studies reaching level 3. The absence of studies at level 4 suggested the need for more robust evidence. Studies targeted medical residents more frequently than medical students, with a lack of interventions during the first year of medical education.

CONCLUSION

Despite limitations including language bias and methodological variations, the review revealed diverse educational strategies and highlighted the necessity for more randomised controlled trials and studies providing higher-level evidence to enhance clinical record-keeping skills among medical students and residents.

IMPLICATIONS

Medical record-keeping educational interventions can significantly improve the documentation skills of medical students and residents, thereby enhancing patient care, communication and medico-legal compliance.

Is training doctors in medical certification effective? Evidence from a prospective study in the Philippines

BACKGROUND

Correct certification of causes of death by physicians according to International Classification of Diseases (ICD) rules is essential to generate mortality statistics of the quality needed to guide public health policy debates and reliably monitor the impact of health interventions. Several efforts to train doctors have been undertaken in the Philippines to improve Medical Certification of Causes of Death (MCCOD). However, there is very little evidence about the long-term effects of training interventions for medical certification.

OBJECTIVE

To test whether there were measurable long-term impacts of this large-scale training intervention for improving medical certification and reducing different types of certification errors.

METHOD

We assessed the quality of 2100 MCCOD completed before face-to-face training with those written by the same doctors 6 months after the training. An assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of MCCOD.

RESULTS

Less than 1% of the 2100 MCCOD assessed prior to the training were completely error-free, increasing to 19.2% 6 months after the training. On average, the number of errors per certificate fell from 2.2 pre-training to 1.3, six months after training. Importantly, there was a 38% decrease in writing ill-defined causes on the last line, which is particularly important for the policy utility of data.

CONCLUSION

Training doctors in correct medical certification can have a long-term impact on medical certification practices.

IMPLICATIONS

Shorter, more focused, trainings that address the most common medical certification errors could have an even greater impact on medical certification practices.

Factors affecting the quality of diagnosis coding data with a triangulation view: A qualitative study

OBJECTIVE

The most important challenge in utilizing medical record codes is the quality of coding data. The present study aims to investigate factors affecting the quality of diagnosis coding from different aspects covering different stakeholders in a multi-dimensional approach.

METHODS

First, we used Conventional Content Analysis to maximally gather all effective factors. As such, semi-structured interviews were conducted with medical record coders (N = 32) at the referral hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. Second, 86 hospital staff members from 25 provinces were surveyed using a web-based questionnaire. Finally, a focus group discussion was conducted among coders (N = 18) in different hospitals across the country.

RESULTS

In general, the barriers to quality of inpatient record coding can be classified into three categories: (I) physician-related, (II) coder-related, and (III) managerial, financial and administrative factors.

CONCLUSION

A triangulation view (related to coders, physicians as well as managerial, financial and administrative dimensions) could be used to identify the barriers affecting the quality of diagnosis coding data. The results of this study may help policymakers in development and implementation of appropriate strategies and effective interventions to improve the quality of clinical coding.

Effectiveness of training interventions to improve quality of medical certification of cause of death: systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Valid cause of death data are essential for health policy formation. The quality of medical certification of cause of death (MCCOD) by physicians directly affects the utility of cause of death data for public policy and hospital management. Whilst training in correct certification has been provided for physicians and medical students, the impact of training is often unknown. This study was conducted to systematically review and meta-analyse the effectiveness of training interventions to improve the quality of MCCOD.

METHODS

This review was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO; Registration ID: CRD42020172547) and followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. CENTRAL, Ovid MEDLINE and Ovid EMBASE databases were searched using pre-defined search strategies covering the eligibility criteria. Studies were selected using four screening questions using the Distiller-SR software. Risk of bias assessments were conducted with GRADE recommendations and ROBINS-I criteria for randomised and non-randomised interventions, respectively. Study selection, data extraction and bias assessments were performed independently by two reviewers with a third reviewer to resolve conflicts. Clinical, methodological and statistical heterogeneity assessments were conducted. Meta-analyses were performed with Review Manager 5.4 software using the 'generic inverse variance method' with risk difference as the pooled estimate. A 'summary of findings' table was prepared using the 'GRADEproGDT' online tool. Sensitivity analyses and narrative synthesis of the findings were also performed.

RESULTS

After de-duplication, 616 articles were identified and 21 subsequently selected for synthesis of findings; four underwent meta-analysis. The meta-analyses indicated that selected training interventions significantly reduced error rates among participants, with pooled risk differences of 15-33%. Robustness was identified with the sensitivity analyses. The findings of the narrative synthesis were similarly suggestive of favourable outcomes for both physicians and medical trainees.

CONCLUSIONS

Training physicians in correct certification improves the accuracy and policy utility of cause of death data. Investment in MCCOD training activities should be considered as a key component of strategies to improve vital registration systems given the potential of such training to substantially improve the quality of cause of death data.

The Effect of Medical Recording Training on Quantity and Quality of Recording in Gynecology Residents of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Medical records contain valuable information about a patient's medical history and treatment. Patient safety is one of the most important dimensions of health care quality assurance and performance improvement. Completing the process of documentation is necessary to continue patient care and continuous quality improvement of basic services. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of medical recording education on the quantity and quality of recording in gynecology residents of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.

Methods: This study is a quasi-experimental study and was conducted at Al-Zahra Teaching Hospital, Tabriz, Iran, in 2016. Thirty-two second through fourth year gynecologic residents of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences who were willing to participate in the study were included by census sampling and participated in training workshop. Three evaluators reviewed the residents’ records before and after training course by a checklist. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 13 software. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: The results showed that before the intervention, there were significant differences in the quantity of information status among the evaluators and no significant difference was observed in the recording of qualitative status. After the workshop, among the 3 evaluators, there were also significant differences in the quantity of data recording status; however, no significant change was observed in recording of qualitative status.

Conclusion: The study findings revealed that a sectional training course of correct and standardized medical records has no effect on reforming the process of recording.

Improving Documentation, Compliance, and Approvals in an Electronic Dental Record at a U.S. Dental School

The aims of this study were to improve progress note documentation by dental students, achieve accurate and timely charge capture and treatment code and note approval, and determine the effectiveness of multiple interventions in improving overall documentation of patient encounters in the clinic of one U.S. dental school. The study, conducted in 2014-15, used a logic model to create a process to address documentation issues in the clinic's electronic dental record (EDR) and to assess the effectiveness of interventions. An initial documentation review using the EDR was performed to obtain a baseline measurement. A significant correlation was noted at baseline between poor documentation and unapproved treatment codes and notes. Unapproved treatment codes and corresponding documentation were then reviewed each month. Students who had the highest number of unapproved treatment codes were identified as potentially having documentation issues. These students were contacted and met individually with the associate quality and compliance officer to review documentation and charge practices. Large group education was also provided to key learners: dental students and supervising faculty members. Education consisted of an in-service event for faculty members and a Moodle site course on documentation for students. After one year, the results showed that documentation rates improved from an overall rate of 61% to 81% of required documentation elements being present in the progress note. Although this educational intervention was successful in significantly improving documentation of treatment in the EDR, 19% of the notes at the conclusion of the study were still missing key elements. Further research is necessary to determine whether the interventions will continue to improve documentation or if additional measures need to be taken.

Effect of didactic lectures on obesity documentation and counseling among internal medicine residents

Background

Screening adult patients for obesity and offering appropriate counseling and treatment for weight loss is recommended. However, many healthcare providers feel ill-equipped to address this topic.

Objective

We examined whether didactic presentations lead to increased obesity documentation and counseling among internal medicine (IM) residents.

Methods

We reviewed medical records of patients seen at the IM Resident Continuity Clinic during April 2015. Residents were provided feedback at two didactic presentations during May 2015. To examine the effect of this intervention, we repeated medical record review during June 2015. For both reviews, we abstracted patient-specific (i.e., age, body mass index [BMI], race, sex, and number of comorbid diagnoses) and resident-specific (i.e., sex and training level) data as well as evidence of obesity documentation and counseling. We used logistic regression models to examine the effect of intervention on obesity documentation and counseling, adjusting for patient- and resident-specific variables.

Results

Of the 278 patients with BMI≥30 kg/m², 139 were seen before and 139 after the intervention. Intervention had no effect on obesity documentation or counseling with or without adjustment for confounding variables (both P>0.05). In adjusted post-hoc analyses, each additional comorbidity increased the odds of obesity documentation by 8% (OR=1.08; 95% CI=1.05–1.11; P<0.001). In addition, as compared to postgraduate year (PGY) 1 residents, PGY-3 residents were 56% (OR=0.44; 95% CI=0.21–0.95; P=0.03) less likely to counsel obese patients.

Conclusions

Obesity is inadequately addressed in primary care settings, and didactic presentations were unable to increase obesity documentation or weight loss counseling. Future research to identify effective interventions is needed.

Discharge Against Medical Advice in the Pediatric Wards in Boo-ali Sina Hospital, Sari, Iran 2010

INTRODUCTION

Since children neither comprehended nor contribute to the decision, discharge against medical advice is a challenge of health care systems in the world. Therefore, the current study was designed to determine the rate and causes of discharge against medical advice.

METHODS

This descriptive cross-sectional study was done by reviewing the medical records by census method. Data was analyzed using SPSS software and x(2) statistics was used to determine the relationship between variables. The value of P<0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS

Rate of discharged against medical advice was 108 (2.2%). Mean of age and length of stay were 2.8±4 (SD).3 years old and 3.7±5.4 (SD) days, respectively. Totally, 95 patients (88.7%) had health insurance and 65 (60.2%) patients lived in urban areas. History of psychiatric disease and addiction in 22 (20.6%) of the parents were negative. In addition, 100 (92.3%) patients admitted for medical treatment and the others for surgery. The relationship of the signatory with patients (72.3%) was father. Of 108 patients discharged against medical advice, 20 (12%) were readmitted. The relationship between the day of discharge and discharge against medical advice was significant (ρ =0/03).

CONCLUSION

Rate of discharge against medical advice in Boo-ali hospital is the same as the other studies in the same range. The form which is used for this purpose did not have suitable data elements about description of consequence of such discharge, and it has not shown the real causes of discharge against medical advice.