1st Edition

Electronic Health Record A Systems Analysis of the Medications Domain

By Alexander Scarlat, MD Copyright 2012
    394 Pages 176 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    An accessible primer, Electronic Health Record: A Systems Analysis of the Medications Domain introduces the tools and methodology of Structured Systems Analysis as well as the nuances of the Medications domain. The first part of the book provides a top-down decomposition along two main paths: data in motion—workflows, processes, activities, and tasks in parallel to the analysis of data at rest—database structures, conceptual, logical models, and entities relationship diagrams.

    Structured systems analysis methodology and tools are applied to: electronic prescription, computerized physician order entry, drug dispensation, medication administration, and clinical decision support. Assuming no previous clinical and/or informatics knowledge, the book supplies a comprehensive view of the EHR/EMR with dedicated chapters on: user interface considerations, reporting requirements, and standards and vocabularies for meaningful use.

    Containing clear language and more than 170 figures and 100 review questions with answers—this book is a great companion for Healthcare IT professionals and an ideal resource for clinical informatics students.

    Praise for the book:

    … a common sense guide to this new world of informatics … should prove invaluable to the clinician making his/her way past the commercial hype into the realm of true understanding of the systems of medical informatics. … strongly recommended … .
    —William F. Bria MD, CMIO Shriners Hospitals for Children, President of the Board, Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems

    Finally, here’s a textbook that the market and the industry have been looking for. The author has captured the details of the information flows involved in the EHR while processing an order or prescription from inception to completion.
    —Joseph T. Finn, RPh, MBA

    … a thoughtful and well-constructed manual to understanding and incorporating the complex and many-sided aspects of medication concepts … a clear and accessible entry to this challenging topic.
    —Don Martin, Managing Consultant

    ... encompasses high-value, high-volume therapeutic transactions of indescribable complexity that touch nearly every licensed professional in a hospital … I’m hoping the vendors of my own hospital’s systems take its recommendations to heart.
    —Mr. HIStalk, Healthcare IT Blogger

    …. a very useful guide … provides the necessary detail that is often missing in many books… very useful in health informatics education at universities and courses within community colleges.
    —Jane M. Brokel, PhD, RN

    … a welcome and valuable addition to the toolkit for IT professionals and clinicians participating in the design or implementation of EHR systems.
    —Christine Greifzu, RN-BC, MBA, MSIS

    Short Primer on Structured Systems Analysis
    What Is a System?
    Why Systems Analysis?
    Why Structured Systems Analysis?
    Processes and Data
    Dataflow Diagram
    Entity Relationship Diagram
    Normalization
    Data Dictionary
    Functional Primitives Specification
    Balancing the Models

    The Medications Domain Workflows and Data Structures
    Context Diagram
    DFD 0
    Workflow Responsibility
    Data Model
    Conceptual Model Step 1
         One Brand—Many Packs
         One Pack—Many Items
         One Drug—Many Forms and Many Routes
         One Drug Item—Many Ingredients and Strengths
         National Drug Code
         One Ingredient—Many Brands
         One Ingredient—Many Classes
         One Class—Many Ingredients
         One Class—Many Parents and Many Children
         Tall Man Letters
    Conceptual Model Step 2
         One Pack—Many Indications
         One Ingredient—Many Contraindications
         Dosing Types
         Intermittent versus Continuous
         Dose Units
         Time Units
         Frequency
         Duration
         SIG
         Precaution
         Not All Concepts Are Entities
    Conceptual Model Step 3
         The Patient Is Uniquely Identified
         The Clinician Is Uniquely Identified
         Medication Life Cycle
         One Medication Life Cycle—Multiple Statuses
         One Patient—Many Prescriptions, Orders, Dispensations, and Administrations
         One Clinician—Many Prescriptions, Orders, Dispensations, and Administrations
         One Prescription (Order, Dispensation, Administration)—Many Items
         Not Indicated Is Not Equal to Contraindicated
         The Actual Dose Has a Quantity
         Dosing Regimens
         Actual Dose May Be Different from the Recommended One
         Drug Name and Other Parameters May Change during Medication Life Cycle
         Half Tablets
         Daily Dose versus Maximal Dose
    Not All Drug Parameters Are Clinically Relevant            

    Prescribe/eRx
    Processes
         DFD 1 Prescribe Workflow
              DFD 1.1 Communicate Prescription
              DFD 1.2 Review Patient Data
              DFD 1.3 Select Drug
              DFD 1.4 Select Dose
              DFD 1.5 Consider Formulary
              DFD 1.6 Sign Rx
              Controlled Substances
         Data Elements
    Prescription-Related Communications
    Patient Medications
    Patient Non-Drug-Related Parameters
    CDS
    PBM
    Patient’s Preferred Pharmacies

    Order/CPOE
    Processes
         DFD 2 Order Workflow
              DFD 2.1 Communicate Order
              DFD 2.2 Review Patient Data
              DFD 2.3 Select Drug
              DFD 2.4 Select Dose
              DFD 2.5 Consider Formulary
              DFD 2.6 Sign Order
         Reuse Considerations
              DFD 2.7 Use Order Set
              DFD 2.8 Reconcile Meds
         Data Elements
              Internal Data Store
              External Actors
              Multiple Destinations for One Drug Communication
              Multiple Physical Measurements
              BMI and BSA
              Conditional and Sequential Complex Orders
              Patient A/D/T Settings Location and Time Frames
              Data Exchange with External Actors

    Dispense/ePharmacy
    Dispense Workflow
    Automated Dispensing Cabinet
    Processes
    DFD 3 Dispense Workflow
         DFD 3.1 Communicate Dispensation
         DFD 3.2 Review Patient Data
         DFD 3.3 Select Drug
         DFD 3.4 Select Dose/Prepare
         DFD 3.5 Consider Formulary
         DFD 3.6 Dispense/Deliver
         Data Elements

    Administer/eMAR
    5 Rights
    Processes
         DFD 4 Administer Workflow
              Bar Code Medication Administration
              Smart Pumps
              Drug Storage
         DFD 4.1 Communicate Administration
         DFD 4.2 Review Patient Data
         DFD 4.3 Select Drug
         DFD 4.4 Select Dose/Prepare
         DFD 4.5 Interact with Storage
         DFD 4.6 Administer/Sign
              Data Elements
              Calculation of Dosing Parameters for a Continuous Drip

    User Interface
    Usability
    Cognitive Load
    Principles of Graphic Excellence
    Characteristics of a Clinical Story
    Cause and Effect
    Titrate to Effect
    Parallel Channels of Information
    UI Main Elements
    Time Axis
    Caution: The Direction of Time Axis
    Parameters Axis
    Caution: Hidden Information
    Tabular Versus Graphical Display of Data
    Number of Clicks and Data Density
    Trends Are Nice, but Where Are the Numbers?
    Layers of Information
    Review Patient Data: Ambulatory UI
    Refill a Medication
    Modify a Medication
    Prescribe a New Medication
    Order Set
    Medication Administration
    Medication Reconciliation

    Clinical Decision Support
    What Is CDS?
    Types of CDS
    Why Is CDS Needed?
    Clinical Decision Characteristics
    Trustworthy Medical Information
    CDS Configuration
    CDS Adaptability
    CDS—A Binary Classification System
    False-Positive versus False-Negative Alerts
    Medication Errors
    Medication CDS
    Dialog Paradigm
    Automated CDS Algorithm Outline
    Processes
         DFD 5 CDS Workflow
         DFD 5.1 Filter Drug
         DFD 5.2 Adjust Dose
         DFD 5.3 Consider Demographics
              5.3.1 Consider Age
              5.3.2 Consider Gender
              5.3.3 Consider Weight, Height
              5.3.4 Consider Ethnicity
    DFD 5.4 Consider Patient Condition
              5.4.1 Consider Indication & EBM
              5.4.2 Consider Allergy and C/I
              5.4.3 Consider Adverse Reaction & Side Effect
              5.4.4 Consider Pregnancy and Lactation
              5.4.5 Consider Drug-Lifestyle
              5.4.6 Consider Drug-Vital
              5.4.7 Consider Drug-Procedure
    DFD 5.5 Consider Patient Drugs
              5.5.1 Consider Interaction
              5.5.2 Consider Duplicate Therapy
              5.5.3 Consider Alternative
              5.5.4 Consider Setting
              5.5.5 Consider IV Admixture
    DFD 5.6 Consider Lab
         5.6.1 Lab Affect Drug & Dose
         5.6.2 Monitor Lab
         5.6.3 Drug Interfere with Lab
    DFD 5.7 Educate
    Data Elements
         Temp CDS Drug
         Temp CDS Dose
         Precaution
         Drug Interaction
         IV Admixture
         Dose Adjustment
         Monitor Drug Lab
         Drug Interfere Lab
    Barriers to CDS Adoption
    Recommendations
    CDS and Genomics: Personalized Medicine

    Report
    Motivation
    Types of Reports
    Measuring Healthcare Quality
    Goals for the Healthcare System
    Dimensions of Quality Measures
    Evaluating Quality Measures
    Organizations Involved in Quality Reports
    PQRS and MU Measures
    Anatomy of a Quality Measure
    Reporting Methods
    Medications Reports
    Data Warehouse
    Data Mining
    CDS versus Reports
    Processes
         DFD 6 Report Workflow
              DFD 6.1 Report on Single Patient
              DFD 6.2 Report on Multiple Patients
         Data Elements

    Interoperability Standards and Vocabularies
    Interoperability
    Open Systems Interconnection Model
    Language and Ontologies
    Interfaces
    Rocket Science Standards
    U.S. Government and MU
    Qualities of a Modern Clinical Terminology
    Healthcare Standards Organizations
    EHR Standards and Vocabularies
    Medications Standards and Vocabularies
    Processes
         DFD 7 Update/Sync Workflow
         HIE/Regional Health Information Organization/HUB
         Data Elements
              Discrete Data Elements
              Semistructured Documents

    Appendix
    Acronyms List
    Answers to Review Questions

    Index

    Each chapter includes a Summary, References, and Review Questions

    Biography

    Alexander Scarlat, MD is board certified in Anesthesiology. He has practiced medicine for 18 years and holds a degree in Computer Sciences. Dr. Scarlat has a strong background in healthcare informatics, working for more than two decades with vendors in electronic health records R&D and with hospitals implementing healthcare information technology. Fluent in both medical and IT languages, he is a knowledgeable and experienced liaison between clinicians and IT specialists.

    Finally, here’s a textbook that the market and the industry have been looking for. The author has captured the details of the information flows involved in the EHR while processing an order or prescription from inception to completion. The book should help any clinician or informatics professional understand what’s happening in the process of medication order, dispense, and administer.
    Joseph T. Finn, RPh, MBA, Supervisor (WillowRx), Nemours Health Informatics 

    ... encompasses high-value, high-volume therapeutic transactions of indescribable complexity that touch nearly every licensed professional in a hospital, enrobing drug ordering, dispensing, and administration in sophisticated layers of clinical decision support, caregiver work lists, and back-end charging and continuum of care functions. I am pleased that the topic merits its own formal review and analysis in Dr. Scarlat’s book. I found the user interface chapter immediately useful – in fact, I’m hoping the vendors of my own hospital’s systems take its recommendations to heart.
    Mr. HIStalk, Healthcare IT Blogger

    The informatics transformation of American Healthcare as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Meaningful Use (MU) program is now truly underway, creating an entirely new language and dimension to the practice of medicine. As physicians (and other clinicians) move through MU, past the stage of commercial technology acquisition and implementation, the need for a deeper understanding of the structure AND function of these new knowledge systems is not only necessary but essential. Dr. Scarlat’s comprehensive and logically structured handbook acts as a common sense guide to this new world of informatics that should prove invaluable to the clinician making his/her way past the commercial hype into the realm of true understanding of the systems of medical informatics. Well referenced and comprehensive, this work is strongly recommended to the new meaningful user as well as those that work with and support clinicians in this essential next generation of American Medicine.
    William F. Bria MD, CMIO Shriners Hospitals for Children, President of the Board, Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS)

    …a thoughtful and well-constructed manual to understanding and incorporating the complex and many-sided aspects of medication concepts into a coherent and logical informational framework. Drawing upon foundational data modeling and structured systems analysis techniques, the extensive use of graphical tools such as workflow, dataflow, and entity relationship diagrams to illustrate medication management processes  provides the IT professional with a clear and accessible entry to this challenging topic. The chapter on medication prescribing is particularly illustrative of the author’s facility for deconstructing complex, intricate medication processes into their granular tasks and activities to show the key interactions and communications among patient, clinician and technologist. I believe both the experienced and novice healthcare informatics practitioner will find Dr. Scarlat’s book to be a welcome and essential addition their toolkit.
    —Don Martin, Managing Consultant, Novia Strategies

    With the incredible expansion of medication management information technology, both in the hospital and ambulatory environments, the need for a comprehensive reference text was essential. Dr. Scarlat's book fulfills that role and creates a space where clinicians and programmers can share a common knowledge platform to improve and advance the use of medication safety and efficiency in complex EHR systems.
    —Karl Matuszewski, MS, PharmD 

    ...a very useful guide to addressing not only the medication process but many service domains for practice, administration and patient-centered care in the community. The analysis and tools project a deeper understanding of how data are used by senders and receivers and how the capture and storage in appropriate data structures facilitate the data use for clinical decision support, health information exchange and future application with personal healthcare related to knowledge of genetic makeup to diagnose and treat. The critical process of structured system analysis (SSA) is necessary to inductively and deductively view the workflow processes from the point of view of many stakeholders. The SSA process guides open thinking and the data flow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams are types of tools to lead towards better application of data within events, thus better designs and better strategies to deliver care. Data workflow diagrams and the patient-centered process workflows require leveling from high level core practices to minute detail.

    This book provides the necessary detail that is often missing in many textbooks. Dr. Scarlat takes the medication process and its interactions between stakeholders (e.g., patient, physician) to detail the interconnectedness necessary for better use of data that goes into and is used from our electronic health records and health information exchanges. Many clinicians and professionals may not appreciate the detail that is necessary to make a better EHR that works for physicians, nurses and pharmacists to more effectively access and use the patient’s information efficiently.

    I particularly appreciate Dr. Scarlat’s message about the importance of data dictionaries for the clinician users within data workflow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams. I would agree this resource is to be used by both users and developers as a communication tool and knowledge database to clarify and define the context of terms during the system life cycle: analysis, design, code build, testing, implementation, training and maintenance. The figures and description to analyze the medication process generates thoughtful inclusion of detail such as indications, age bands, and ethnicity which are data components that will support better clinical decisions in the workflow. Genetic personalized healthcare will advance the clinical decisions related to best treatment plan, therefore our EHR systems should continuously evolve to support clinicians by handling the complexity of knowledge and patient information that must be present to make decisions related to age, gender, conditions and genetic makeup.

    Dr. Scarlat’s Electronic Health Record: A Systems Analysis of Medications Domain is very useful in health informatics education at university and the HITECH courses within community colleges as well as for any programmers and managers responsible for system analysis and improvements in the design and application of data use.
    Jane M. Brokel, PhD, RN, Iowa City, Iowa, September, 2011

    Dr. Alexander Scarlat’s Electronic Health Record: a Systems Analysis of the Medications Domain is a welcome and valuable addition to the toolkit for IT professionals and clinicians participating in the design or implementation of EHR systems. As an RN in the healthcare IT field, I appreciate the importance of understanding clinician workflow and the desired future state, particularly in the medication process. Having taught a graduate level overview of information systems class as well, I also understand the challenges some students experience when learning to create entity-relationship diagrams and data flow diagrams. Dr. Scarlat’s easy-to-understand explanations are the most detailed I have seen. This book will be indispensable to students learning system analysis and a valuable adjunct to current professionals as they attempt to represent data and its flow through the EHR system. Since so many of the Stage 1 Meaningful Use objectives pertain to medications (use of CPOE for medication orders, drug-drug and drug-allergy checks, e-prescribing, active medication list, active medication allergy list, clinical decision support rule, drug formulary checks, and medication reconciliation), Dr. Scarlat’s book is especially timely.
    Christine Greifzu, RN-BC, MBA, MSIS, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, September, 2011

    What is the ideal medication workflow? Simple – from doctor’s brain to patient’s vein without handwriting, handoffs, or hassle. Dr. Scarlat’s clear explanations empower healthcare professionals with tools that will enhance any IT project … it provides a framework that will enable clinicians to communicate with technologist. I plan to use this book in the BIDMC medication work, which seeks to achieve zero defects, cost reductions, and patient engagement. Both clinicians and IT professionals should find the book to be a valuable resource as they create the reformed healthcare delivery system of the future, beyond Meaningful Use.
    From the foreword by John D. Halamka, MD