OBJECTIVE: We examined the influence of 4 different risk information formats on inpatient nurses' preferences and decisions with an acute clinical deterioration decision-support system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a comparative usability evaluation in which participants provided responses to multiple user interface options in a simulated setting. We collected qualitative data using think aloud methods. We collected quantitative data by asking participants which action they would perform after each time point in 3 different patient scenarios. RESULTS: More participants (n = 6) preferred the probability format over relative risk ratios (n = 2), absolute differences (n = 2), and number of persons out of 100 (n = 0). Participants liked average lines, having a trend graph to supplement the risk estimate, and consistent colors between trend graphs and possible actions. Participants did not like too much text information or the presence of confidence intervals. From a decision-making perspective, use of the probability format was associated with greater concordance in actions taken by participants compared to the other 3 risk information formats. DISCUSSION: By focusing on nurses' preferences and decisions with several risk information display formats and collecting both qualitative and quantitative data, we have provided meaningful insights for the design of clinical decision-support systems containing complex quantitative information. CONCLUSION: This study adds to our knowledge of presenting risk information to nurses within clinical decision-support systems. We encourage those developing risk-based systems for inpatient nurses to consider expressing risk in a probability format and include a graph (with average line) to display the patient's recent trends.

Objective: The Vanderbilt Children's Hospital launched an innovative Technology-Based Patient and Family Engagement Consult Service in 2014. This paper describes our initial experience with this service, characterizes health-related needs of families of hospitalized children, and details the technologies recommended to promote engagement and meet needs. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed consult service documentation for patient characteristics, health-related needs, and consultation team recommendations. Needs were categorized using a consumer health needs taxonomy. Recommendations were classified by technology type. Results: Twenty-two consultations were conducted with families of patients ranging in age from newborn to 15 years, most with new diagnoses or chronic illnesses. The consultation team identified 99 health-related needs (4.5 per consultation) and made 166 recommendations (7.5 per consultation, 1.7 per need). Need categories included 38 informational needs, 26 medical needs, 23 logistical needs, and 12 social needs. The most common recommendations were websites (50, 30%) and mobile applications (30, 18%). The most frequent recommendations by need category were websites for informational needs (39, 50%), mobile applications for medical needs (15, 40%), patient portals for logistical needs (12, 44%), and disease-specific support groups for social needs (19, 56%). Discussion: Families of hospitalized pediatric patients have a variety of health-related needs, many of which could be addressed by technology recommendations from an engagement consult service. Conclusion: This service is the first of its kind, offering a potentially generalizable and scalable approach to assessing health-related needs, meeting them with technologies, and promoting patient and family engagement in the inpatient setting.

Sensitivity to patient needs makes clinicians the primary source of adaptive capacity, or resilience, in the intensive care unit (ICU). Work setting complexities and contingencies make cognitive work in this setting particularly challenging. A IT-based system to support individual and team decisions and communication would increase clinicians' capacity to adapt. We report on a 3-year project now underway to develop such a system. During the first year, our research team used Cognitive Systems Engineering (CSE) methods to reveal characteristics of the work setting, goals, barriers, and individual and team initiatives to overcome barriers. Our data analyses identified requirements for the IT system that were embodied in use cases, as well as in first draft prototypes of the system architecture and user interface. Our team is currently evaluating the interface prototype for face validity and refining details prior to starting programming. Interactive prototypes will be evaluated against criteria identified in field research to ensure validity. The resulting system is expected to improve staff decision making ability and communications with an expected improvement in unit adaptability. Shared decisions based on better information about procedures and resources are expected to improve staff efficiency and decrease missteps, lapses, delays in care, and the occurrence of morbidities including wrong medication/dose, infections, and unanticipated emergencies such as cardiac arrest.

Public interest in the quality and safety of health care has spurred examination of specific organizational routines believed to yield risk in health care work. Medication administration routines, in particular, have been the subject of numerous improvement projects involving information technology development, and other forms of research and regulation. This study draws from ethnographic observation to examine how the common routine of medication administration intersects with other organizational routines, and why understanding such intersections is important. We present three cases describing intersections between medication administration and other routines, including a pharmacy routine, medication administration on the next shift and management reporting. We found that each intersection had ostensive and performative dimensions; and furthermore, that IT-enabled changes to one routine led to unintended consequences in its intersection with others, resulting in misalignment of ostensive and performative aspects of the intersection. Our analysis focused on the activities of a group of nurses who provide technology use mediation (TUM) before and after the rollout of a new health IT system. This research offers new insights on the intersection of organizational routines, demonstrates the value of analyzing TUM activities to better understand the relationship between IT introduction and changes in routines, and has practical implications for the implementation of technology in complex practice settings.

OBJECTIVE: Without careful attention to the work of users, implementation of health IT can produce new risks and inefficiencies in care. This paper uses the technology use mediation framework to examine the work of a group of nurses who serve as mediators of the adoption and use of a barcode medication administration (BCMA) system in an inpatient setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study uses ethnographic methods to explore the mediators' work. Data included field notes from observations, documents, and email communications. This variety of sources enabled triangulation of findings between activities observed, discussed in meetings, and reported in emails. RESULTS: Mediation work integrated the BCMA tool with nursing practice, anticipating and solving implementation problems. Three themes of mediation work include: resolving challenges related to coordination, integrating the physical aspects of BCMA into everyday practice, and advocacy work. DISCUSSION: Previous work suggests the following factors impact mediation effectiveness: proximity to the context of use, understanding of users' practices and norms, credibility with users, and knowledge of the technology and users' technical abilities. We describe three additional factors observed in this case: 'influence on system developers,' 'influence on institutional authorities,' and 'understanding the network of organizational relationships that shape the users' work.' CONCLUSION: Institutionally supported clinicians who facilitate adoption and use of health IT systems can improve the safety and effectiveness of implementation through the management of unintended consequences. Additional research on technology use mediation can advance the science of implementation by providing decision-makers with theoretically durable, empirically grounded evidence for designing implementations.

Explicit guidelines are needed to develop safe and effective patient portals. This paper proposes general principles, policies, and procedures for patient portal functionality based on MyHealthAtVanderbilt (MHAV), a robust portal for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. We describe policies and procedures designed to govern popular portal functions, address common user concerns, and support adoption. We present the results of our approach as overall and function-specific usage data. Five years after implementation, MHAV has over 129,800 users; 45% have used bi-directional messaging; 52% have viewed test results and 45% have viewed other medical record data; 30% have accessed health education materials; 39% have scheduled appointments; and 29% have managed a medical bill. Our policies and procedures have supported widespread adoption and use of MHAV. We believe other healthcare organizations could employ our general guidelines and lessons learned to facilitate portal implementation and usage.

OBJECTIVE: Computerized clinical reminders (CRs) were designed to reduce clinicians' reliance on their memory and to present evidence-based guidelines at point of care. However, the literature indicates that CR adoption and effectiveness has been variable. We examined the impact of four design modifications to CR software on learnability, efficiency, usability, and workload for intake nursing personnel in an outpatient clinic setting. These modifications were included in a redesign primarily to address barriers to effective CR use identified during a previous field study. DESIGN: In a simulation experiment, 16 nurses used prototypes of the current and redesigned system in a within-subject comparison for five simulated patient encounters. Prior to the experimental session, participants completed an exploration session, where "learnability" of the current and redesigned systems was assessed. MEASUREMENTS: Time, performance, and survey data were analyzed in conjunction with semi-structured debrief interview data. RESULTS: The redesign was found to significantly increase learnability for first-time users as measured by time to complete the first CR, efficiency as measured by task completion time for two of five patient scenarios, usability as determined by all three groupings of questions taken from a commonly used survey instrument, and two of six workload subscales of the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) survey: mental workload and frustration. CONCLUSION: Modest design modifications to existing CR software positively impacted variables that likely would increase the willingness for first-time nursing personnel to adopt and consistently use CRs.