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Susan Helbig

Publications and source records attributed to Susan Helbig.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Copying and pasting of examinations within the electronic medical record.

Electronic patient records often include text that has been copied and pasted from other records. A type of copying that involves the highest risk for confusion, medical error, and medico-legal harm is the copying of the clinical examination. We studied this phenomenon using an automated text categorization algorithm to detect copied exams in a set of 167,076 VA records. Exam copying occurred frequently, in about 3% of all exams, or in 25% of patient charts. Thirteen percent of all authors had copied at least one exam, and 3% of authors had copied an exam from another author. There were significant differences between service types and levels of training of the authors. We speculate that copying and pasting of exams degrades the quality of the medical record, and that studying this behavior is integral to our understanding of phenomenology of the electronic medical record.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2006

Surveying the RHIO landscape. A description of current RHIO models, with a focus on patient identification.

Across the country, new RHIOs are being formed every day. The 21 RHIOs studied by the work group illustrate the variety of purposes, funding, and record linking methods RHIOs may adopt. As this trend continues to evolve and improve, RHIOs may prove to be a valuable stepping stone on the road to a national system in which a patient's medical data will be available anywhere, anytime. Accurate patient identification and linking are the foundation of health technology that is implemented in a RHIO or any similar network that shares patient information. Without accurate patient identification, patient safety and quality of care are compromised. When high percentages of duplication or overlaying of records occurs in electronic health record databases, physician trust in the system is lost. As HIM professionals, we must be involved in addressing the security and confidentiality of RHIO databases and in defining the record linking method appropriate to the RHIO. As professionals skilled in patient identification methods and possessing significant organizational skills and personnel management experience, HIM professionals should become involved in this process at the earliest opportunity in the RHIO formation. HIM professionals can participate in long-term planning, business plan development, and organizational structure definition. Future articles will address how HIM professionals can become involved, what particular attributes and skills they can bring to the table, and job descriptions appropriate to HIM professionals in the healthcare information sharing industry. The work group urges all HIM professionals to become involved personally in this exciting new field.

Humans↗