Development, effects, and educational outcomes of reporting from a clinical database.

Abstract

To develop clinically applicable and educationally useful reports from a clinical database, the authors explored the development of such databases at a medical center. The patient-centered database (PCD) integrates disparate data resources in the service of academic clinicians, postgraduate trainees, and students. From the PCD, daily and monthly reports are generated, which include 1) census update reports, serving as an educational format for a daily case-based morning report discussion and routine rounds; 2) reports of daily admissions and patient census stratified by appropriate housestaff providing the clinical care; and 3) quality assurance measures such as monitoring of length of stay of each patient regardless of the initial housestaff service to which the patient is initially admitted. The results of expanding the number of report beneficiaries, outcomes from a five-month test period, and possibilities for further development and implementation are considered.