Evaluation of a Clinical Decision Support Tool to Guide Adoption of the American Heart Association Telemetry Monitoring Practice Standards

Abstract

Background The objectives of this study were to (1) evaluate telemetry use pre‐ and postimplementation of clinical decision support tools to support American Heart Association practice standards for telemetry monitoring and (2) understand the factors that may contribute to variation of telemetry monitoring in practice. Methods and Results First, we captured overall variability in telemetry use pre‐ and postimplementation of the clinical decision support intervention. We then conducted semistructured interviews with telemetry‐ordering providers to identify key barriers and facilitators to adoption. During the study period, 399 physicians met criteria for inclusion and were divided into excessive and nonexcessive orderers. Distribution of telemetry use was bimodal. Among nonexcessive users, 24.4% of patient days were with telemetry compared with 51.6% among excessive users. On average, both excessive (6.1% reduction) and nonexcessive users (2.8% reduction) decreased telemetry use postimplementation, and these reductions were sustained over a 16‐month period. Sixteen interviews were conducted. Physicians believed that the tool was successful because it caused them to more closely consider if telemetry was indicated for each patient. Physicians also voiced frustration with interruptions to their workflow, and some noted that they commonly use telemetry outside of practice standards to monitor patients who were acutely but not critically ill. Conclusions Embedding telemetry practice standards into the electronic health record in the form of clinical decision support is effective at reducing excess telemetry use. Although the intervention was well received, there are persistent barriers, such as preexisting views on telemetry and existing workflow habits, that may inhibit higher adoption of standards.