Development and Evaluation of a Health Information Technology Dashboard of Quality Indicators

Abstract

The objective of this work was to design and evaluate a health information technology (HIT) dashboard that presents evidence-based quality indicators for the purpose of evaluating patient risk in a hospital care setting. A focus group of nurse managers, physicians, and hospital quality professionals was conducted to identify design criteria for the HIT dashboard. The dashboard was developed from dynamic process data from a medical surgical unit in a Midwestern, academic hospital using human factors principles. Heuristic and system usability evaluations were performed to assess the HIT dashboard’s functionality and usability. Evaluation results suggest that the HIT dashboard was considered “good” by evaluators (following System Usability Scale criteria), with five suggested changes being recommended by 40% or more of the heuristic evaluators. This work provides a preliminary model for the development of future HIT dashboards intended to communicate patient risk information to hospital care staff.