Demonstration of an Analytic Process using Home Health Care Electronic Health Records: A Case Example Exploring the Prevalence of Patients with a Substance Use History and a Venous Access Device

Abstract

Electronic health records (EHR) are an important, but underutilized source for home health care research and practice improvement. Although the use of EHR is more efficient than prospective data collection, an analysis of EHR data can be complex and time-consuming. To demonstrate the overall process, we describe a secondary analysis of EHR data that explored the prevalence of home health care patients with a substance use history (SUH) and a venous access device (VAD). We detail our process of EHR data extraction, management, and analysis to assist researchers and clinicians interested in similar work. The example analysis showed that that 10.6% of adult home health care patients had a SUH, 8.8% had a long-term VAD, and 1.3% had both. EHRs can be a valuable data source for home health care research and quality improvement projects, but a systematic and thoughtful strategy is needed to fully leverage their potential.