Development of Clinical Inbox Report Allows for Data-Driven Decision-Making

Patients within a large midwestern multi-site ambulatory primary care practice group are connecting with their healthcare providers and the ambulatory patient care team at record-breaking levels outside of the traditional provider appointment visit. The department’s 2022 forecasted clinical message volume consisting of symptom-based telephone triage calls, patient portal messages, and prescription renewal messages is forecasted to double from the 2019 volume, which will result in nearly 2 million clinical messages being received by the department. Unfortunately, this large burden of “asynchronous” (Moyer, 2018, p. 277) work has historically been difficult to quantify, leading to a lack of a staffing model and patient safety concerns due to inefficient workflows and delays in care.
This poster presentation describes how nursing leaders worked closely with internal and external subject matter experts and stakeholders to develop a report that provides visualization and quantification of the asynchronous work of ambulatory care nurses and the ambulatory patient care team. Examples of the capabilities of the report include the total number of unique departmental clinical inboxes, the number of clinical messages received within a specific inbox per day and per month, and the number of messages the nurse completes per day and per month. Furthermore, learners will discover how the organization is utilizing the report’s capabilities to develop data-driven strategies and staffing models to deliver care effectively and safely to patients.
In its 2017 position paper, the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) discussed “technology-enhanced practice” asserting that “nurses must demonstrate core informatics and computer skill competencies” (p. 3). It is imperative that nursing leaders have awareness and visualization of all patient care needs in the ambulatory care environment to ensure that patients are being cared for safely and effectively.
References
1) American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing. (2017). American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing position paper: The role of the registered nurse in ambulatory care. Nursing economic$, 35(1), 39-47.
2) Moyer, A. (2018). A quality improvement project for understanding work-based need in ambulatory care. Nursing Economics, 36(6), 276.