Use of mobile tablet devices and reduction in time to perioperative transesophageal echocardiography reporting: a historical cohort study

Bottiger, Brandi

McCartney, Sharon

Akushevich, Igor

Nicoara, Alina

Yanamadala, Mamata

Swaminathan, Madhav

2017-06-05T19:49:49Z

2017-06-05T19:49:49Z

2015-01-01

© 2014, Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society.Purpose: Timely communication of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) findings to the postoperative care team is critical to optimizing patient care. We compared the use of a personal computer (PC) system with the use of a mobile tablet device (MTD) system for point-of-care TEE data entry and hypothesized that the MTD-based system would reduce the time to preliminary TEE reporting and decrease the incidence of delinquent reporting by 50%. Methods: In this historical cohort study, we reviewed 508 perioperative TEE reports entered by cardiothoracic anesthesia fellows. Reports were grouped based on whether data were entered on a PC (PC group) or a MTD (MTD group). Time to TEE reporting was defined as the time from the patient leaving the operating room to the time the TEE report was generated. Delinquent reports were defined as those generated >24 hr after the initial exam. Time to TEE reporting and incidence of delinquent reports were compared between the two groups. Results: Mean (SD) time to TEE reporting was significantly improved with MTD data entry vs PC data entry [233 (676) min vs 1,103 (3,830) min, respectively; mean difference 870 min; 95% confidence interval (CI) 293 to 1,448; P = 0.003], and median (IQR) time was also significantly improved [46 (163) min vs 126 (1,000) min, respectively; median difference 80 min; P = 0.0002]. The incidence of report delinquency with MTD data entry vs PC data entry was also significantly reduced [2.1% vs 6.8%, respectively; mean difference 2.2%; 95% CI 0.5 to 9.0; P = 0.02]. Conclusion: Implementation of a MTD system for data entry leads to improved TEE reporting time and reduces TEE reporting delinquency. Further studies are required to determine whether this strategy enhances quality of reporting, optimizes communication between care teams, and improves outcomes without increasing costs.

1496-8975

0832-610X

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14823

Springer New York LLC

Canadian Journal of Anesthesia

10.1007/s12630-014-0250-6

Use of mobile tablet devices and reduction in time to perioperative transesophageal echocardiography reporting: a historical cohort study

Journal article

Bottiger, Brandi|0000-0002-0844-1412

Nicoara, Alina|0000-0002-3814-6182

Swaminathan, Madhav|0000-0001-9136-8609

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36

1

Anesthesiology

Anesthesiology, Cardiothoracic

Clinical Science Departments

Duke

Duke Population Research Institute

Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

Medicine

Medicine, Geriatrics

Physics

Sanford School of Public Policy

School of Medicine

Social Science Research Institute

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

University Institutes and Centers

Published

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