Trial reportJournal of general internal medicine2012
Impact of automated alerts on follow-up of post-discharge microbiology results: a cluster randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Journal of general internal medicine, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of health information technology on the management and follow-up of test results - a systematic review.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2019Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Interventions to Follow-Up Test Results Pending at Discharge.Journal of general internal medicine · 2018Pooled it
- The Impact of Automated Notification on Follow-up of Actionable Tests Pending at Discharge: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of general internal medicine · 2018Trial
- Impact of an automated email notification system for results of tests pending at discharge: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIATrial
- Pharmacist-led Transitions of Care Intervention to Address Infectious Disease Tests Pending at Discharge (TPAD).Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Evaluating the Follow-up of Post-discharge Positive Sterile Site Cultures and the Impact on Infection-Related Complications.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2023Article
- Recommendations for the Design and Delivery of Transitions-Focused Digital Health Interventions: Rapid Review.JMIR aging · 2022Review
- Why Test Results Are Still Getting "Lost" to Follow-up: a Qualitative Study of Implementation Gaps.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Article
- Organizational characteristics and perceptions of clinical event notification services in healthcare settings: a study of health information exchange.JAMIA open · 2020Article
- Variation in electronic test results management and its implications for patient safety: A multisite investigation.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2020Article
- Article
- Interventions to Improve Follow-Up of Laboratory Test Results Pending at Discharge: A Systematic Review.Journal of hospital medicine · 2018Review
- Semiautomated System for Nonurgent, Clinically Significant Pathology Results.Applied clinical informatics · 2018Article
- Do Consultants Follow Up on Tests They Recommend? Insights from an Academic Inpatient Gastrointestinal Consult Service.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2017Observational
- Hospitalization event notifications and reductions in readmissions of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries in the Bronx, New York.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2017Article
- Linking acknowledgement to action: closing the loop on non-urgent, clinically significant test results in the electronic health record.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2015Article
- Assessment of follow-up completeness and notification preferences for imaging findings of possible cancer: what happens after radiologists submit their reports?Academic radiology · 2014Article
- Clinical microbiology informatics.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2014Review
- Differentially private distributed logistic regression using private and public data.BMC medical genomics · 2014Article
- Use of health information technology to reduce diagnostic errors.BMJ quality & safety · 2013Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFailure to follow up microbiology results pending at the time of hospital discharge can delay diagnosis and treatment of important infections, harm patients, and increase the risk of litigation. Current systems to track pending tests are often inadequate.
objectiveTo design, implement, and evaluate an automated system to improve follow-up of microbiology results that return after hospitalized patients are discharged.
designCluster randomized controlled trial. SUBJECTS: Inpatient and outpatient physicians caring for adult patients hospitalized at a large academic hospital from February 2009 to June 2010 with positive and untreated or undertreated blood, urine, sputum, or cerebral spinal fluid cultures returning post-discharge.
interventionAn automated e-mail-based system alerting inpatient and outpatient physicians to positive post-discharge culture results not adequately treated with an antibiotic at the time of discharge. MAIN MEASURES: Our primary outcome was documented follow-up of results within 3 days. Secondary outcomes included physician awareness and assessment of result urgency, impact on clinical assessments and plans, and preferred alerting scenarios. KEY
resultsWe evaluated the follow-up of 157 post-discharge microbiology results from patients of 121 physicians. We found documented follow-up in 27/97 (28%) results in the intervention group and 8/60 (13%) in the control group [aOR 3.2, (95% CI 1.3-8.4); p=0.01]. Of all inpatient physician respondents, 32/82 (39%) were previously aware of the results, 45/77 (58%) felt the results changed their assessments and plans, 43/77 (56%) felt the results required urgent action, and 67/70 (96%) preferred alerts for current or broader scenarios.
conclusionOur alerting system improved the proportion of important post-discharge microbiology results with documented follow-up, though the proportion remained low. The alerts were well received and may be expanded in the future.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.