Trial reportJournal of general internal medicine2018
The Impact of Automated Notification on Follow-up of Actionable Tests Pending at Discharge: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.
Trial report in Journal of general internal medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01153451 (An Automatic Notification System for Test Results Finalized After Discharge), which is not on this map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
An Automatic Notification System for Test Results Finalized After Discharge
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Transitional Care Interventions From Hospital to Community to Reduce Health Care Use and Improve Patient Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled 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
- Pharmacist-led Transitions of Care Intervention to Address Infectious Disease Tests Pending at Discharge (TPAD).Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Adapting a complex health intervention guided by the core functions and forms model: a methodology and case example of participatory adaptation.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Construction and effectiveness evaluation of a knowledge-based infectious disease monitoring and decision support system.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Identifying the mechanisms that contribute to safe and effective electronic test result management systems- a multisite qualitative study.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2021Article
- Improving ACGME Compliance for Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellows Using an Automated Email Notification System.Applied clinical informatics · 2021Article
- Factors influencing digital review of pathology test results in an inpatient setting: a cross-sectional study.JAMIA open · 2020Article
- Capsule Commentary on Dalal et al., The Impact of Automated Notification on Follow-up of Actionable Tests Pending at Discharge: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of general internal medicine · 2018Article
- Semiautomated System for Nonurgent, Clinically Significant Pathology Results.Applied clinical informatics · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFollow-up of tests pending at discharge (TPADs) is poor. We previously demonstrated a twofold increase in awareness of any TPAD by attendings and primary care physicians (PCPs) using an automated email intervention
objectiveTo determine whether automated notification improves documented follow-up for actionable TPADs
designCluster-randomized controlled trial SUBJECTS: Attendings and PCPs caring for adult patients discharged from general medicine and cardiology services with at least one actionable TPAD between June 2011 and May 2012
interventionAn automated system that notifies discharging attendings and network PCPs of finalized TPADs by email MAIN MEASURES: The primary outcome was the proportion of actionable TPADs with documented action determined by independent physician review of the electronic health record (EHR). Secondary outcomes included documented acknowledgment, 30-day readmissions, and adjusted median days to documented follow-up. KEY
resultsOf the 3378 TPADs sampled, 253 (7.5%) were determined to be actionable by physician review. Of these, 150 (123 patients discharged by 53 attendings) and 103 (90 patients discharged by 44 attendings) were assigned to intervention and usual care groups, respectively, and underwent chart review. The proportion of actionable TPADs with documented action was 60.7 vs. 56.3% (p = 0.82) in the intervention vs. usual care groups, similar for documented acknowledgment. The proportion of patients with actionable TPADs readmitted within 30 days was 22.8 vs. 31.1% in the intervention vs. usual care groups (p = 0.24). The adjusted median days [95% CI] to documented action was 9 [6.2, 11.8] vs. 14 [10.2, 17.8] (p = 0.04) in the intervention vs. usual care groups, similar for documented acknowledgment. In sub-group analysis, the intervention had greater impact on documented action for patients with network PCPs compared with usual care (70 vs. 50%, p = 0.03).
conclusionsAutomated notification of actionable TPADs shortened time to action but did not significantly improve documented follow-up, except for network-affiliated patients. The high proportion of actionable TPADs without any documented follow-up (~ 40%) represents an ongoing safety concern. CLINICAL TRIALS IDENTIFIER: NCT01153451.
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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.