Studies showed suboptimal compliance rate of primary care physicians with microalbuminuria screening. This study evaluated impact of electronic medical records (EMR) and computerized physicians reminders on compliance rate and showed small to modest improvement. Combining EMR with quality control monitoring has significantly improved compliance [OR 1.556, 95% CI 1.251–1.935, ]. 1. Introduction Diabetic nephropathy develops in 20–40% of diabetic patients and is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the western world. The cost for treating diabetic ESRD exceeded $23 billion per year in USA [1, 2]. One of the earliest clinical markers is the appearance of low but abnormal levels (≥30?mg/day) of albumin in the urine. Persistent albuminuria in the range of 30–299?mg/24?h (microalbuminuria) if untreated can progress to macroalbuminuria (≥300?mg/24?h) with gradual decline in glomerular filtration rate and the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) [3, 4]. Microalbuminuria is also a marker for increased cardiovascular risk in such patients [5]. Numerous guidelines for diabetic care recommend an annual urine screening test to assess albumin excretion. The American Diabetic Association recommends performing microalbuminuria screening in patients who have had type I diabetes for at least 5 years or in patients with type II diabetes at time of diagnosis [6]. However, studies demonstrated suboptimal compliance of primary care physicians (PCP) with these recommendations with variable compliance rate of 14–49% [7–9]. Several methods were suggested to improve PCP compliance at multiple levels including patient education and reminders, physician education, and continuous charts reviews for quality improvement and feedback [10]. Electronic medical records (EMR) enabled with physician reminder system have gained significant interest in recent years as a tool that is shown to improve compliance [10, 11]. However, the magnitude of this improvement has been variable, and its cost effectiveness remains controversial [12, 13]. This study evaluated the compliance rate of microalbuminuria screening after two years of introducing an EMR enabled with computer-generated reminder system for diabetes care guidelines. It also evaluated the impact of combining EMR with quality control monitoring in enhancing compliance. 2. Methods 2.1. Retrospective Analysis 2.1.1. Patients All patients with type II diabetes, who were registered at Unity Faculty Partners (UFP) primary care facility between January 2008, and December 2009, were included. Patients who were diagnosed
References
[1]
United States Renal Data System, “Atlas of chronic Kidney Disease and end-stage renal disease in the United States,” USRDS 2008 Annual Data Report, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, Md, USA, 2008.
[2]
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Incidence of end-stage renal disease among persons with diabetes—United States, 1990–2002,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), vol. 54, pp. 1097–1100, 2005.
[3]
S. Dronavalli, I. Duka, and G. L. Bakris, “The pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy,” Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology and Metabolism, vol. 4, no. 8, pp. 444–452, 2008.
[4]
J. William, D. Hogan, and D. Batlle, “Predicting the development of diabetic nephropathy and its progression,” Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 202–211, 2005.
[5]
R. Tagle, M. Acevedo, and D. G. Vidt, “Microalbuminuria: Is it a valid predictor of cardiovascular risk?” Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, vol. 70, no. 3, pp. 255–261, 2003.
[6]
American Diabetes Association, “Standards of medical care in diabetes—2010,” Diabetes Care, vol. 33, supplement 1, pp. S11–S61, 2010.
[7]
J. P. Weiner, S. T. Parente, D. W. Garnick, J. Fowles, A. G. Lawthers, and R. H. Palmer, “Variation in office-based quality: a claims-based profile of care provided to Medicare patients with diabetes,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 273, no. 19, pp. 1503–1508, 1995.
[8]
M. R. Andrus, K. W. Kelley, L. M. Murphey, and K. C. Herndon, “A comparison of diabetes care in rural and urban medical clinics in Alabama,” Journal of Community Health, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 29–44, 2004.
[9]
J. M. Gill, A. J. Foy Jr., and Y. Ling, “Quality of outpatient care for diabetes mellitus in a national electronic health record network,” American Journal of Medical Quality, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 13–17, 2006.
[10]
J. W. Dexheimer, T. R. Talbot, D. L. Sanders, S. T. Rosenbloom, and D. Aronsky, “Prompting clinicians about preventive care measures: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials,” Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 311–320, 2008.
[11]
D. S. Nilasena and M. J. Lincoln, “A computer-generated reminder system improves physician compliance with diabetes preventive care guidelines,” Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer Application in Medical Care, pp. 640–645, 1995.
[12]
T. D. Sequist, T. K. Gandhi, A. S. Karson et al., “A randomized trial of electronic clinical reminders to improve quality of care for diabetes and coronary artery disease,” Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 431–437, 2005.
[13]
K. G. Shojania, A. Jennings, A. Mayhew, C. R. Ramsay, M. P. Eccles, and J. Grimshaw, “The effects of on-screen, point of care computer reminders on processes and outcomes of care,” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 3, Article ID CD001096, 2009.
[14]
V. Weber, F. Bloom, S. Pierdon, and C. Wood, “Employing the electronic health record to improve diabetes care: a multifaceted intervention in an integrated delivery system,” Journal of General Internal Medicine, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 379–382, 2008.
[15]
C. M. Renders, G. D. Valk, S. J. Griffin, E. H. Wagner, J. T. M. Van Eijk, and W. J. J. Assendelft, “Interventions to improve the management of diabetes in primary care, outpatient, and community settings: a systematic review,” Diabetes Care, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 1821–1833, 2001.