Development, implementation and preliminary evaluation of clinical dashboards in a department of anesthesia

Abstract

Clinical dashboards summarize indicators of high-volume patient data in a concise, user-friendly visual format. There are few studies of the use of dashboards to improve professional practice in anesthesiology. The objective of the present study was to describe the user-centered development, implementation and preliminary evaluation of clinical dashboards dealing with anesthesia unit management and quality assessment in a French university medical center. User needs and technical requirements were identified in end user interviews and then synthesized. Several representations were then developed (according to good visualization practice) and submitted to end users for appraisal. Lastly, dashboards were implemented and made accessible for everyday use via the medical center's network. After a period of use, end user feedback on the dashboard platform was collected as a system usability score (range 0 to 100). Seventeen themes (corresponding to 29 questions and 42 indicators) were identified. After prioritization and feasibility assessment, 10 dashboards were ultimately implemented and deployed. The dashboards variously addressed the unit's overall activity, compliance with guidelines on intraoperative hemodynamics, ventilation and monitoring, and documentation of the anesthesia procedure. The mean (standard deviation) system usability score was 82.6 (11.5), which corresponded to excellent usability. We developed clinical dashboards for a university medical center's anesthesia units. The dashboards' deployment was well received by the center's anesthesiologists. The dashboards' impact on activity and practice after several months of use will now have to be assessed.

State-of-the-art Dashboards on Clinical Indicator Data to Support Reflection on Practice: Scoping Review

“…Of the 18 selected studies, 3 (17%) studies [ 22 - 24 ] cited another study on an electronic health record (EHR) dashboard to improve antibiotic prescription [ 21 ]. Laurent et al [ 23 ] also cited a maternity dashboard pilot study [ 25 ]. Schall et al [ 24 ] cited an earlier study by the same authors on the evaluation of a health care information technology (HIT) dashboard based on quality indicators [ 26 ].…”

“…Of these studies, 56% (5/9) of the studies were deployed and evaluated in real-world hospital environments, and 44% (4/9) of the studies were conducted in controlled laboratory settings. The evaluation study duration ranged between 2 months [ 23 ] and 42 months [ 27 ].…”

“…Management and operations dashboards are targeted to administrators and directors of departments to support the day-to-day functions of health care services. Laurent et al [ 23 ] was categorized as supporting quality and safety as well as management and operations.…”

“…Of the 18 studies, 3 (17%) studies presented outcome indicators—mortality [ 23 ], patient complaints [ 25 ], and patient satisfaction [ 30 ].…”

Transforming Anesthesia Data Into the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model: Development and Usability Study

“…In a previous work, we described the user-centered development, implementation, and preliminary evaluation of clinical dashboards related to anesthesia unit management and quality assessment in the Lille University Medical Center [ 42 ]. The user needs had been identified by conducting 21 end-user interviews.…”