Standardization of Emergency Department Clinical Note Templates: A Retrospective Analysis across an Integrated Health System

Abstract

Background / Objective: Clinical documentation is essential for conveying medical decision-making, communication between providers and patients, and capturing quality, billing, and regulatory measures during emergency department (ED) visits. Growing evidence suggests the benefits of note template standardization, however, variations in documentation practices are common. The primary objective of this study is to measure the utilization and coding performance of a standardized ED note template implemented across a nine-hospital health system. Methods: This was a retrospective study before and after the implementation of a standardized ED note template. A multi-disciplinary group consensus was built around standardized note elements, provider note workflows within the electronic health record (EHR), and how to incorporate newly required medical decision-making elements. The primary outcomes measured included the proportion of ED visits using standardized note templates, and the distribution of billing codes in the six months before and after implementation. Results: In the pre-implementation period, a total of six legacy ED note templates were being used across nine emergency departments, with the most used template accounting for approximately 36% of ED visits. Marked variations in documentation elements were noted across six legacy templates. After the implementation, 82% of ED visits system-wide used a single standardized note template. Following implementation, we observed a 1% increase in the proportion of ED visits coded as highest acuity and an unchanged proportion coded as second highest acuity. Conclusions: We observed a greater than two-fold increase in the use of a standardized ED note template across a 9-hospital health system in anticipation of the new 2023 coding guidelines. The development and utilization of a standardized note template format relied heavily on multi-disciplinary stakeholder engagement to inform design that worked for varied documentation practices within the EHR. After the implementation of a standardized note template, we observed better-than-anticipated coding performance.