Health System Completes Patient-Reported Outcome EHR Integration

A new quality initiative at University of Miami Health System (UHealth) aims to enhance orthopaedic care through EHR integration of patient-reported outcome measures.

Orthopaedic patients who have upcoming clinic visits or surgical cases will receive an email link to surveys that can be completed on their mobile device, desktop, or tablet.

Increased access to patient-reported outcomes data can aid providers in delivering patient-centered care.

“The data we collect is immediately available to the clinician in the clinic,” Marilyn Heng, MD, MPH, FRCSC, professor of clinical orthopaedics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said in a news release. “A provider can view a patient’s response before or during a clinical encounter to inform their advice and treatment recommendations.”

“Clinicians and researchers can use this objective data to track aggregate groups of patients that can direct improvement initiatives and health policy,” Heng added.

UHealth partnered with health IT vendor PatientIQ on the EHR integration.

“We had an aggressive three-month timeline, from mid-June to September 2022, to implement PatientIQ,” said Tatiana M. Arreglado, DNP, MSN, RN, director of UHealth IT clinical optimization and process improvement at the Miller School, who led the team charged with implementing the initiative.

Arreglado’s team engaged orthopaedic physician champions to establish specialty-specific clinical pathways, including surveys, clinic visit types, and surgical procedures.

“Once these pathways were validated, PatientIQ built them into their platform, and the system went live September 22, 2023,” she said. “We will follow the same process when implementing a new department or specialty.”

Since launching, patients have filled out over 50,000 outcome questionnaires, according to Nathan H. Lebwohl, MD, professor of clinical orthopaedics and vice chair of quality and safety in the department.