Use & Optimization News

Developing a Clinical Decision Support Tool to Enhance Home Care

Implementing a clinical decision support tool into the EHR could decrease hospital readmissions and boost patient care in the home care setting.

Clinical Decision Support Home Care

Source: Getty Images

By Christopher Jason

- An EHR-implemented clinical decision support tool can influence the standardization and customization of home care nurse decision making and also improve patient care in the home care setting by decreasing hospital readmissions, according to a study published in JMIR Publications.

Although home care provides care to over 5 million patients a year, it remains an understudied healthcare setting. According to the study authors, roughly one in five home care patients are readmitted to the hospital during home care and nearly two-thirds are hospitalized during the first two weeks of home care services.

The research team said the timing of the first home care visit is crucial to prevent hospital readmissions. However, home care nurses have limited or inaccurate patient data, meaning they don’t have a lot of information off which they can base decisions about when that first home care visit should take place.