Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Use Of Health Information Technology For Higher-Value Critical Care, Lena Chen, Edward Kennedy, Anne Sales, Timothy Hofer

Edward H. Kennedy

To illustrate how data from a comprehensive EHR might contribute to better triage decisions, we examined the records of a cohort of 101,912 patients admitted for reasons other than surgery to 121 VA acute care hospitals in fiscal year 2009. Critical care guidelines continue to maintain that the ICU is the place to care for “the most seriously ill patients.” For the most common noncardiac diagnoses, we found that, in keeping with this guideline, patients with a high severity of illness were much more likely to be admitted to the ICU than were patients with a low severity of illness. …