Who is "THE ABSTRACTOR?"
Volume 3, Issue 2
Why is documentation so critical to our work?
It is my goal to have super clean data for:
- evaluating current practices & techniques,
- publishing papers/studies, and
- most importantly, scoring reliable outcomes.
Why do I care?
My entire job is to support the department by abstracting detailed data from the EMR for three databases:
- REDCap (2012 - Present) - Aneurysms & Moyamoya
- STAR (1990 - 2010) - Aneurysms
- SAM (1990 - Present) - AVMs
We will be adding REDCap N2QOD - National Neurosurgery Quality & Outcomes Database - soon for:
- Cervical Spine
- Lumbar Spine
- Cerebrovascular Cases
Why THE ABSTRACTOR?
The Bi-Weekly update is to center our focus when entering specifics regarding a patient's encounter, by paying attention to critical data points that often are missed and not found in the EMR, but are often requested at a later date.
I am trying to put a focus on the most missed data points.
What is the patient's BASELINE presentation?
Using details of the patient's ADLs makes a huge difference in scoring.
What is different at Discharge?
We are only as good as the data we collect.
You all are so very important to our patients and work tirelessly finding the best way to treat them.
Let's just not forget to document, document, document so our data is SUPER CLEAN and continues to paint very detailed pictures of each of our patient's encounters.
JAMIE THOMAS
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, Texas 75390-8855
214-648-2861