Introduction: Pediatric hospitalized patients often are discharged before all lab tests are completed. Given the risk of medical errors related to inadequate test follow-up, we piloted a collaborative initiative to address tests pending at discharge (TPAD) within our pediatric hospital medicine section. Our objectives were to delineate the responsibilities of case managers and pediatric hospital medicine clinicians in addressing these tests and to establish a communication process.
Methods: We formed an interprofessional team and performed a current state assessment, including a survey to pediatric hospital medicine clinicians to assess time spent following up TPAD and confidence that results were followed up in a timely and appropriate manner. We obtained a list of 1450 individual TPAD for the previous 9 months using an electronic health record data query, from which a list of 26 common and straightforward labs were identified for case manager follow-up. A shared case manager Epic Inbasket for TPAD was created and was checked twice daily. We developed a phased approach to establish a workflow for follow-up.
Discussion: The case manager partnership was launched in 4 phases for the duration of the 6-month pilot. However, due to duplication of work and less value of case managers addressing straightforward labs, the pilot was stopped. A more effective and mutually beneficial role for pediatric hospital medicine attendings and case managers may be to have the case managers address complex TPAD and communicate with primary care clinicians and families.
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