Redesigning Care Delivery With Clinical Decision Support CDS Systems

Physicians spend up to 6 hours daily on administrative tasks that pull focus from patient care. Clinical Decision Support CDS Systems address this problem by delivering patient insights directly within existing workflows. These systems aggregate data from multiple sources, identify care opportunities, and enable action without requiring clinicians to switch between applications. Organizations implementing integrated CDS reduce documentation time while improving quality measure performance.

Moving From Alerts to Actionable Workflows

Traditional Clinical Decision Support CDS Systems generate alerts that create additional work for clinicians. Staff receive notifications about care gaps or quality measures, but must manually navigate to different systems to address them. Effective CDS provides insights alongside the ability to act on them immediately. Clinicians review recommendations and document interventions within their current application rather than opening separate platforms.

Bidirectional EHR Integration Enables Action

CDS platforms require bidirectional connections with electronic health record systems. Read-only integrations show information but force manual data entry in the EHR. Bidirectional systems read patient data and write completed actions back to the medical record. Physicians can order tests, update problem lists, or document interventions through the CDS interface with changes automatically reflected in the EHR.

Essential Integration Capabilities

• Real-time data synchronization with EHR systems
• Write-back functionality for completed actions
• Single sign-on eliminating separate logins
• Embedded views within EHR workflows

Reducing Cognitive Load Through Closed-Loop Systems

Physicians make hundreds of clinical decisions daily. Each alert requiring separate action adds cognitive burden. 

• Open-loop CDS tells clinicians what needs attention but leaves execution to them.
• Closed-loop systems present opportunities and provide mechanisms to address them immediately. 

This approach reduces the mental overhead of tracking incomplete tasks across multiple systems.

Aggregating Data From Disparate Sources

Patient information exists across EHRs, claims databases, health information exchanges, laboratories, and pharmacies. CDS platforms consolidate these sources into unified patient views. Clinicians access comprehensive medication histories, recent utilization patterns, quality measure statuses, and risk scores without querying individual systems. Moreover, data aggregation happens continuously in the background rather than requiring manual refreshes.

Prioritizing Interventions at the Point of Care

Not every alert carries equal urgency. CDS systems rank opportunities based on clinical priority, quality measure impact, and timing requirements. High-risk patients with overdue interventions appear prominently. Routine screenings for stable patients receive lower priority. This stratification helps clinicians focus their limited time on actions producing the greatest impact.

Typical Prioritization Factors

• Patient risk scores and recent utilization
• Quality measure deadlines and program requirements
• Clinical urgency based on lab values or diagnoses
• Previous intervention attempts and patient engagement

Supporting Multiple Quality Programs Simultaneously

Healthcare organizations participate in various quality reporting programs, including HEDIS, MIPS, ACO measures, and STAR ratings. CDS platforms track requirements across all programs using the same underlying patient data. Further, clinicians see which interventions satisfy multiple quality measures, allowing efficient gap closure during single patient encounters.

Measuring Impact on Clinical Efficiency

Organizations evaluate CDS effectiveness through documentation time, quality score improvements, and staff satisfaction metrics. Physicians using integrated CDS report reduced time spent on administrative tasks. Quality measure closure rates increase when systems enable action during patient visits rather than requiring separate outreach. These efficiency gains allow practices to see more patients or allocate time to complex care management.

Takeaway

Persivia's CareTrak® platform connects bidirectionally with over 80 EHR systems, enabling clinicians to view patient insights and take action without switching applications. The system aggregates data from clinical, claims, and laboratory sources while providing write-back capabilities that close the loop between insight and intervention. Healthcare organizations using this platform reduce administrative burden on physicians while improving quality measure performance across HEDIS, MIPS, and ACO programs.