Week Nine:
Children’s Hospital Colorado Center for Gait Movement and Analysis

August 21, 2015

The unthinkable has happened, I am done with data entry! After a few hundred hours in front of a computer, all of our data entry and clean-up lists are done!

After checking some outliers (mostly results of me hitting a 6 instead of a 9 or something like that) we were able to generate preliminary statistics for our project. All in all, we have 735 patients in our database. For these 735 patients we had 3,565 observations, or individual notes that needed to be recorded by, you guessed it, yours truly.

So far, our results look great! We have incredibly solid evidence that the template has drastically improved the quality of medical notes and records. In fact, our analysis shows that with the template there is roughly a 115x better chance that an exam will be ‘complete’ than before the template was used. When I say “complete” I mean that all the components we expect to be checked, are checked and documented. Although we aren’t catching too many more complications by using the template, just the fact that it is being used more is a great sign.

The template is helpful in a number of ways. For one, it prevents miscommunication among providers. Let’s say, for example, that the pre-operative notes that a physician entered for a supracondylar fracture said ‘Looks good overall. Surgery this afternoon.’ The patient goes through surgery, and no further notes are made. If that same patient comes in for a follow-up a week after surgery with diminished sensation in their hand, without documentation that they had that sensation before surgery we can’t be sure that the diminished sensation was caused by the surgery or the injury itself. It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. So now the provider performing the follow-up has to spend more time digging through the notes, looking for more information. Or, asking the patient what they remember (which may not be entirely accurate.) It’s just a whole bunch of errors waiting to happen. The template helps providers avoid all of that by helping them to remember all areas they need to check. If you’ve filled out the template entirely, you really can’t go wrong.

So with data and clean-up all done, I started on my presentation. Next week I’ll be giving a presentation on my work here this summer to the other interns, my primary investigator and my RA. Plus, any other doctors that happen to show up! Thankfully, five years of mock trial have prepared me for this moment. I’m actually very excited to present! Here’s a sneak preview:

So there you have it! This week was the end of data entry and the beginning of synthesis and presentations.

In other non-cubicle new, I’ve begun my transition into becoming a true Coloradoan. This weekend I had some great hiking experiences in the El Dorado Canyon and St. Mary’s Glacier.

In the coming week (the last week of my internship!) I’ll finish up my presentation and start writing the paper, which will hopefully be published!