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DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1739195
Workflow Automation for a Virtual Hypertension Management Program
Abstract
Objectives Hypertension is a modifiable risk factor for numerous comorbidities and treating hypertension can greatly improve health outcomes. We sought to increase the efficiency of a virtual hypertension management program through workflow automation processes.
Methods We developed a customer relationship management (CRM) solution at our institution for the purpose of improving processes and workflow for a virtual hypertension management program and describe here the development, implementation, and initial experience of this CRM system.
Results Notable system features include task automation, patient data capture, multi-channel communication, integration with our electronic health record (EHR), and device integration (for blood pressure cuffs). In the five stages of our program (intake and eligibility screening, enrollment, device configuration/setup, medication titration, and maintenance), we describe some of the key process improvements and workflow automations that are enabled using our CRM platform, like automatic reminders to capture blood pressure data and present these data to our clinical team when ready for clinical decision making. We also describe key limitations of CRM, like balancing out-of-the-box functionality with development flexibility. Among our first group of referred patients, 76% (39/51) preferred email as their communication method, 26/51 (51%) were able to enroll electronically, and 63% of those enrolled (32/51) were able to transmit blood pressure data without phone support.
Conclusion A CRM platform could improve clinical processes through multiple pathways, including workflow automation, multi-channel communication, and device integration. Future work will examine the operational improvements of this health information technology solution as well as assess clinical outcomes.
Keywords
workflow automation - clinical innovation - blood pressure monitoring - customer relationship managementProtection of Human and Animal Subjects
This work is a quality improvement project at Mass General Brigham whose sole purpose is quality measurement and thus under institution guidelines the work was not reviewed by the Mass General Brigham Human Research Committee.
* These authors contributed equally to this manuscript.
Publication History
Received: 03 June 2021
Accepted: 23 September 2021
Article published online:
10 November 2021
© 2021. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
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