Deploying an Electronic Clinical Decision Support Tool for Diagnosis and Treatment of Pneumonia Into Rural and Critical Access Hospitals: Utilization, Effect on Processes of Care, and Clinician Satisfaction

Purpose Electronic clinical decision support (CDS) for treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (ePNa) is associated with improved guideline adherence and decreased mortality. How rural providers respond to CDS developed for urban hospitals could shed light on extending CDS to resource-limited settings. Methods ePNa was deployed into 10 rural and critical access hospital emergency departments (EDs) in Utah and Idaho in 2018. We reviewed pneumonia cases identified through ICD-10 codes after local deployment to measure ePNa utilization and guideline adherence. ED providers were surveyed to assess quantitative and qualitative aspects of satisfaction. Findings ePNa was used in 109/301 patients with pneumonia (36%, range 0%-67% across hospitals) and was associated with appropriate antibiotic selection (93% vs 65%, P < .001). Fifty percent of survey recipients responded, 87% were physicians, 87% were men, and the median ED experience was 10 years. Mean satisfaction with ePNa was 3.3 (range 1.7-4.8) on a 5-point Likert scale. Providers with a favorable opinion of ePNa were more likely to favor implementation of additional CDS (P = .005). Satisfaction was not associated with provider type, age, years of experience or experience with ePNa. Ninety percent of respondents provided qualitative feedback. The most common theme in high and low utilization hospitals was concern about usability. Compared to high utilization hospitals, low utilization hospitals more frequently identified concerns about adaptation for local needs. Conclusions ePNa deployment to rural and critical access EDs was moderately successful and associated with improved antibiotic use. Concerns about usability and adapting ePNa for local use predominated the qualitative feedback.