Cleveland Clinic’s Neurological Institute treats over 140,000 patients every year, making it one of the busiest centers for neurological diagnosis and treatment in the country. The Institute has developed the Knowledge Program© to leverage this patient volume to systematically analyze patient care and improve outcomes. This initiative allows us to consistently measure each patient’s illness severity over time and assess the efficacy of our treatment protocols, while accelerating the collection of electronic data.
The Knowledge Program is a system which allows patients to record a self assessment directly into their EMR (Electronic Medical Record). This is information that is traditionally gathered by physicians or nurses; however this method makes the information readily available in the future.
- This assessment takes approximately 5-10 minutes and is conducted at the beginning of each appointment
- The self assessment begins with 10 general questions based on the European Quality of Life Questionnaire
- Following the general questions patients will be asked further questions based on their specific condition (i.e. epilepsy, sleep disorders, etc)
- After the patient enters the data the information is automatically stored in the Knowledge Program database and transferred to the patients EMR
- This data can be reviewed immediately by those with access rights
- The information collected provides updates in patient status and insight into clinically relevant issues that may be otherwise overlooked
This initiative is also a useful tool when demonstrating treatment efficacy and outcomes to payors, government agencies, and the public. This is especially important as government and private insurers move toward value-based reimbursement.