Embedded Clinical Decision Support in Electronic Health Record Decreases Use of High-cost Imaging in the Emergency Department: EmbED study

OBJECTIVE The objective was to evaluate the impact of evidence-based clinical decision support tools integrated directly into provider workflow in the electronic health record on utilization of computed tomography (CT) brain, C-spine, and pulmonary embolism (PE). METHODS Validated, well-accepted scoring tools for head injury, C-spine injury, and PE were embedded into the electronic health record in a manner minimally disruptive to provider workflow. This was a longitudinal, before/after study in five emergency departments (EDs) in a healthcare system with a common electronic health record. Attending ED physicians practicing during the entire study period were included. The main outcome measure was proportion of CTs ordered by provider (total number of CT scans of a given type divided by total patients seen by that provider) in aggregate in the pre- and post intervention period. RESULTS There were 235,858 total patient visits analyzed in this study with an absolute decrease of 6,106 CT scan ordering for the three studies. Across all sites, there was greater than 6% decrease in utilization of CT brain and CT C-spine (-10%, 95% CI = -13% to -7%, p