Embedding Library Support into the Electronic Health Record: Key Considerations When Developing a New Service

ABSTRACT

Health care providers frequently have complex clinical decision questions that go unanswered due to lack of time or database search skills. They also may face these constraints when attempting to provide individualized patient education information. Traditionally, health sciences libraries have utilized rounding to address clinical information needs, but a growing trend is to virtually embed librarians at the point of care through the electronic health record. These services enable providers to request evidence-based information support from the library while in the patient chart and without breaking clinic workflow. This article details one academic health sciences library’s experience with developing a new service embedded into the electronic health record. Focus interviews with providers, conversations with stakeholders, and external site visits to organizations with established services, informed a nuanced project proposal for a beta launch. Processes, findings, and considerations are shared to encourage and enable other health sciences libraries to develop similar services.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical librarians
• clinical decision support
• electronic health records
• embedded library services
• Epic
• hospital librarians

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Dr Nunzia Giuse and Taneya Koonce at the Center for Knowledge Management at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Lydia Witman at the Patient and Family Library at University of Virginia Health System, and Donna Flake and Allison Matthews at the South East Area Health Education Center Medical Library at New Hanover Regional Medical Center for their generosity and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.