North Texas Research Forum 2025
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Division
North Texas
Hospital
Medical City Fort Worth
Specialty
Family Medicine
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
2025
Keywords
durable medical equipment, DME, chronic illness
Disciplines
Equipment and Supplies | Family Medicine | Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
Background Patients rely on durable medical equipment (DME) to maintain their independence, however supplying and ordering DME for patients is challenging due to lack of a clear workflow, inadequate documentation, and differing coverage criteria, which has led to delays in patients receiving their DME. Current criteria to order DME include the following items: equipment description, quantity, length of need (estimate), diagnosis, recent height and weight, name, date of birth, home address, insurance company and member ID. The objective of this quality improvement project is to provide a clear and concise template for providers to use in ordering DME. Methods The DME Template development team consisted of PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents at Medical City Fort Worth (MCFW) Family Medicine Residency program. The DME Template is a comprehensive guidebook that contains a guide to how to order DME through NextGen EMR via appropriate documentation for the History of present illness, review of systems, physical exam and assessment and plan sections. A pre-survey consisting of Likert Scale questions was distributed amongst the residents and faculty members of the HSC Family Medicine Clinic, gauging the current comfortability of the DME ordering process. The DME Template document was then distributed to the residents and faculty staff via e-mail, Microsoft Teams, and QR code. A post-survey consisting of Likert Scale questions 3-5 months after the document distribution was then sent to the same residents and faculty members. Results from the pre and post-surveys created by HCA Healthcare will be analyzed via chi squared analysis. Results Results will depend on the final survey, which will be completed in February 2025. Discussion Amidst evolving challenges in ordering DME for patients, we hope that our study reveals that the implementation of the DME guidebook will help providers by increasing confidence in proper documentation during face to face encounters for DME approval. We plan to eventually incorporate these standardized templates into Next Gen EMR for ease of use.
Original Publisher
HCA Healthcare Graduate Medical Education
Recommended Citation
Soomro, Zara; Al-Nahi, Ali; Bhangoo, Neil; Lei, Yi; Nguyen, John; Elchehabi, Sahar; Driskill, Austin; Reddy, Priyanka; Huynh, Dylan; Choi, Jonathan; Paredes, Dante; and Mir, Tasaduq H., "Effect of a Durable Medical Equipment Template on a Family Medicine Clinic" (2025). North Texas Research Forum 2025. 97.
https://scholarlycommons.hcahealthcare.com/northtexas2025/97