Authors (including presenting author) :
Wong ACK, Lau CSM, Tong ELH
Affiliation :
Health Informatics Department, Information Technology and Health Informatics Division, Hospital Authority Head Office
Introduction :
Food Allergy (FA) is an important public health problem. In Hong Kong (HK), prevalence rate of parent-reported adverse food reactions is 8.1%. Despite consequence of FA could be severe and even death, there is no cure for FA. Avoidance of food allergens is the only way to manage FA. Patients in hospital who have food allergies rely on hospital staff to prepare safe meals for them. It is, therefore, important for hospital staff to be aware of patients’ correct and complete FA records. Structured FA documentation is primitive in HK, including Hospital Authority. Free-text record is difficult to be utilized. Thus, a system for standardized documentation is essential as the first step for improving FA management and food safety in hospital setting.
Objectives :
With the development of territory-wide Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS), Structured Alert Adaptation Module (SAAM) is a tailor-made function developed for allergy documentation as part of support to adoption of eHRSS in HK private sectors, where good practice in structured drug allergy documentation is well established nowadays. It has been suggested to ride on such good practice in FA management.
Methodology :
According to international and local references, as well as observations of SAAM historical free-text FA record, foods commonly caused allergic reactions are identified. They are beef, broad bean, crab, dairy food, egg, fish, gluten, kiwi, mango, melon, nut, peanut, seafood, sesame, shellfish, shrimp, soy and wheat, which contribute the first HK territory-wide standardized food allergen list.
On the other hand, SAAM is enhanced to incorporate and fully utilize the food allergen list. It includes efficient searching allergen features and one-click documentation. Categorization of drug and non-drug is also applied for clearer records display and easier data retrieval for meaningful use.
Result & Outcome :
Since July 2018, SAAM is successfully implemented in over 100 healthcare service locations. Majority of allergy records is ‘No Known Drug Allergy’ while over 56,000 is non-drug in about 900,000 allergy records. With implementation of standardized FA documentation in mid-2019, it is expected safe practice of FA documentation in hospital setting is enforced with following benefits in FA management:
1.Improving FA record quality.
2.Facilitating sharing of FA information between public and private sectors via eHRSS.
3.Enhancing food safety by electronic decision support in catering system.
Co-location with:
