Optimizing Patient-Reported Outcome Collection and Documentation in Medical Music Therapy: Process-Improvement Study

Abstract

Background: To measure the effectiveness of nonpharmacologic interventions delivered during clinical care, investigators need to ensure robust and routine data collection without disrupting individualized patient care or adding unnecessary documentation burden. Objective: A process-improvement study was undertaken to improve documentation consistency and increase the capture of patient-reported outcomes (PROs; ie, stress, pain, anxiety, and coping) within a medical music therapy (MT) team. Methods: We used 2 Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles to improve documentation processes among an MT team (13.3 clinical full-time equivalent staff). Trainings focused on providing skills and resources for optimizing pre- and postsession PRO collection, specific guidelines for entering session data in the electronic health record, and opportunities for the team to provide feedback. Two comparisons of therapists’ PRO collection rates were conducted: (1) between the 6 months before PDSA Cycle 1 (T0) and PDSA Cycle 1 (T1), and (2) between T1 and PDSA Cycle 2 (T2). Results: Music therapists’ rates of capturing any PRO within MT sessions increased significantly (P