Use of a Novel Electronic Auto-Notification Process to Manage Transitions of Care in Patients With Rheumatic Disease Receiving Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug Therapy.

Objective: To integrate an auto-notification system into clinical workflow, so timely communication of sentinel events (elective surgery, hospital admission, or emergency room [ER] visit) in immunosuppressed patients with rheumatic disease happened by design.

Methods: We developed an algorithm that triggered auto-notification within the electronic medical record to rheumatology when a patient experienced a sentinel event. A telephone encounter was created that included event type, baseline therapy, and event date.