New Carta Healthcare Survey Finds Majority of Clinical Data Abstractors Are Eager for Automation

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Three out of five clinical data abstractors are neutral to very dissatisfied in their positions, with nearly as many attributing too many time-consuming, manual tasks as the top contributors to their dissatisfaction, according to new survey results from Carta Healthcare^®, whose mission is to harness the value of clinical data. As a result, 70% of clinical data abstractors reported noticing errors or discrepancies resulting from manual abstraction, with 20% attesting that it occurs "very often."

Clinical data abstractors are typically nurses and other clinicians who harvest and enter data manually from electronic health records and other systems to populate clinical registries, used for improving quality and care processes. The manual process of abstraction is time consuming, labor intensive and costly for health systems. 

Although these healthcare professionals help supply the most essential ingredient required to drive healthcare transformation, their duties are still highly manual and inefficient, contributing to the crisis of clinician stress and burnout. In June, Carta Healthcare surveyed clinical data abstractors to learn more about their job satisfaction and to gauge their reaction to technology that would automate manual tasks.

"Our survey results show that despite clinical data abstractors' important role in driving a better future for patients and the healthcare industry, their job duties are still stuck in the past, which they are not happy about," said Carta Healthcare CEO Brent Dover. "By applying the power of AI technology in health systems across the U.S., in combination with skilled humans in the loop, we can alleviate data abstractors from the unnecessary burden of manual data harvesting and entry while still generating higher-quality results in less time and at lower cost."

Job Dissatisfaction
Clinical data abstractors are mostly not satisfied with their position, with 60% reporting they felt neutral, dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. When asked about their role's largest challenges, half ranked "hunting for multiple sources to find data and the volume of data to be abstracted" at the top. Given this finding, it is perhaps unsurprising that more than half of their time was reportedly spent on manual data entry and extraction. Other survey findings include:

• Two-thirds (66%) of clinical data abstractors reported feeling neutral, negative or very negative about the manual nature of the work
• 27% cited the significant time demands as their top challenge
• 27% stated that their work is prone to human error
• 40% "sometimes" encounter errors or discrepancies in manual data abstraction, 20% said it occurs "very often," and 10% reported "often"
• 30% believe manual data abstraction reduces data quality, or significantly reduces quality

Receptive to Automation
Although many of the survey findings are cause for concern, results also indicate that many data abstractors were receptive to adopting technology that would automate data abstraction and entry into registries, reducing their burden while enabling greater productivity in less time. When asked about automated tools to support data abstraction:

• 20% reported it would improve data quality
• 28% believed it would make data abstraction faster
• 20% agreed it would reduce manual data entry

Clinical data abstractors also agreed that automation would benefit their hospital or health system, with 45% predicting that it would make abstraction faster, 30% contending that it would improve data quality and 20% stating it would reduce abstraction costs. 

"These survey results further demonstrate that clinical data abstractors' time, skills and experience are being wasted on manual data harvesting and entry when they could instead be applied to data-driven patient care," added Dover. "It is also clear that these clinicians are eager to embrace automated data abstraction methods that deliver superior results faster at an overall lower cost to the organization." 

Survey methodology: 
In June 2024, a national online survey was conducted by Reaction Data, a market research firm focused on the healthcare information technology industry. Relevant respondents opted-in to an online survey, based on their role and subject matter expertise. If a potential respondent did not match the appropriate criteria, respondents opted-out. As such, only qualified responses to the survey were received.

About Carta Healthcare: 
At Carta Healthcare, we believe high-quality data is essential to improving healthcare. Current methods to abstract data for clinical registries are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly. By combining artificial intelligence (AI) technology with skilled expert abstractors, Carta Healthcare helps you abstract data faster, more efficiently, at a lower cost, while delivering the highest quality data.

Learn more about how Carta Healthcare applies the power of AI technology, combined with expert clinical data abstractors, to harness data and insights as catalysts for healthcare transformation at www.carta.healthcare.

Media contact:
Katlyn Nesvold
Amendola Communications for Carta Healthcare
[email protected]

SOURCE Carta Healthcare