R7 DOCLINE Audit Update

Posted by Margot M on September 8th, 2022 Posted in: Communities of Interest
Tags: DOCLINE, hospital librarians, hospital library advisory group

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This summer, Region 7 completed our audit of hospital libraries that were marked as offering document delivery for Rush and Urgent Patient Care requests. Our audit was limited to hospital libraries in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. We emailed our inquiry to the contacts listed in the DOCLINE account.

Normal service level requires that the request is receipted within one business day. The request will reroute if it is not receipted, and will route away if not updated within three business days.

Rush and Urgent Patient Care requests must be receipted on the same day that DOCLINE routed the request to the lender. A Rush request will reroute at midnight if not receipted, and will route away if not updated within one business day.

Urgent Patient Care requests should be receipted, processed and delivered immediately. Lenders should check for Urgent requests every two hours. Turning on Lend Alerts helps library staff stay informed. Similar to Rush requests, Urgent Patient Care requests will reroute at midnight if not receipted, and will route away if not updated within one business day.

Many librarians confirmed that they were able to handle Rush and Urgent Patient Care. Some replied they could do Rush but not Urgent Patient Care. Some hospital libraries opted out of Rush and Urgent Patient Care due to staffing challenges, and others decided that they could add Urgent Patient Care services. In the era of hospital mergers, we learned about librarians handling multiple DOCLINE accounts. One hospital library was in the process of hiring a new librarian after the retirement of the former librarian. They unchecked the Rush and Urgent Patient Care boxes until the new hire is on board.

During the audit, we identified libraries that had no DOCLINE activity for Borrow or Lend for the last eight quarters (two years!), but were marked for Rush, or Rush and Urgent Patient Care. We unchecked those boxes.

Changes as a Result of the Audit

We plan to reach out to academic libraries in 2022-2023. Our focus is identifying libraries that are marked to respond to Rush and Urgent Patient Care requests. We are not closing any DOCLINE accounts. Our goal is to facilitate the timely response to these request types. Please contact Margot Malachowski (email link below) with any questions.

BEFORE THE AUDIT

STATE	RUSH	URGENT PATIENT CARE
Connecticut	14	13
Maine	3	2
Massachusetts	20	11
New Hampshire	9	2
New York	51	24
Rhode Island	4	2
Vermont	0	0

AFTER THE AUDIT

STATE	RUSH	URGENT PATIENT CARE
Connecticut	11 (-3)	10 (-3)
Maine	3	3 (+1)
Massachusetts	18 (-2)	9 (-2)
New Hampshire	6 (-3)	2
New York	43 (-8)	25 (+1)
Rhode Island	4	2
Vermont	0	0