As medicine has advanced over the last 15 years, the requirement for sufficient documentation has dramatically increased. Nurses, doctors, and other paraprofessionals have expressed concern about the amount of time they spend documenting what they do. In fact, some nurses will tell you that they spend the majority of their work hours on documentation rather than direct patient care. The old saying, "If it wasn't documented it wasn't done" has been replaced with, "even if it was documented it doesn't mean it was done." This is because staff have shifted their focus to complete documentation and away from patient care. Maybe EHR has the answer.
An article posted in HealthcareITNews.com recently discusses how electronic medical records could save the healthcare industry.
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/saving-healthcare-industry-emrs-are-beginning-not-end
Nurses and doctors spend 30-40% of their time doing administrative work currently. Now with the assistance of information technology, providers are finding ways to tilt the table towards more hands-on time and less documentation.
One example was demonstrated at the recent VirtualHIMSS conference in June 2009. Vocollect Health Systems presented their product called AccuNurse. AccuNurse is a voice-activated, hands-free documentation and communication system that dramatically improves staff efficiency and resident care by blending cutting-edge voice-recognition technology with important process improvements.
AccuNurse found a way to reduce liability and workers comp exposure, reduce costs from improved staff efficiency, improve quality of care, and get better reimbursement.
Practicing as a hospitalist and a health informatician, it would be my goal to institute a similar system in the hospitals where I practice. If by utilizing voice recogniton software and an EHR nurses were able to save 8 minutes an hour, imagine what impact that would have on the quality of patient care.
Voice recognition software for nursing staff has been proven to work effectively and safely. So why not make it global?
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