Improving Care through Electronic Communication

Article Submitted by Angie Cobb of Village at Cooks Springs Senior Living Community. She can be reached at 814-3254.

One of the realities of today's healthcare environment is the documented shortage of licensed and/or certified healthcare professionals. At the same time, paperwork demands from insurance companies, regulatory authorities, and accrediting agencies have increased at a rapid pace. While documentation is a vital part of the health delivery system, the great irony is that it can further stress the system, with more staff time devoted to paperwork and less to hands-on care.

In July 2005, the Village at Cooks Springs senior living community began a planning process to address some of these very issues through implementation of an electronic documentation system. "Our first step in the process was to design a system that addresses the best interest of our residents, particularly short term rehabilitation and long term skilled nursing admissions. Our goal was to insure timeliness and accuracy of documentation with less man-hours," according to Glenn Brewer, the Village's Executive Director.

The planning and implementation phase has been coordinated by Clinical Instructor, Sandy Everson. 'Once we defined our long term goals, we moved quickly to implement components of a comprehensive system. Step one was to get some immediate support for care givers. We accomplished this through point-of-service (POS) charting," according to Ms. Everson. With POS charting each care-giver is equipped with a handheld device that allows them to document the care being provided on-the-spot, i.e., no returning to a nurse's station for handwritten notes or forgetting to chart important facts. Charting is completed immediately, so the likelihood of both errors and loss data is diminished. Specific examples of capabilities include tracking tasks that are late, current, and not specifically timed, and accessing physician orders directly at the point of care. Additionally, a nursing command center enables clinical management staff to monitor care tasks, spot irregularities and take immediate action. Resident information is always readily accessible - including the current care plan. Aside from improved medical record accuracy, residents also benefit from staff efficiency which allows more hands-on care time.
"We are also able to monitor quality assurance indicators electronically, making it much faster and easier to identify resident care issues which may need further analysis or correction," says Mr. Brewer. "Our next steps in full implementation of the system in 2007 include electronic medication administration records, as well as a therapy management component. Not only will our staff win, but residents and their families will benefit as well."