The Use of Bedside Electronic Medical Record to Improve Quality of Care in Nursing Facilities

Abstract

It appears that the implementation and use of a bedside electronic medical record in nursing homes can be a strategy to improve quality of care. Staff like using the bedside electronic medical record and believe it is beneficial. Information gleaned from this qualitative evaluation of four nursing homes that implemented complete electronic medical records and participated in a larger evaluation of the use of an electronic medical record will be useful to other nursing homes as they consider implementing bedside computing technology. Nursing home owners and administrators must be prepared to undertake a major change requiring many months of planning to successfully implement. Direct care staff will need support as they learn to use the equipment, especially for the first 6 to 12 months after implementation. There should be a careful plan for continuing education opportunities so that staff learn to properly use the software and can benefit from the technology. After 12 to 24 months, almost no one wants to return to the era of paper charting.

Staff experiences within the implementation of computer-based nursing records in residential aged care facilities: a systematic review and synthesis of qualitative research

“…The articles of Alexander et al [38] and Rantz et al [41] report on the same study but synthesize different data. Three of the six studies (represented in four articles) were carried out in the U.S.A. [38-41] and three in Australia [26,35,42]. …”

“…The 23 interviews compiled by Alexander et al [38] are included in the 120 interviews with Rantz et al [41]. Therefore they were subtracted from the remainder of the interviews.…”

“…Therefore they were subtracted from the remainder of the interviews. The same applies to the 22 focus groups in said articles by Alexander et al [38] and Rantz et al [41]. Observation data was compiled in three studies: The study by Cherry et al [40] includes 10 one-hour observations.…”

“…Observation data was compiled in three studies: The study by Cherry et al [40] includes 10 one-hour observations. The study by Alexander et al [38] and Rantz et al [41] involve a series of observations, each consisting of a period of less than five minutes. Information regarding the frequency of observations was not made available in either of the two noted publications.…”

Preparing Nursing Homes for the Future of Health Information Exchange

“…Initial costs associated with building an HIE network include the costs of equipment, establishing contracts with vendors who provide the networking capabilities for secure HIE, testing the HIE and establishing appropriate policies and procedures for usage, and ensuring required support staff knowledgeable in IT system configuration are available to meet the changing demands during HIE implementation. common finding in other nursing home research exploring technology implementation [21][22][23]. One limitation is that increased financial and human resources are difficult to realize in nursing home settings, and if they are realized the resources can be difficult to sustain [24].…”