Using the Electronic Medical Record for Trauma Resuscitations: Is it Possible?

Temporal Rhythms and Patterns of Electronic Documentation in Time-Critical Medical Work

“…The flowsheet itself has a key role in facilitating communication and coordination during resuscitations, while also contributing to the continuity of care and patient safety [32]. Even so, documenting a time-critical process in real time is challenging, giving rise to concerns about thoroughness, extensiveness and timeliness of data collection on electronic flowsheets [14,21].…”

“…Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are being increasingly adopted in medical settings as healthcare moves towards digitization. Most resuscitation settings in emergency departments (EDs), however, have not yet replaced paper forms due to the dynamic and team-based nature of the resuscitation process, which makes the electronic documentation challenging [14,21]. Nursing documentation has a critical role in supporting team communication and work coordination because it provides a historic and temporal record of team activities (e.g., treatments) and changes in patient status during care [32].…”

“…Nursing documentation has a critical role in supporting team communication and work coordination because it provides a historic and temporal record of team activities (e.g., treatments) and changes in patient status during care [32]. Although some prior work exists on documentation in the resuscitation settings [11,14,30], little is known about the temporality of documentation and how nurses document information during resuscitations. The efficiency of resuscitations depends on effective communication that not only serves to support information sharing but also a shared mental model among team members [15,20].…”

"We Are Not Entirely Replacing Paper"

“…Flowsheets provide a comprehensive narrative of events during resuscitations and contribute to continuity of patient care. Prior research has shown that only a few emergency departments (EDs) use electronic flowsheets for documenting resuscitations [2,5,7,1]. These studies have focused on documentation completion, design process, and efficiencies gained after the electronic flowheet has been implemented.…”

Electronic Documentation of Trauma Resuscitations at a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center

“…1 Although there is evidence that the EMR improves patient safety, increases access to all care providers, increases workfl ow effi ciency, and minimizes time spent on documenting thereby improv-ABSTRACT Although many hospitals across the country have implemented an electronic medical record (EMR) for inpatient care, very few have successfully implemented an EMR for trauma resuscitations. We performed an extensive literature review of published articles on implementation of the EMR in a pediatric trauma center and contacted multiple centers through online resources and found none.…”