Objectives: The Health and Social Care professions (HSCPs) comprising of physiotherapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), medical social work MSW), clinical nutrition (CN) and speech and language therapy (SLT) in St.... [ view full abstract ]
Objectives:
The Health and Social Care professions (HSCPs) comprising of physiotherapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), medical social work MSW), clinical nutrition (CN) and speech and language therapy (SLT) in St. James’s Hospital were the first national group to review implementing electronic patient documentation. The aim of this project was to examine the HSCP staff’s perspective on utilising electronic documentation, to investigate their opinions, concerns and expectations of the system in order to inform ongoing quality improvement.
Methods:
All staff in HSCP departments were sent the survey electronically. The survey included demographic information, questions regarding mobile device use, training needs and opinions on electronic documentation processes. The results were entered into Microsoft Excel for analyses and performance of simple descriptive statistics.
Results:
123 participants from across all 5 departments completed the survey, giving a response rate of 55%. 80 % of respondents were documenting their clinical notes electronically. 82% of respondents felt that electronic documentation was more efficient than paper while 83% felt they had improved access to patients records. 87% felt that they had sufficient IT skills to implement electronic documentation. 11% of respondents felt that electronic documentation had a negative impact on intrapersonal relations with patients. Concerns associated with implementation included insufficient access to hardware, WiFi and ergonomic workstations. The primary concern reported was that documentation was not readily accessed by medical and nursing staff (65% of respondents) A variety of reasons for this were suggested, including insufficient hardware and the presence of a dual system (paper and electronic).
Conclusions:
The use of electronic documentation has been perceived positively by HSCP staff using the system to document intervention. Concerns highlighted in the survey, will be used to shape ongoing development of the system hospital wide.
Ethical Approval were not required for this Quality improvement work.
