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... [ 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 are implementing electronic documentation. The aim of this project was to examine the patient’s perspective on electronic documentation, to proactively address their concerns and expectations of the system
Methods:
Patients from inpatient and outpatient settings across a variety of clinical areas were surveyed. The questionnaire included demographics, patients views on the security and efficiency of electronic vs paper based documentation, their preferred method of documentation and open questions for comments or suggestions they had regarding the use of electronic documentation. The inclusion criteria were; actively being treated by a therapist, the ability to understand questions and verbalise responses. The results were entered into Microsoft Excel for analyses and performance of simple descriptive statistics.
Results
94 participants completed the survey (PT=20; OT=16; MSW=17; CN=21; SLT=20), comprising 44 inpatients and 50 outpatients. 32% (n=33) were over 65years of age. 41% (n=39) were male. 86% of participants (n=81) felt that electronic documentation was as secureor more secure than paper notes, while 95% (n=89) felt that electronic documentation was efficient or more efficient than paper notes. 45% (n=42) preferred electronic documentation, 25% (n=24) preferred paper while 30% (n=28) had no preference. Themes emerging from patients comments were mainly positive. Many remarked on efficiency and convenience. However patients expressed concerns over potential hacking and access to their documents
Conclusions: The use of electronic documentation has been perceived positively by patients surveyed. 94% of patients identified efficiency as an advantage to this style of documentation. Their concerns regarding the security should be addressed by disclosing this information in an open manner
Ethical Approval was not required for this quality improvement work.
