Philippe Delrez*, Luc-Marie Jacquet, Jean-Louis Bachy and Pierre-François Laterre
Background: The use of electronic patient record software at the bedside can have a significant impact on critical care practice and therefore potentially on workflow. Data recording is essential for good patient follow-up. We looked at the impact of a change in computer software in the critical care administrative workload and in the time spent at the bedside for patient care.
Methods: Qualitative prospective research in 2 ICU (58/18 beds) in 2 hospitals who worked with the same software. Hospital 1 changed the software in ICU to an EMR software and Hospital 2 did not modify his software. 10 months after the change of software, we evaluated the satisfaction of the ICU staff in the 2 institutions.
Results: Over 6-week period, 154 participants responded to a satisfaction questionnaire on the computerization of their respective ICU. In Hospital 1, the impact on general satisfaction and daily work of the medical nursing staff was 40.6% compared with 80.9% in Hospital 2 (p<0,0001).The time spent at the patient's bedside was 50% in Hospital 1 compare with 77% in Hospital 2 (p<0,0001). In Hospital 1, an additional time of 76.87 minutes over per shift of 8 hours compared Hospital 2 which did not change software. The software was adapted to ICU practice at 95.5% in Hospital 2. Only 17% of responders felt that saved administrative work with the new software in Hospital 1.
Conclusion: The change in software not specifically adapted to ICU practice results in more laborious coding 10 months after it implementation. It reduces the time spent for patient care and increases the administrative workload. Further studies with longer timeframes after implementation of a new system in other countries are needed to confirm our study on the impact of additional administrative workload for the nursing staff.
Published Date: 2023-11-01; Received Date: 2023-10-04
