Point-of-care documentation

Clinical documentation is a record of the critical thinking and judgment of a health care professional, facilitating consistency and effective communication among clinicians. Point of care (POC) documentation is the ability for clinicians to document clinical information while interacting with and delivering care to patients. The increased adoption of electronic health records (EHR) in healthcare institutions and practices creates the need for electronic POC documentation through the use of various medical devices. POC documentation is meant to assist clinicians by minimizing time spent on documentation and maximizing time for patient care. The type of medical devices used is important in ensuring that documentation can be effectively integrated into the clinical workflow of a particular clinical environment.

Examples
Mobile technologies such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers and tablets enable documentation at the point of care. The selection of a mobile computing platform is contingent upon the amount and complexity of data. To ensure successful implementation, it is important to examine the strengths and limitations of each device. Tablets are more functional for high volume and complex data entry, and are favoured for their screen size, and capacity to run more complex functions. PDAs are more functional for low volume and simple data entry and are preferred for their lightweight, portability and long battery life.

History
One of the major responsibilities for nurses in healthcare settings is to forward information about the patient's needs and treatment to other healthcare professionals. Traditionally, this has been done verbally. However, today information technology has made its entrance into the healthcare system whereby verbal transfer of information is becoming obsolete. In the past few decades, nurses have witnessed a change toward a more independent practice with explicit knowledge of nursing care. The obligation to point of care documentation not only applies to the performed interventions, medical and nursing, but also impacts the decision making process; explaining why a specific action has been prompted by the nurse. The main benefit of point of care documentation is advancing structured communication between healthcare professionals to ensure the continuity of patient care. Without a structured care plan that is closely followed, care tends to become fragmented.

Improves Workflow
The use of POC documentation devices changes clinical practice by affecting workflow processes and communication. With the availability of POC documentation devices, for example, nurses can avoid having to go to their deskspace and wait for a desktop computer to become available. They are able to move from patient to patient, eliminating steps in work process altogether. Furthermore, redundant tasks are avoided as data is captured directly from the particular encounter without the need for transcription.

Improves Patient Safety
A delay between face-to-face patient care and clinical documentation can cause corruption of data, leading to errors in treatment. Giving clinicians the ability to document clinical information when and where care is being delivered allows for accuracy and timeliness, contributing to increased patient safety in a dynamic and highly interruptive environment. Point of care documentation can reduce errors in a variety of clinical tasks including diagnostics, medication prescribing and medication administration.

Promotes Collaboration And Improves Communication
Ineffective communication among patient care team members is a root cause of medical errors and other adverse events. Point of care documentation facilitates the continuity of high quality care and improves communication between nurses and other healthcare providers. Proper documentation at the point of care can optimize flow of information among various clinicians and enhances communication. Clinicians can avoid going to a workstation and can access patient information at the bedside. It will also enable the timeliness of documentation, which is important to prevent adverse events.

Allows More Nurse-Patient Time
Literature from various studies show that approximately 25-50% of a nurse’s shift is spent on documentation. As most documentation is done in the traditional manner, that is using paper and pen, enabling a POC documentation device could potentially allow 25-50% more time at the bedside.

POC Documentation Complexities
Numerous point of care documentation systems produce data redundancies, inconsistencies and irregularities of charting. Some electronic formats are repetitious and time-consuming. Moreover, some point of care documentation from one setting to another without a standardized pattern, and there are no guidelines for standards to documenting. Inaccessibility also causes time to be lost in searching for charts. These issues all lead to wasted time, increasing costs and uncomfortable charting. A study adopted both qualitative and quantitative methods have confirmed complexities in point of care documentation. The study has also categorized these complexities into three themes: disruption of documentation; incompleteness in charting; and inappropriate charting. As a result, these barriers limit nurses competence, motivation and confidence; ineffective nursing procedures; and inadequate nursing auditing, supervision and staff development.

Privacy and Security Concerns
When examining the use of any type of technology in healthcare its important to remember that technology holds private personal health information. As such, security measures need to be in place to minimize the risk for breaches of privacy and patient confidentiality. Depending on the country you live in its important to ensure that legislation standards are met. According to Collier in 2012, privacy and confidentiality breaches are rising largely attributed to the lack of appropriate encryption technology. For successful implementation of any health technologies it is vital to ensure adequate security measures are used such as strong encryption technology.