Abstract
To reduce the time spent on documentation in nursing work, we have developed a Point-of-Care Information System that uses portable terminals. Nursing work consists of not only direct patient care but also indirect nursing work, such as documenting patient information, conferring with other nurses, and preparation of equipment. Though more time spent on direct patient care increases the quality of care provided, the time needed for the indirect work often exceeds the time actually spent on directly caring for patients. Our proposed system was developed to reduce the time spent on documentation in the indirect work and make nursing work more efficient. The system consists of personal digital assistants (PDAs) carried by nurses around the hospital wards, and a nursing server computer located in a nursing station. The system provides three main functions: 1) Data Browsing for reviewing patient information such as brief history, vital-sign charts, and handwritten notes; 2) Schedule Planning for reviewing order list and making To-do lists for the day; and 3) Care Management for executing the orders and recording patient data. With these three functions, the system became one of the first systems that covers the entire loop of daily nursing work. The PDAs and the server computer can share the latest information by data transmission through both wired and wireless devices. Results from hospital evaluations showed that the system can reduce the time needed for nursing documentation by 49%-60%. Also, the system is user-friendly with its pen-based interface and was evaluated positively by more than 80% of the nurses who used it.
