Emergency Department software improves patient care
by Susie Thibeault, BSN MS in IS & Nander Stevens, RN
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ABSTRACT
The Scarborough Hospital implemented the Emergency Department Management (EDM) module in the fall of 2004. This gave the Emergency Program an opportunity to standardize its patient care processes across two sites.
Patient care is guided by the selection of the Chief Complaint at the time of Triage. The list of chief complaints is drawn from CEDIS research. This allowed us to provide staff with easy access to documentation tools and order sets for each complaint.
With a patient tracker, nurses have a variety of patient management features such as:
- Triage level defined at time of Triage
- Indices for outstanding documentation/treatment: e.g. flag for undocumented Triage assessment
- Quick view of status of diagnostic tests
- Running measure of time in ER and time since last process
- Bed allocation status, e.g. ER patient admitted without bed available
It also provided us with an opportunity to introduce staff to the concept of point-of-care documentation, through the use of wireless PC carts in ER.
Patient benefits include consistent triage process, documentation of communication related to their care, standardized patient education forms, etc.
For the program, it supplies data for measuring performance indicators. It also supports reporting requirements for provincial and federal agencies. It now becomes easier to benchmark with peers.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Susie Thibeault, BSN MS in IS
Susie Thibeault is currently Manager, Clinical Informatics & Applications at TSH. She has a BScN from the University of Ottawa and a Masters in Information Studies (IS) from the University of Toronto. Background includes 25 years experience in a number of healthcare environments, ranging from clinical management, teaching, and project management.
Nander Stevens, RN
Nander Stevens is a Registered Nurse currently employed as Applications Analyst at TSH. She has over 15 years of clinical experience at TSH.
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