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E M R S
HEAD CHEERLEADER Break out the pom-poms during EMR implementation, says Annette Saylor, RN, CNOR, CRNFA.
process. We have realized many benefits from our new EMR system, including:
• Less time spent on procedure cards. With the old EMR, preference card management was time consuming and tedious. There were electronic cards for every different variation of each surgery per surgeon. Editing the cards required using function and arrow keys and difficult DOS formatting. Now the cards are condensed to include all the variations in a single card and can tie multiple similar procedures to the same card. Changes to equipment, positioning, padding, instruments and supplies, even the radio station the surgeon likes to listen to, can be completed globally in a few clicks.
• Increased quality of care. Our nurses document by exception now. Because 80% of a surgery is the same for every patient, that documentation populates as the RN moves through the chart. The 20% that is different is then selected from canned text with a click of the mouse instead of narrative charting the whole surgical record. This saves time; less patient and staff time is wasted in gathering patient information, which impacts quality of care and patient satisfaction. Take allergies, for example. With the old system, when a nurse documented patient information at preadmission, she asked about allergies and recorded that in the patient record. Then the next nurse down the line asked the same question and documented it; then anesthesia entered
