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M AY 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
D
o electronic medical records make you feel more like a
secretary than a surgical nurse? You're not alone in your
frustration. "We often hear people complain that it's like
they're doing more typing than nursing," says Erin
Sparnon, engineering manager in the health devices
group at ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit that researches the
best approaches to improving patient care. The purpose of EMRs is to
enable healthcare workers to provide more effective, efficient, coordi-
nated care, not make them better touch-typists. Here are 5 ways digi-
tal record-keeping can help you deliver better patient care.
1. Ready access to the patient's medical record.
EMRs can update instantly and are easy to read. "Gone are the days of
hunting down the record that could still be in the transferring depart-
ment or being held awaiting signatures," says Jan Kleinhesselink, RN,
D I G I T A L R E C O R D K E E P I N G
Can EMRs Improve
Patient Care?
SKEPTICAL More than half (52%) of the 551 surgical facility leaders we sur-
veyed are not convinced that electronic medical records improve patient care.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
The answer might surprise you. Dan O'Connor | Editor-in-Chief
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