Electronic Charting Method
Charting and documentation are essential parts of the job by all health care providers including nurses, doctors, and students. The traditional charting method in many hospitals is the preprinted form method whereby the charts contain rows and columns where the information is filled. This method is liked by nurses because it is easy to use and less time-consuming. However, the initiation of Electronic Health records (EHRs) in 2009 shifted documentation to fit the existing and trending technology in the 21st Century (Stokowski, 2013). I highly recommend the electronic documentation charting method over preprinted form method because of numerous reasons.
It is observed more often as healthcare providers spend much time consulting over handwritten information on charts either due to missing data or poor handwriting. Nurses are frequently affected by this problem but through electronic documentation, method information is simplified and less time is spent retrieving relevant information for patient care. The care of the patient is regarded as a continuous process even after the discharge of the patient. Electronically charted information is readily available and accessed as compared to the traditional preprinted form method (Ahn et al. 2016). Medical practitioners like it when they find previous details on prior episodes of care easily as provided by the electronic documentation method. EHRs provide a platform where information of the patient is integrated into a single place.
Medical charts provide information on events of legal concerns or actions a reason why accurate and precise information is required during charting. Electronic documentation highlights the time, date and the data entered into the system at that particular juncture. It portrays that healthcare practitioners have an advantage over accusations that may arise during patient care. Research has shown that over 45% of healthcare providers prefer the electronic documentation method as compared to 26% on preprinted charting mode (Ahn et al. 2016).
References
Stokowski, L. A. (2013). Electronic nursing documentation: Charting new territory. Diakses dari http://www. medscape. com/viewarticle/810573_2 tanggal, 27.
Ahn, M., Choi, M., & Kim, Y. (2016). Factors associated with the timeliness of electronic nursing documentation. Healthcare informatics research, 22(4), 270-276. Retrieved from https://synapse.koreamed.org/DOIx.php?id=10.4258/hir.2016.22.4.270
