Studies in health technology and informatics
-
Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Exploring the potential of an electronic documentation system to reduce length of stay.
Electronic patient records are important in patient data management. Aim of this 2-year study was to investigate the effect of an e-documentation system on the ED length of stay. The study compared three length of stay parameters with and without the use of a prototype e-documentation system. 99 of trauma patients were monitored with the use of the electronic system and 101 patients (control group) were monitored with traditional methods. ⋯ Similar effect was also found to the total ED length of stay (127±93 vs. 206±41 minutes) and time between completion of care and ED exit (26±10 vs. 57±23 minutes). LOS was reduced with the e-documentation system. This is important for the quality of trauma patient care, since saving time during the first hours after the accident usually determines the outcome of trauma patients.
-
Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Use of knowledge discovery techniques to understand nurse practitioner practice patterns and their integration into a healthcare system.
The objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of applying knowledge discovery techniques to identifying nurse practitioner practice patterns and enacted scope of practice. For the research, we plan to use data extracted from a Ministry of Health database. The data items are focused around: nurse practitioner demographics, health authorities, and encounter types. This analysis produces patterns that indicate relationships between the demographics, scope of practice and practice settings of nurse practitioners working in British Columbia.
-
Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Analysis of the interface and data transfer from ICU to normal wards in a German University Hospital.
Typically general wards and intensive care units (ICU) have very different labor organizations, structures and IT-systems in Germany. There is a need for coordination, because of the different working arrangements. Our team investigated the interface between ICU and general ward and especially the respective information transfer in the University hospital in Erlangen (Bavaria, Germany). ⋯ In a second step, we investigate the requirements of data transmission in expert interviews. A data transfer concept from the perspective of the nurses and physicians was developed and we formulated recommendations for improvements of process and communication for this interface. Finally the data transfer concept was evaluated by the respondents.
-
Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Architecture of a prehospital emergency patient care report system (PEPRS).
In recent years, prehospital emergency care adapted to the technology shift towards tablet computers and mobile computing. In particular, electronic patient care report (e-PCR) systems gained considerable attention and adoption in prehospital emergency medicine [1]. On the other hand, hospital information systems are already widely adopted. ⋯ Aim of this project is to describe a generic architecture which can be used to implement data transfer and integration of pre hospital emergency care reports to hospital information systems. In summary, the prototype was able to integrate data in a standardized manner. The devised methods can be used design generic software for prehospital to hospital data integration.
-
This paper is concerned with the development of an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system which interfaces with a Holistic Emergency Care Record (HECR) that aims at managing emergency care holistically by supporting EMS processes and is accessible by Android-enabled mobile devices.