BWH, MGH Advance Acute Care Documentation Project
Taking another step closer to a fully implemented electronic medical record, more than 300 clinicians came together in May and June to develop and standardize the content that makes up current paper flowsheets, assessments and notes, including admission, progress, consult and procedure, and develop tools that will assist in facilitating collaborative patient care. This work is in support of the implementation of MetaVision as part of the Acute Care Documentation project.
"Thank you for pushing the envelope, for making us rethink how we document currently and for coming to consensus on issues that were not always straight forward," said Marcy Carty, MD, MPH, director of Clinical Operations Improvement, to the physicians, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, therapists and other care providers who attended the sessions at an off-site conference center with Deloitte Consulting in June.
Three years in the planning, Acute Care Documentation is a joint effort between BWH and MGH to roll out electronic flowsheets and basic notes to all clinicians. Ongoing accelerated design sessions, like those held this week and in May, seek the feedback of users to standardize and agree on the content for items that are part of existing paper documents on inpatient units in preparation for the transition to electronic documentation.
"The goal of a standardized electronic medical record is an ambitious one, but one that we must enthusiastically embrace to improve care for our patients," said Selwyn Rogers, MD, MPH, chief of Trauma, Burn and Critical Care Surgery, who participated in the first accelerated design sessions in May. "There was an equal measure of excitement, trepidation and passion as we mapped out a common platform for inpatient documentation."
Both MGH and BWH will conduct user acceptance test pilots in November 2010.
If you would like to learn more about Acute Care Documentation, contact Marcy Carty, Denise Goldsmith, Jackie Raymond or Allison Benoit.