The benefits of introducing electronic health records in residential aged care facilities: A multiple case study

Abstract

Purpose: Information and communications technology solutions have been introduced into the residential aged care system in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of aged care, however to date, the actual benefits have not been systematically analysed. The aim of this study was to identify the benefits of electronic health records (EHR) in residential aged care services and to examine how the benefits have been achieved. Method: A qualitative interview study was conducted in nine residential aged care facilities (RACFs) belonging to three organisations in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, Australia. A longitudinal investigation after the implementation of the aged care EHR systems was conducted at two data points: January 2009 to December 2009 and December 2010 to February 2011. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 110 care staff members selected through theoretical sampling, representing all levels of care staff who worked in those facilities. Results: Three categories of benefits were perceived by the care staff members according to who gain the benefits: the benefits to individual care staff members, to residents and to the RACFs. The benefits to individual care staff members include an improvement of documentation efficiency, information and knowledge growth as well as empowering the staff; the benefits to residents are an improvement in the quality of individual residents' health records, the higher quality of care and smoother communication between the residents and aged care staff; the RACFs gain an increased ability to manage information and acquire funding, an increase in their ability to control the care quality and improvements in the working environment and educational benefits. Three factors leading to these benefits were examined: the nature of the aged care EHR systems in comparison with paper-based records; the way the systems were used by the staff and one benefit that could lead to another. Conclusions: In this study, EHR systems were perceived to have substantial benefits for care staff, residents and the aged care organisations introducing the systems. The benefits were derived from the nature of the aged care EHR systems, staff members' continuous use of the systems, and one benefit led to the other. -2 - AbstractPurpose: Information and communications technology solutions have been introduced into the residential

The effect of an electronic health record system on nursing staff time in a nursing home: a longitudinal cohort study

“…However, Zhang et al suggest that if all nursing information were being documented in the EHR system, the amount of time the nursing staff spent on documentation would have decreased. 25 Therefore; the findings of this study may not be fully generalisable to other nursing homes using other types of EHR systems.…”

Staff experiences within the implementation of computer-based nursing records in residential aged care facilities: a systematic review and synthesis of qualitative research

“…The articles of Alexander et al [38] and Rantz et al [41] report on the same study but synthesize different data. Three of the six studies (represented in four articles) were carried out in the U.S.A. [38-41] and three in Australia [26,35,42]. …”

“…Some individuals experience that as a benefit, describing easier access to charts and medical information, additional information, or a better and faster overview [26,38-42]. For those individuals, this leads to the examination of residents’ records without wasting time [39].…”

“…They also emphasize the benefit that computerized notes from all the caregivers are much easier to read than paper-based, handwritten records [40]. They appreciate being able to view many things about resident care at once and to know what is being done for their residents at that very moment [38,42]. They also appreciate that information on residents, including diagnosis and demographics, is now more readily available [26,40,41].…”

“…Leaders with the duty of guidance and control express their additional experience of being able to check what care has been supplied and of being able to monitor more easily the documentation of residents’ care activities, regulatory compliance issues, or staff education needs [39,40]. They also report that the IT facilitates their performance appraisal [42]. …”