Nursing Informatics and Documentation

Documentation

• Documentation is a key communication strategy that produces a written account of patient data, clinical interventions, and patient responses.
• It is available to all members of the healthcare team and allows others to track a patient's clinical course.

Purposes of the Health Care Record

• Facilitates interprofessional communication
• Provides a legal record of care
• Provides justification for financial billing and reimbursement of care
• Supports the process of quality and performance improvement
• Serves as a resource for education and research

Interprofessional Communication Within the Medical Record

• Legal documentation
• Reimbursement (e.g., diagnosis-related groups)
• Auditing and monitoring
• Education
• Research

Electronic Documentation

• Shift to electronic health record systems (EHRS)
• Electronic health record (EHR): an individual's lifetime computerized record
• Electronic medical record (EMR): the record for an individual healthcare visit

Maintaining Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security

• Protected health information (PHI)
• Mechanisms to ensure privacy, confidentiality, and security (e.g., firewall, password)
• Procedures for handling and disposing of information
• Policies for the use of fax machines

Standards and Guidelines for Quality Nursing Documentation

• Factual
• Accurate
• Appropriate use of abbreviations
• Current
• Organized
• Complete

Methods of Documentation

• Flow sheets
• Progress notes
• Charting by exception

Common Record-Keeping Forms within the Electronic Health Record

• Admission nursing history form
• Patient care summary
• Care plans
• Discharge summary forms

Documenting Communication with Providers and Unique Events

• Telephone calls
• Telephone and verbal orders
• Incidence or occurrence reports

Acuity Rating Systems

• Used to determine hours of care and number of staff required for a group of patients
• Patient's acuity level based on the type and number of nursing interventions required over a 24-hour period

Documentation in the Long-Term Health Care Setting

• Governed by individual state regulations, The Joint Commission (TJC), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Documentation in the Home Health Care Setting

• Medicare has specific guidelines for home care reimbursement
• Documentation is quality control and justification for reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance companies
• Uses two data sets: OASIS and Omaha system

Case Management and Use of Critical Pathways

• Case management model incorporating an interprofessional approach to delivery and documentation of patient care
• Critical pathways: interprofessional care plans identifying patient problems, key interventions, and expected outcomes within an established time frame
• Variances: unexpected outcomes, unmet goals, and interventions not specified within a critical pathway

Informatics and Information Management in Health Care

• Health care information technology (HIT) enhances quality and efficiency of care
• Health care information system (HIS) has two types: clinical information system and administrative information system
• Clinical information system (CIS) example: computerized provider order entry (CPOE)

Nursing Clinical Information Systems (NCIS)

• Two designs: nursing model and critical pathway
• Advantages: better information access, better documentation quality, reduced errors of omission, reduced hospital costs, increased nurse job satisfaction, and clinical database development

Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS)

• Aids and supports clinical decision making

Nursing Informatics

• Specialty area of practice integrating nursing science, computer science, and information science
• Informatics competencies for nursing graduates

This quiz covers the fundamental concepts of informatics and documentation in nursing, including documentation as a key communication strategy and its role in producing a written account of patient data.