Anyone that works in the field of healthcare can tell you that there is pretty much never a slow day in an emergency department. The constant flow of patients coming in and seeking treatment at all hours of the day and night can make for a very busy and stressful environment.
This is why it’s so important for your emergency department to have streamlined hospital management software. When you have a system in place, it helps to keep the flow of patients moving smoothly. Here are some practical tips that you can use to streamline your hospital documentation system within your emergency department:
Use An Automated System
Automated systems are one of the best ways that you can help your emergency department staff speed up the process of documenting patient information. A good automated system can also help to ensure that all of the patient’s information is entered correctly and is easily accessible with the click of a few buttons.
When deciding on which automated system you should use in your emergency department, you should look for a system that also allows you to access all of your necessary documents from a single source. This makes it much easier to retrieve any information you may need from a specific patient without having to sort through multiple folders.
Use Templates
Using consistent templates to store patient information can help to reduce the amount of time that your staff spends on the process of documenting patient records. They can also help to ensure that all of the necessary information is consistently included – regardless of which staff member creates a particular document.
Everyone will know exactly how to properly document information and what items need to be entered so that providers can easily reference. In general, templates can go a long way in helping to mitigate human error and the variability that is inevitable when people are left to their own devices (and that includes new hires and seasoned veterans alike).
Standardize Formats
Standardizing formats can help to ensure that all of the documentation is consistent across your entire department. This makes it easier for everyone who needs to access the information as well as document it.
Having a standardized format across the board is also helpful when you are training new staff members. With a clear and consistent way to document information across your entire organization, the learning curve flattens, training time decreases and new staff can keep up with the system that is already in place, becoming more productive, more quickly.
Train Your Staff
As noted above, properly training your staff on how to use the documentation system can help to reduce errors and improve efficiency within the emergency department. However, the success of any documentation system (as with any new system) will depend on your department’s commitment to it.
Training must become part of your team’s DNA, with continual monitoring, refresher courses and readily available resources that allow staff to quickly find answers to their questions about your practice’s system. Equipped with the right training, all of your emergency department’s staff should be fully familiarized with your documentation processes and be able to use it with increasing proficiency as time goes on.
Review Regularly
Being able to identify any loopholes or problems in an existing system is crucial for an efficiently streamlined documentation process. It is recommended that you review the documentation system in place on a regular basis to identify areas that can be improved upon. Conducting these types of reviews will help to ensure that the system your department uses is always running as smoothly as it can.
On top of conducting regular reviews to identify issues, keep in mind that your organization’s needs as well as changing regulations may also require you to tweak and fine tune the system. In other words, its ability to perform up to its potential largely depends on your commitment to maintaining it as a dynamic system.
Make Streamlining Your Hospital Documentation Simple with PulseCheck
At PulseCheck, our emergency room software is a solution that has been developed for Canadians by Canadians. Created specifically to cater to a Canadian emergency department, our solutions help to reduce the time spent on administrative documentation tasks so that you can see more patients and spend more time with them, improving their experience and staff satisfaction.
To learn more about how you can adopt our system for your own department, schedule a demo with us today.