Improving patient safety: The impact of an outpatients' electronic handover system in a tertiary dermatology department

The Australasian Journal of Dermatology
Flora PoonGeorge Varigos

Abstract

Electronic medical records (EMR) can improve quality healthcare, patient safety and streamline workflow to improve efficiency of a department. Despite the known benefits and difficulties of EMR systems, there is limited data on the impact and definable effectiveness it can have within a dermatology unit. We present an outpatients' EMR known as an electronic handover system (EHS) from its inception, delivery and audit of its use in evaluating the true impact. An audit of the EHS was conducted from 1 March to 31 August 2014. Quantitative data evaluating the type of jobs entered and completed, overdue tasks, patient workload and phone consultations were conducted. Qualitative data was assessed via a pilot survey assessing users' perspectives of the EHS evaluating communication, clinician-patient relationship and administrative tasks. Altogether 754 jobs were entered for 411 dermatology outpatients using the EHS. Most tasks concerned following up bloods and swabs (38%) or biopsies (36%). Overall, 51 jobs were not completed by the specified due dates and 188 phone consultations were performed. Compared with pre-EHS data, clinic review patients fell by 16%, with a modest increase (2%) in the number of new patients seen. The survey re...Continue Reading

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