Transitioning to electronic wound care documentation can benefit long term care facilities in several ways, and may be easier than you think. Electronic documentation is the way of the future and WoundRounds is committed to helping the transition as easy and beneficial as possible. There are several benefits to using electronic records, including:
1. Structured Documentation
WoundRounds guides nurses through a highly-standardized, comprehensive wound assessment process. The software provides a management system which ensures quality wound care via a structured documentation regimen, integrated seamlessly into the nurse’s workflow right at the bedside. Eliminating the gaps and inconsistencies in wound documentation reduces a facility’s exposure to regulatory and legal liability with respect to wound care.
2. Cost effectiveness
When an organization moves from manual paper processes to fully-automated, electronic wound documentation, it’s a “one-and-done” process whereby once a wound assessment is finished at the bedside, that data flows through to multiple reports, including both patient, facility, and enterprise. Double-documentation and redundant manual report compilation are eliminated, and all data and reports can be instantly accessed over the web by both clinicians and administration staff, in real-time.
3. Labor savings
Facilities save on labor costs due to more efficient workflow, better clinician and staff time management, accelerated coordination of care, and automated processes. Not only does it take a wound care nurse far less time to complete her rounds and generate reports, but other staff including directors of nursing, MDS coordinators, physical therapists, dieticians, as well as local and regional quality and risk officers save significant time by accessing real-time reports and data at the touch of a button.
4. Reduction of errors
Moving from a manual wound charting process, with the inherent challenges in transcribing handwritten charts and no controls which block the entry of conflicting data, for example, to an electronic wound documentation process which should dramatically reduce mistakes in documentation is going to directly lower the risk of medical errors. This has a positive impact on reducing exposure to medical malpractice and general liability.
5. Improve Quality of Care
Reduction of a nurse’s paperwork burden is particularly important in the case of wound care because RN hours-per-patient directly impact quality of patient care and ultimately, patient outcomes. “One-and-done” wound documentation moves nurses from away from doing paperwork the nurse station to the bedside, which is the best possible use of a nurse’s time.
