Computerized charting... Pro's, con's, and best/worst systems to work with?

[JustaGypsy]

My facility is currently in the process of developing a computerized charting format for whole hospital use. Anyone that would care to share your experiences would be greatly appreciated, and perhaps helpful to others in the same boat... Thanks!!!

[RN and Mommy]

[color=deepskyblue]we use cerner in my facility and i really think it's a good program. the information is easy to find. there is a list of your patients with the tasks that need to be done for each hour listed out for you, medications are shown as pills, assessments as hearts, vs and other cna tasks are apples. it makes it really easy to know what you should be doing at what time. of course, you can reschedule tasks if the time is not appropriate. i also like that when there is a new lab that comes back, new mri report etc, new orders they all show up on your screen immediately when put into the system. i really like the sysytem. the only con i can see with it is that if does need frequent updates and goes down from time to time. all in all, i think it's a good system.

[cvryder]

I'm a traveler just dipping into this forum for the first time. I've used a blue million computerized charting systems and every time I think I've run up on all of them, I get to a hospital that uses a different one!

For my money, the best is McKesson Care Manager. I've used it in 2 different places with their own "tweaks" to it, and it's quite user-friendly and flows nicely. I liked what I saw af VSICU but I think it's only for ICU. Meditech is positively the WORST system I've ever worked with....it's DOS-based, so any updates are merely add-ons, it's clumsy, and it's definitely not user-friendly. It's also used in a lot of HCA hospitals, so you know it's cheap.

[sonja77]

the hospital i work at uses cerner. they started using it on june 1st, so everybody is still learning the system.

i do like it, although sometimes i feel like i'm not charting enough. i like that i can change the time when writing nurses notes and that way i don't have to go in order like you have to do with the handwritten notes. let's say something happens at 1130 (i.e. a low blood sugar), i can write a note about that right now and then later when i have more time i can sit down and write my "opening note".

and when a doc orders a new med, our secretary faxes the order to the pharmacy, where the med gets put into the system. the new med will then pop up on my emar and a task will pop up to give the med.

another neat thing is that i have access to all kinds of documents, i.e. results of diagnostic tests, doctor's progress notes (that you can actually read), h&ps, .....

and if you have a "frequent flyer", their old records from previous visits will be available as well.