homesolutions.net/sansio charting, scantron charting

Melina · Jan 5, 2011

Our agency uses them. We are currently transitioning to their electronic version, but right now it's "bubble, bubble!!"

Raven

hhrnohio · Jan 5, 2011

Raven,

Thank you! So if you don't mind me asking do you feel like with the "bubble bubble" that you are charting 2x for every patient and if not how are you filling in the bubbles? We are supposed to fill in our bubbles with a special marker, but since some of the spaces/notes require hand written notes not just a bubble filled in we go thru everything with pen during our visit and then later we go back over everything that needs to be bubbled in essentialy doing all the work 2x... i'm curious to see if we are the only ones doing this and if so how are you charting/bubbling as to not do this? i hope this make sense.

thanks so much

Barbie

Melina · Jan 5, 2011

I chart vitals and make notes of anything exceptional with a pen (a fine tipped TUL gel pen, in fact) in the pt's home then bubble everything after the visit, usually in my car before I leave for the next pt. That's where I write a visit note as well. It was tedious at first, and it's really tedious now that computer charting is on the horizon, but I wouldn't call it doing everything twice.

LuLu2008 · Jan 6, 2011

Barbie, I share your sentiments. It is tedious and sometimes feels like arts and crafts to be "bubbling" with the special pen after doing most of the charting in regular pen in the client's home.

HomeCare_RN · Jan 6, 2011

I have been in homecare for many years and have found that each type of charting has its drawbacks. I started out using Briggs forms, which were so small, even the check boxes were challenging. Since then I have been on multiple computer based systems, and the Sansio\Home Solutions forms. While I understand your initial feelings about the bubbling, I had a veteran user recommend something to me after a couple weeks on the form. She had me tape my bubble pen and my regular pen together, upside down from one another. That way I can write with the pen, then flip it over and bubble while I am on the same part of the form. I thought it would be hard to write that way, but it really isn't, works great. Did you know you can also fill the bubbles enough with your regular pen that they are acceptable. The bubble pen is easier because it's a one touch per bubble, but in some instances it can be quicker to do a quick fill in with your normal pen. Just make sure it's black ink, and doesn't bleed through.

There is no question that doing the bubbling adds a few seconds to some parts of the documenting, but in other areas I think the overall form design saves time. What I know for sure is that I can still bubble a form way faster than I could ever boot up my laptop, log in, and fill out the electronic forms. As I mentioned, each version has its challenges. You have to deal with the negatives of technology to get the positives. The laptops are nice if you need to look at other things for the patient, or research a medication, (assuming you're connected to the internet) but the actual documentation in my experience is not easier, or faster. Not to mention, what home care nurse needs more things to carry in to the home. I found the laptop more trouble than it was worth, but as they get faster, smaller, and lighter, I'm sure we'll get a nice solution.

Hope you find this helpful.

hhrnohio · Jan 7, 2011

Thanks Lulu and Homecare_RN. I came from an all electonic company where we used the homecare homebase point of care electronic charting and we were all issued pda's that we did all of our charting on, it was also a cell phone and we could get on the internet with it, basically it was a slider smart phone. we also took wound pictures with it and the system "swept" our phones for the images and then digitally measured them and put them in the chart where the physician could log on and see them as well. Part of my frustration i believe comes from not having acess to the rest of the patients chart unless i go sit in the office (45 minutes from home and my patients). I might have to try the bubble pen and ink pen taped together, though this does sound a bit bizzare.

as far as caring something else in the home, i don't think a net book is anymore to carry then my binder full of paper notes to lug around along with some basic education sheets and reference tools that i carry with me all the time..

KateRN1 · Jan 9, 2011

I am not a big fan of Home Solutions, I call it No Solutions. Apart from the obvious difficulties in the field with feeling like you're filling out everything twice, the nightmare continues further in the office. If bubbles aren't filled out just right, the scanner rejects the forms and someone has to re-bubble them and then attach the original note. I hate the days when an entire SOC has to be rebubbled, that's a nightmare. Then there's the clinicians who don't feel the need to bubble anything in and will just mark with a ball-point pen that the scanner doesn't pick up. If you go outside the margins of the little bubble circle, then the scanner reads it as two answers for the same question. All of the notes have to be scanned and then validated by a human being, so it's an even bigger time-drain. I find that their nursing notes are incomplete without enough room for narrative notes. And the web-based software that we use to access everything is slower than molasses. I have to believe that someone without a shred of home care experience designed that system!

HomeCare_RN · Jan 13, 2011

While I agree that the Homesolutions forms could use more room for narrative, I don't know what could be removed to make room. So much of what we have to chart these days is regulatory driven and not nursing practice driven. Whether we like it or not, it's just a reality that these things have to be on the form.

I can't speak much about the bubbling errors and corrections that KarenRN1 mentions, other than to say the staff in my office seem to love the scanning. I have heard them complain about people that don't know how to bubble, but my impression is that those staff members are the exception, not the rule. The system seems to handle the forms quite well, and as far as I can tell, it's still way faster than data entry.

Like I have said before, I have used many forms of charting, all of which have their pros and cons. I find the Homesolutions forms intuitive and very current as it relates to home care regulations and needs. I differ from KateRN1 in that it seems obvious to me that much thought and home care experience has gone into these forms.