heidi5093

I am looking for some well founded opinions on how much time is spent with charting and how much time is being taken away from patient care. I am from a small, rural facility. We have a 5 bed ED, with one nurse staffing it and one on call doctor (who may or may not be staying in house). Sometimes, the NAC and HUC can be utilized from the hospital, but not always. Mostly, the ED nurse is a lone wolf in there. Our facility recently adopted a new ED charting system. Everything is now time stamped (MD in room, Pt in radiology, Pt from radiology, etc...). Administration is now watching those time stamps like a hawk. The system we adopted is not the newest version. It has its issues, one being that support is not readily available. We end up having questions, and have no one to call. So much time is being spent with this new system trying to keep everything charted as we go, that patient care is suffering. Its a panic to time stamp events, clear reds, ordering, etc...When we are busy (which happens routinely), she has to NAC, HUC, Nurse, chart, enter orders, take vitals, clean beds, etc... all by herself. The concept behind this system is not bad. A more user friendly version would be helpful. Being able to track visits is the reasoning behind this, which is understandable from administrations stand point. But, adopting a program that requires so much time, and causes so much stress with limited staff and limited training on the program seems like a bad way to integrate a system. So, my question to all you out there is how do you feel about how charting is headed? In our facility, it is difficult to chart as you go in the ED most of the time. But, we are being forced to, so something has to give. Unfortunatly patient care is suffering in lue of charting and pleasing administration.