Reducing the Paper Piles

[LiliaBSN]

At our facility, which is a LTC unit in a rehab/alf facility, we have what can only be considered a ridiculous amount of paperwork, mostly redundant. We have books for everything from Alert Charting to Communication, you name it. Recently, we got a new care manager who is intent on straightening us out, which I see is a very good thing. I've only worked there for four months, but it only took a few days to see that the previous leadership was stagnant at best.

So what I'm asking for are ideas. Mainly, we want to eliminate all our extra books and come up with one system. One nurse suggested a Kardex-type system, but seeing as someone would have to be constantly changing it and rewriting it, this isn't such a good idea. We have faxed orders that come in that have to be put somewhere until they get written on the order sheets and placed in the hard chart, a communication book that no one ever reads and just randomly gets initialed, and lab slips that are falling through the cracks because everyone seems to put them in different places. What kinds of systems get used at other facilities that are effective?

Computer charting would be ideal, and while we have been promised it within the next ten years (really, no joke) I don't see this as an option we can count on.

Thanks for your ideas!!