Recently, the care professionals of the Mother and Baby Centre of the Ikazia Hospital in Rotterdam have started working with the integrated Patient Data Management System (PDMS) for neonatology in EHR/EMR HiX. This allows both paediatric physicians and paediatric nurses to keep a better overview of the care required by and provided to the newborn baby. Additionally, as they are often able to reuse existing, current data, their documentation burden is greatly reduced.
The HiX PDMS allows paediatric physicians and nurses to document their care for newborn babies in a better and more efficient way, using the principle of 'single registration, multiple use'. Due to the fact that data from bedside monitors and infusion pumps are automatically sent to the patient's EHR in HiX, physicians and nurses no longer need to manually type these data in the patient record, which reduces their documentation burden.
Record-keeping in the PDMS
Paediatrician Paul den Butter says: 'Physicians and nurses used to carry out a lot of activities without direct access to the EHR and so we would sometimes make notes on pieces of paper. We would enter those in the EHR at a convenient later time. Now, we no longer have to work this way because we can document everything directly in the PDMS, which means that data are more accurate and more secure. This really is a great improvement.'
More medical efficiency
Paul den Butter expects that the observations by nursing staff, especially regarding nutrition, defecation, and fluid balance, will be clearer and more complete in HiX. 'As a physician, I see this as a huge advantage. I think automating orders will make the medical side of admissions and patient visits clearer and more efficient.'
Clear overviews of measurements and nutrition
The nursing staff will also benefit from this efficiency, says nurse Manouk de Leeuw: 'We now work with a single standard chart that gives us a good overview of measurements and nutrition. This chart allows us to directly enter nutrition, measurements, and elimination of patients in their records. That's great! And what's more, we now also have easy access to observations made by physicians and vice versa. The concentration of all information in one place gives us all a better overview.'
Saving time
Manouk de Leeuw expects that the PDMS is going to save her time. 'Just look at the single fact that we no longer have to manually enter the data from bedside monitors and infusion pumps. Now, we only need to click once and the system will record everything automatically. That saves us a lot of time.'
Further improvements
The ongoing COVID-19 crisis made implementing the PDMS a challenge of its own. Project manager Anita Nelemans is happy that the project concluded in a successful go-live. 'It was a little strange at first, because we had to carry out the entire project through digital meetings, due to the COVID measures. You'd rather meet face to face, of course, to discuss certain issues. In the end, we made it a success, mainly because we were all on the same page. We received great training and expect to be familiar with the new working methods quite quickly. Meanwhile, we will continue to think about further improvements for the neonatology PDMS, together with ChipSoft.'
