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Interactive computer programs assisting, streamlining and documenting health care tasks

by Mette Svendstorp | Naestved, Denmark

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Goal: To produce many similar computer programs, with a view of streamlining practices in health cars

Problem Proposed Innovation Expected Results About This Nurse

Problem

ln the fall of 2010, as a student nurse in Denmark, 1 received an assignment to calculate the correct amount of nutrition to an intubated stroke patient. 1 did the math on my calculator, taking lnto account ali relevant factors including patient weight, age,medical status, daily energy and fluid requirement, and KJ value and fluid content of the intubation nutrition product, and divided the result with the number of daily meats, which was six. Totaltime used for this:Ten minutes. 1 would later leam that a trained nurse does it in approximately seven minutes:1 realized that most of the calculations and data entries 1 had made could have been incorporated in an interactive computer program, and that the time spent to reach the correct result in that case would be considerably less. ln other words: Thousands of nurses are spending valuable time doing the same calculations over and over again, day after day, year after year. and a few hours of programming could eliminate that waste oftime completely, 1 then created the "Intubation nutrition calculator,'' an interactive computer application, which reduces the time a nurse spends on determining the correct amount of nutrition for intubated patients to ten seconds, and in only ten easy keystrokes on her PC, versus sevan minutes and thirty-nine keystrokes on a calculator with the present procedure. (fhe ca/culator is avaliable in a demo version here:) svcndstorp.dk/calculus/en After winning a national healthcare innovation competition in Denmark, 1 was contacted by scores of colleagues in the health care sector, each with their own plea.Could 1 create similar programs for patient admission checks? Pre.operative checks? Medication administration? And on, and on. Sorne were nice enough to sand me the printed paper forms and lists they were required to till out on a daily basis. The pile on my desk saon reached abstract proportions, and 1 realized that there is a clear and present need for hundreds of such time saving, safety enhancing computer programs in healthcare.

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What iS done in dialysis unit everyday in order to control infection

joyce ilomo November 15, 2012

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Helping Hand

Problem

Solution

By replacing outdated manual practices, typically including the filling out paper forms, with easy-go, failsafe,interactive computer programs, the daily worl< of healthea re pe11>onnelbecomes more meaningful and less stressful, and the time saved will eventually amountto millions of man-hours per year, at the same time as patient safety is enhanced. This 1 want to achieve in the way that 1 have already started to implement the intubation calculator. The first hospitalward 1 approached with the program,Neurological dept.,Nrestved Hospital in Denmark, agreed to test it for five months in daily use. The trial period started 03117 2011, and in August of 2011, the department concluded that: "The program cou/d be putto immediate use, being ea sy and c/ear to understand for everyone. ft saves time, since tedious work on the calculafor is made redundanf. Furlhermore, the program enhances patient safety and prevents mishaps, since the resu/t is correct every lime." With this testimonial, 1 approached the Neurological dept. at Roskilde Sygehus, and they agreed to a test period, which is now under preparation.ln a similar fashion, 1 plan to spread the word and the computer program to other hospitals in Denmarl<, and later internationally. Simultaneously, 1 intend to develop and market other time--saving, safety enhancing computer programs, which will help streamline the working practices of health care professionals, cutting away time waste at the same time as providing new potential for documentation and interactive use.Eventually,1 see a future where most actions in health care are IT assisted, using PCs or handheld terminais, providing a real time accessible database of ali relevant information regarding the treatment of each patient, from pre screening and admission, to discharge from the hospital and,subsequently, ambulatory checks. Basides from being a time--saving and safety enhancing measure, the introduction of such coherent system solutions may ultimately provide a basis for electronic patient records, which may be seamlessly integrated with the general practitioner's patient record, a thus forming a formidable working toolfor the health care sector, as weil as creating a basis for research and health statistics on a wider scale than is now possible.

Expected Results

What are the possible rewards of developing,maîntaîning and implementing such computer applications in health care? 1 will ask you to answer ltlat question for yourself, based on a brief snippet of early computing history. ... Please go back with me to the year 1959. The IBM 9 pac system was the first computeri:zed business system which did not require the user to have anything but a very limited l<nowledge of computer programming.Computers were now in reality accessible for anyone, and one of the first groups to try out the new gadget were salesmen. Thoy soon discovered that the computer saved them a lot of time by logging what and when they sold to whom and for how much, and couId even aœumulate sales and give an early heads-up regarding market trends. But could computers be used for anything else in the business world? Weil they could! Today,business is completely dependent on computers to coordinate, enhance,calculate, register,document and do so many otherthings,without which the world economie development in the 3rû quarter of the 20111 century wouId not have been possible. And now, to the present. Like business was in 1959 toeing the threshold of an unimaginable development, health care now is at a point where effectivisation, new streamlined practices, and interdiciplinary cooperation and coordination is critically necessary,ifwe are to meetthe challenges of the next fifty years. But ali this is indeed possible now, much in the way use of computers made buisness and industry boom in the sixties. And today we have scores of advantages: The hardware is inexpensive and easily accessible; the software can be readily and ine>cpensively procured; and the health care professionals are fully able to make use of simple, ingenious data solutions in their everyday practice, due to the fact that everyone now knows how to interact with an electronic screen. Therefore 1 ask you to recognize the potentialof my time-saving computer program as a part-solution, paving the way for a flnaUzed market-<:hanging solution, which wrrl forever change the day-tc-day woli<ing routines of health care professionals around the wor1d, like the wor1<ing routines of businesspeople were forever changed by computers in the 1960's and 70s. Taking one step at a time 1 believe that, in ten or twenty years, we may see a health care sector where the wor1<ing time of professionais is spent 100% on the patients, and not 20 or 25% on outdated,time consuming practices. This is my vision, and 1 ask you to please lend me a helping hand to make it possible.

About This Nurse

Mette Svendstorp

Country

Denmark

City

Naestved

State / Province

Professional Information

Organization / Employer

The Danish Nurses' Organization

Profession

Hospital

Area of Expertise

Interactive computer programs assisting, streamlining and documenting health care tasks

Problem

Comments

joyce ilomo November 15, 2012

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About This Nurse

Mette Svendstorp

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