options for documentation
like a lot of people (currently 6 million users), i’ve been using Evernote regularly for the last year or so. and it has improved in leaps and bounds over that time by introducing support for more platforms, creating shareable and editable notebooks, and plenty more.
so far though, it’s been useful for my study purposes. but now i’m working in the hospital setting i can see more uses for it - and the potential for both making my work easier and patient care safer.
i’ve previously mentioned the importance and role of documentation, and this aspect of clinical practice becomes even more vital in handover and referral situations.
here’s an example of how Evernote could be used for clinical documentation, in a way that would fit in with the existing workflow at hospitals (which is generally inefficient and cumbersome).
with the notebook sharing feature of Evernote you could have, for example, a Surgical Ward notebook. within that notebook individual notes could be created for patients using their UR numbers/surnames/whatever. it would be possible to create further subnotes for each patient as well if needed.
each surgical team could then share the notebook (need to use a premium version of Evernote to allow all members to edit the notes) for documentation for the patients. with the checkbox function of Evernote it is possible to build ‘todo’ lists for each note or patient - this would be particularly useful for handover. any tasks still to be done would already appear on the new rotations synced notebooks - no chance of losing that information or not having it available. particularly with Evernote available on mobile and desktop platforms.
what would be even better would be to utilise the features of Livescribe, a digital and ink pen that captures writing and is integrated with Evernote. the only downside that it currently needs specially printed paper to work. but, what this would mean is that the usual written notes could be taken while on ward rounds and seeing patients, and these notes would automatically be syncronised to the medical team devices Evernote notebooks.
of course, there will be issues with internet access for syncing. hospitals are notorious for lack of wireless and 3G reception. but having Evernote on hardwired network computers in possible as well. in terms of security all transactions are SSL - which should meet most organisational security requirements.
if anyone has been using a similar system, i’d love to know. i hope to trial this out sometime in the coming months. any comments welcome.
