[Patient records: supporting interprofessional communication in hospital]

Complete and continuous documentation in patient records is an important condition for adequate communication with patients, between the professions concerned and to ensure the quality of the following working steps in care provision. Part of a German research project concerning the interprofessional communication in hospital was therefore to analyse the use of the documentation system. 54 users were asked about practical aspects of their documentation system and 450 patient records were evaluated. The analysis focused on the medical and nursing documentation of admission, process and discharge. Deficits that need to be improved appeared first of all in the practical aspects of the documentation system, the flow of information between the professions, in specific gaps of medical and nursing admission, documentation of process and discharge. Quality management is asked to improve and develop the documentation in collaboration with the users and to consider specific problems when introducing computer based records.