Computerized rounding in a community hospital surgery residency program.

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Surgical Education
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Residency programs face challenges in reducing resident hours while maintaining patient safety.
• The 80-hour work week necessitates innovative solutions for hospital-based training.
• Assessing time-saving technologies is crucial for optimizing resident workflow.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the time efficiency of using personal data assistants (PDAs) for patient information.
• To determine if PDAs decrease the time surgical residents spend on prerounding tasks.
• To assess the impact of PDAs on resident workflow and adherence to work hour regulations.

Main Methods:

• A surgical residency program collected data on resident time (prerounding, checkout) for 4 weeks without PDAs.
• Residents were then provided PDAs with access to real-time patient data.
• Data collection was repeated for 4 weeks post-PDA implementation, with statistical comparison using paired t-tests.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were observed in patient census or checkout times between pre-PDA and post-PDA periods.
• A statistically significant decrease in average prerounding time was found after PDA implementation (50.5 min vs. 40.7 min, p=0.02).
• PDAs did not significantly alter the number of intensive care unit patients managed.

Conclusions:

• Personal data assistants (PDAs) demonstrably reduce surgical resident prerounding time.
• This time reduction assists in meeting the 80-hour work week requirements.
• Decreased confusion associated with immediate access to patient data may enhance patient safety.