A mobile application to support bedside nurse documentation and care: a time and motion study

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Nursing Workflow Optimization
• Mobile Health Technology

Background:

• Traditional bedside documentation often involves a time-consuming, error-prone two-step process using paper before electronic health record (EHR) entry.
• This fragmented workflow hinders real-time data utilization and impacts efficiency in clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a novel smartphone application, "Bedside mobility," on bedside documentation efficiency within an EHR system.
• The study employed a pre-post design across two hospital wards to assess the app's effectiveness.

Main Methods:

• A time motion study was conducted to record the duration and location of all nursing documentation activities.
• Data were collected before and after the implementation of the "Bedside mobility" smartphone application.

Main Results:

• The smartphone application significantly reduced EHR documentation time by 4.10 minutes per hour of observation (P = 0.003).
• Time spent interacting with patients increased by 1.45 minutes, and uninterrupted patient interaction time significantly increased by 8.50 minutes (P = 0.027).
• The average duration of uninterrupted documentation episodes also increased by 0.27 minutes (P = 0.16).

Conclusions:

• The "Bedside mobility" app enhances clinical workflow by reducing documentation fragmentation and overall EHR time.
• The app facilitates increased nurse-patient interaction time, potentially improving care quality and patient satisfaction.
• Mobile health solutions show promise for optimizing bedside nursing documentation and strengthening patient-provider relationships.