Electronic patient records for homecare nursing

Electronic patient records have been the subject of research by academic and business organizations for at least 25 years. Despite a notable lack of progress, the time for broad acceptance of the concept may well be near. Important driving forces include 1) the external pressures being placed on the health care industry to lower costs and to provide standardized care with measures of outcome; and 2) new computer and communications technologies that can support the evolving "continuum of care," including the needs of even the most highly mobile clinicians. Home care nurses are ideal candidates to be early adapters of electronic patient records because of the high degree of mobility in their profession, their front-line role in the new health care system, their lack of a support structure at the point of care, and the excessive nursing time spent on documentation. Successful systems will be based on consideration of the clinician's working environment and computer skills, the interaction between the patient and the clinician, and the need for a record capable of supporting the sophisticated requirements of managed care.