The relationship between type of care planning system and patient outcomes in hospitalized AIDS patients

The purpose of this study was to describe the problems of HIV-infected patients, hospitalized for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), as documented in the nursing care plan and to examine differences in the number and type of activated patient problems and patient outcomes between manually generated, computer-supported, and standardized care planning systems. Of the sample, 22% had no care plan. In the computer-supported care planning system the fewest number of care plans were completed. The total number of problems generated for the 89 patients having care plans was 199. The problems were categorized as PCP-related (37%), AIDS-related (16%), psychosocial (23%), knowledge deficit (14%), and other (10%). There were significant differences among the three groups in the total number of problems, PCP-related problems, and knowledge deficit problems. There were no statistically significant differences in patient outcomes, as measured by HIV-QAM scale scores and patient self-rating of physical condition approximately 1 week after admission, and length of stay among the three care planning systems. Future research is needed to examine the effect of type of care planning system on the quality of patient care.