Managing patient records and documenting service delivery: the results of a 'best practice' remote area nursing...

This paper describes a 'best practice' demonstration program for monitoring nursing services in remote locations. A four-phase project involving paper- and computer-based patient information systems was implemented at nursing clinics on islands off the coast of Queensland. Patient demographics, diagnoses and details of health service provision were recorded. Results showed a marked improvement in the detail of patient records over the program period. Monitoring of services also provided useful planning and policy information for company management, while a systematic approach to maintaining patient records addressed several medico-legal issues.