The effect of computer-generated reminders on charting deficiencies in the ICU.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the effect of computer-generated reminders on nurse charting deficiencies in two intensive care units.

DESIGN

Nurses caring for a group of 60 study patients received patient-specific paper reminder reports when charting deficiencies were found at mid-day. Nurses caring for a group of 60 control patients received no reminders. A group of 60 retrospective patients was also formed.

MEASUREMENTS

The average numbers of charting deficiencies at the end of the shift in each of the three groups were compared using two planned orthogonal contrasts.

RESULTS

The average in the study group patients was 1.02 deficiencies per day per patient, whereas the control group the average was 1.40 deficiencies per day per patient (p = 0.001). The average number of end-of-shift deficiencies in the pooled prospective (study/control) population was 1.21 deficiencies per day per patient, compared with the average in the retrospective group of 1.56 deficiencies per day per patient (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The decrease was likely due both to the appropriate response of the nurses to the reminders and to a learned attentiveness to the tasks on the part of the nurses who cared for study patients. Greater gains were hindered by incomplete "coupling" of the reminders to the end-of-shift deficiencies and by inaccuracies in the reminders.