Clinical simulation and workflow by use of two clinical information systems, the electronic health record and digital dictation.

Clinical information systems do not always support clinician workflows. An increasing number of unintended clinical incidents might be related to implementation of clinical information systems and to a new registration praxis of unintended clinical incidents. Evidence of performing clinical simulations before implementation of new clinical information systems provides the basis for use of this method. The intention has been to evaluate patient safety issues, functionality, workflow, and usefulness of a new solution before implementation in the hospitals. Use of a solution which integrates digital dictation and the EHR (electronic health record) were simulated in realistic and controlled clinical environments. Useful information dealing with workflow and patient safety were obtained. The clinical simulation demonstrated that the EHR locks during use of the integration of digital dictation, thus making it impossible to use the EHR or connected applications during digital dictation. The results of the simulations showed that the tested and evaluated solution does not support the clinical workflow. Conducting the simulations enabled us to improve the solution before implementation, but further development is necessary before implementation of the solution.