Surgeons’ notes: a driver for more IT in theatres
Evidence of a growing demand from surgeons for their records to be made
on electronic media is set out in this article by Dr Dietmar Borchert
and colleagues from the Department of Surgery at Brighton and Sussex
University Hospitals.
ABSTRACT
The facility for surgeons to make notes electronically during and/or
after an operation and obtain an immediate printout of them is rare. The
authors state the case for more widespread use of such tools, citing
illegible handwriting and the absence of formal guidance in record making as
a barrier to learning the art of surgery and why postoperative management of
patients could be improved by the presence of standardised electronically
captured notes. Two surveys on the attitudes of surgeons towards the use of
computers for making notes in theatre were carried out. Results showed a
clear trend in favour of using electronic means, particularly among the more
computer literate responders, most of whom were registrars, senior house
officers and young surgical trainees. A call is made to the surgical
community to drive this new way of working forward.
Br J Healthcare Comput Info Manage 2006; 23(7): 19–21.
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