• Johanna I Westbrook, Ling Li, Andrew Georgiou, Richard Paoloni, and John Cullen.
• Faculty of Medicine, Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
• J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2013 Nov 1; 20 (6): 1150-8.

ObjectiveTo quantify and compare the time doctors and nurses spent on direct patient care, medication-related tasks, and interactions before and after electronic medication management system (eMMS) introduction.MethodsControlled pre-post, time and motion study of 129 doctors and nurses for 633.2 h on four wards in a 400-bed hospital in Sydney, Australia. We measured changes in proportions of time on tasks and interactions by period, intervention/control group, and profession.ResultseMMS was associated with no significant change in proportions of time spent on direct care or medication-related tasks relative to control wards. In the post-period control ward, doctors spent 19.7% (2 h/10 h shift) of their time on direct care and 7.4% (44.4 min/10 h shift) on medication tasks, compared to intervention ward doctors (25.7% (2.6 h/shift; p=0.08) and 8.5% (51 min/shift; p=0.40), respectively). Control ward nurses in the post-period spent 22.1% (1.9 h/8.5 h shift) of their time on direct care and 23.7% on medication tasks compared to intervention ward nurses (26.1% (2.2 h/shift; p=0.23) and 22.6% (1.9 h/shift; p=0.28), respectively). We found intervention ward doctors spent less time alone (p=0.0003) and more time with other doctors (p=0.003) and patients (p=0.009). Nurses on the intervention wards spent less time with doctors following eMMS introduction (p=0.0001).ConclusionseMMS introduction did not result in redistribution of time away from direct care or towards medication tasks. Work patterns observed on these intervention wards were associated with previously reported significant reductions in prescribing error rates relative to the control wards.

17 keywords...

hide…