Managing patient records and documenting service delivery: the results of a 'best practice' remote area nursing program.
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.
Wilks
J
J
School of Law, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia.
Barnes
J
J
Paul
K
K
Wood
M
M
Jones
D
D
D019985:Benchmarking; D005260:Female; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D006780:Hospitals, Rural; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000592:standards*; D009731:Nursing Audit; D009737:Nursing Records / Q000592:standards*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011793:Queensland; D012189:Retrospective Studies