Prolonged waiting times are a common source of patient dissatisfaction and complaints. As most Emergency Department (ED) patients are discharged from ED, the time required for documentation can lead to delays in disposition and contribute to patient access and flow issues.
Reducing time spent on clinical documentation allows clinicians to spend more of their workday on clinical care. Non-digital hospitals have limited tools to improve documentation quality. The use of Dragon Medical One voice dictation software allows clinicians to create clinical documentation significantly faster than typing alone, and the use of auto-text templates supports a more comprehensive documentation process.
Over a six-month period, the project team introduced dictation software and workflow at Gladstone ED with local medical, nursing, and administrative support. Clinicians saved 83 hours in June 2024, with improvement in timely documentation completion rates, improvements in consistency of documentation, reduction in clinicians staying late to complete notes, and overall improved quality of clinical records, particularly in clinicians who spoke a language other than English at home.
