Replacing Paper with Digital Recording

Abstract

Addressing the needs to achieve the highest standards at multidisciplinary team meetings at the Stroke Unit of Broomfield Hospital, an electronic version is applied instead of the traditional paper model. This is to ensure that patients within the unit are receiving appropriate care and their progress is monitored throughout their entire journey. This also enables the stroke team to retrieve old information anywhere in the hospital, electronically, from previous documentations to compare progress of rehabilitation. The electronic model also helps when assessing readmission or those who attend the stroke clinics to clarify new onset changes from residual weakness. The tool kit estimates Barthel Index score for activities of daily living and Rivermead Mobility Index for physical capacity assessment weekly as the team attending the meetings. The goals from all disciplines, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and nurses are clearly documented along with patient cognition, emotion, and perception. This initiative commenced in late April 2013 and the first clinical outcome assessments performed at the beginning of September 2013, enabling the stroke team to assess rehabilitation activities and achievements. Front-line staff expressed satisfaction with the initiative model, which successfully managed to monitor and analyze the rehabilitation activities within the stroke unit.