Js. Hammer et al., OPERATIONALIZING A BEDSIDE PEN ENTRY NOTEBOOK CLINICAL DATABASE SYSTEM IN CONSULTATION-LIAISON PSYCHIATRY, General hospital psychiatry, 17(3), 1995, pp. 165-172
No current system of computerized data entry of clinical information i
n consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry has been well received or has
demonstrated that it saves the consultant's time. The inability to ach
ieve accurate, complete, systematic collection of discrete variables a
nd data entry in the harried C-L setting is a major impediment to the
advancement of the subspecialty and health services research. The hand
-held Notebook computer with Windows PEN ENTRY MICRO-CARES capabilitie
s has permitted one-time direct entry of data at the time of collectio
n at the patient's bedside. Variable choice and selection enhances the
completeness and accuracy of data collection. For example, ICD-9, Axi
s III diagnoses may be selected from a ''look-up'' which at the same r
ime automatically assigns the appropriate code and diagnostic-related
groups (DRG) number. A patient narrative can be typed at the nurse's s
tation, a chart note printed for the medical record, and the MICRO-CAR
ES literature database perused with the printing of selected citations
, abstracts, and in some cases experts' commentaries for the consultee
. The consultant's documentation time is halved using tile NOTEBOOK WI
NDOWS PEN ENTRY MICRO-CARES software, with the advantage of move accur
ate and complete data description than with the traditional handwritte
n consultation records, Consultees preferred typewritten in contrast t
o handwritten notes. The cost of the hardware (about $2000) is less th
an that of an optical scanner, and it permits report generation and ar
chival searches at the nurses' station without returning to the C-L of
fice for scanning. Radio frequency or ethernet download from the Noteb
ook permits direct data transfer to th C-L office archive computer.