Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

More Time for Patients

Electronic health records may create less paperwork, but documentation can still be time-consuming and expensive. Covenant Health System in Lubbock, Texas, used Lean methodology to improve nursing documentation at its 1,103-bed system, which serves West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Covenant first stripped away all unnecessary documentation, eliminated errors and redundancy, and improved flow in the process. Focusing on building documentation that would lead to better patient care, the health system defined what needed documentation, clarified regulatory requirements, and created standard work for formatting all forms. Results include a $30,000 annual reduction in printing costs and a nearly 50 percent reduction in time spent handling documentation. Covenant calculated that 180 minutes per 12-hour shift were gained and "given back" to nurses and patients, and $11.7 million formerly spent on nursing documentation is now applied to direct patient care. For more information, contact Karen Baggerly, R.N., vice president and chief nursing officer, at kbaggerly@covhs.org.