Analysis of the effect of digital hospital efforts on paper savings in inpatient procedures and on the duration of nursing care services.

Background: This study has two primary objectives. Firstly, it aims to measure the time savings achieved through the digitization of paper forms filled out by nurses in the inpatient care process. Secondly, it seeks to reveal the financial savings resulting from reduced paper consumption due to the digitalization. The Health Information Management System Society (HIMSS)-Electronic Medical Record Adaption Model (EMRAM), which makes stage-based (0-7) evaluations, serves as a tool to measure the rate of technology utilization in public hospitals in Turkey. The study is based on the HIMSS EMRAM criteria for 2018. Bahçelievler State Hospital, a public hospital in Turkey, was chosen as the research facility. In 2017, it was accredited as Stage 6 with HIMSS EMRAM. However, not all its wards have been digitalized. Initially, pilot selected wards were digitized. Therefore, digital and non-digital wards serve together. In this context, 4 wards were randomly selected and time, paper and toner savings before and after digitalization were measured. Method: A table was created in Microsoft Excel,listing the forms used by nurses in inpatient care and the time required to fill them out.The time spent for filling paper-based forms and digital-based forms was measured in randomly selected wards. Result: The analysis showed that digital forms saved more time, paper and toner. For example, filling out the patient history form took 45 min when using paper, compared to 12 min in digital environment. Approximately 27% time savings are achieved only for the patient history form. The total time savings delivered by digitalization for 1,153 inpatients during the year were found as 117 care days, and the savings on total paper consumption was 41.289 pages. For 1,153 inpatients throughout the year, the total time savings from digitalization was 117 care days and the total paper consumption savings was 41,289 pages. In addition, in 4 wards with a total bed capacity of 25, annual paper savings of $1,705.86 and toner savings of $283,736 were achieved. Discussion: This study reveals the benefits of digitalisation in hospitals for nurses. It saves the time that nurses allocate for filling out paper forms with digitalised forms. Thus, it is a good practice example in terms of using the time allocated for form filling for patient care.When we extend this study to Turkey in general, it can be considered that the time savings achieved by nurses by digitizing inpatient forms varies between 10.8% and 13%. The number of nurses working in public hospitals in Turkey is approximately 160,000. Assuming that 60% of the nurses work in the inpatient ward, it is understood that the annual savings achieved by digitizing the forms corresponds to a range of 398-559 nursing hours.

JCI, SKS için bir dizi standart ve gösterge önerisive HIMSS-EMRAM kalite degerlendirme modelleri.

Objective: The Joint Commission International (JCI) and the Health Information Management System Society (HIMSS) are global accreditation groups for healthcare. JCI focuses on overall care quality, while HIMSS-Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) looks at digital processes. Meanwhile, the Health Quality Standards (SKS) is Turkey's own system. It aligns with JCI and evaluates healthcare similarly. When a health institution wants to be accredited with one of these models, similar scope, process and criteria are repeatedly reviewed from different perspectives. However, it is not known whether the scope, process and criteria included in these models are related to the postmodern management approach (PMMA), which is one of today's business approaches. It is observed that today's businesses are dominated by PMMAs. Similarly, healthcare organizations are also influenced by PMMAs since they are qualified as businesses. Yöntemler: This study investigated the compatibility of the concepts, processes and criteria covered by SKS, JCI and HIMSS-EMRAM models with PMMAs. Using the Delphi technique, PMMAs were explained to subject-matter experts (SMEs) in the form of written texts delivered. SMEs evaluated whether the standards/criteria are compatible with PMMAs. During this evaluation, they examined whether the standard/criteria included in the relevant model are directly or indirectly indicative of these approaches. SMEs developed their standards/criteria for the approaches which no standards/criteria could be matched with. The binary pairwise comparison method was used to determine the weighted value of the proposed standards/criteria. Sonuçlar: SMEs proposed a total of 24 standards and 18 indicators for nine postmodern organizational management approaches. Conclusion: The literature presented a proposal for new standards and indicators. They would be unique. They would address how well these three models fit the PMMA.

Basic electronic health record (EHR) adoption in **Türkiye is nearly complete but challenges persist.

BACKGROUND: The digitalization studies in public hospitals in Türkiye started with the Health Transformation Program in 2003. As digitalization was accomplished, the policymakers needed to measure hospitals' electronic health record (EHR) usage and adoptions. The ministry of health has been measuring the dissemination of meaningful usage and adoption of EHR since 2013 using Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM). The first published study about this analysis covered the surveys applied between 2013 and 2017. The results showed that 63.1% of all hospitals in Türkiye had at least basic EHR functions, and 36% had comprehensive EHR functions. Measuring the countrywide EHR adoption level is becoming popular in the world. This study aims to measure adoption levels of EHR in public hospitals in Türkiye, indicate the change to the previous study, and make a benchmark with other countries measuring national EHR adoption levels. The research question of this study is to reveal whether there has been a change in the adoption level of EHR in the three years since 2018 in Türkiye. Also, make a benchmark with other countries such as the US, Japan, and China in country-wide EHR adoption in 2021. METHODS: In 2021, 717 public hospitals actively operating in Türkiye completed the EMRAM survey. The survey results, deals with five topics (General Stage Status, Information Technology Security, Electronic Health Record/Clinical Data Repository, Clinical Documentation, Closed-Loop Management), was reviewed by the authors. Survey data were compared according to hospital type (Specialty Hospitals, General Hospitals, Teaching and Research Hospitals) in terms of general stage status. The data obtained from the survey results were analyzed with QlikView Personal Edition. The availability and prevalence of medical information systems and EHR functions and their use were measured. RESULTS: We found that 33.7% of public hospitals in Türkiye have only basic EHR functions, and 66.3% have extensive EHR functions, which yields that all hospitals (100%) have at least basic EHR functions. That means remarkable progress from the previous study covering 2013 and 2017. This level also indicates that Türkiye has slightly better adoption from the US (96%) and much better than China (85.3%) and Korea (58.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Although there has been outstanding (50%) progress since 2017 in Turkish public hospitals, it seems there is still a long way to disseminate comprehensive EHR functions, such as closed-loop medication administration, clinical decision support systems, patient engagement, etc. Measuring the stage of EHR adoption at regular intervals and on analytical scales is an effective management tool for policymakers. The bottom-up adoption approach established for adopting and managing EHR functions in the US has also yielded successful results in Türkiye.

The effect of digitalization of nursing forms in ICUs on time and cost.

OBJECTIVE: Intensive Care Units are one of the areas with the lowest digitization rate. This study aims to measure the effect of digitizing medical records kept in paper forms in ICUs on time-saving and paper consumption. In our study, care forms in ICUs were transferred to digital media. In our research, care forms in ICUs were transferred to digital media. METHODS: The time required to fill out the nursing care forms on paper and digital media was measured, the change in paper and printer costs was determined, and the results were compared. Two volunteer nurses working in the ICU of a university hospital in Istanbul measured the time it took to fill out the forms of patients on paper. Then, a future projection was made using digital form data of 5,420 care days of 428 patients hospitalized between October 2017 and September 2018. Only anonymous data of patients hospitalized in the general ICU were used, and other untempered were not included in the study. RESULTS: When the forms were filled in digitally by the nurses, one nurse per patient per day saved 56.82 min (3.95% per day). DISCUSSION: Health care services are provided in hospitals in Turkey with 28,353 adult intensive care beds and an occupancy rate of 68%. Based on the occupancy rate of 68%, the number of full beds is 19,280. When 56.82 min are saved per bed from the forms filled by the nurses, 760.71 care days are dedicated. Considering the salary of 1,428.67 US dollars per nurse, the savings to be achieved are estimated to be 13,040,804.8 US dollars per year.

Adoption rates of electronic health records in Turkish Hospitals and the relation with hospital sizes.

BACKGROUND: Nation-wide adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) in hospitals has become a Turkish policy priority in recognition of their benefits in maintaining the overall quality of clinical care. The electronic medical record maturity model (EMRAM) is a widely used survey tool developed by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) to measure the rate of adoption of EHR functions in a hospital or a secondary care setting. Turkey completed many standardizations and infrastructural improvement initiatives in the health information technology (IT) domain during the first phase of the Health Transformation Program between 2003 and 2017. Like the United States of America (USA), the Turkish Ministry of Health (MoH) applied a bottom-up approach to adopting EHRs in state hospitals. This study aims to measure adoption rates and levels of EHR use in state hospitals in Turkey and investigate any relationship between adoption and use and hospital size. METHODS: EMRAM surveys were completed by 600 (68.9%) state hospitals in Turkey between 2014 and 2017. The availability and prevalence of medical information systems and EHR functions and their use were measured. The association between hospital size and the availability/prevalence of EHR functions was also calculated. RESULTS: We found that 63.1% of all hospitals in Turkey have at least basic EHR functions, and 36% have comprehensive EHR functions, which compares favourably to the results of Korean hospitals in 2017, but unfavorably to the results of US hospitals in 2015 and 2017. Our findings suggest that smaller hospitals are better at adopting certain EHR functions than larger hospitals. CONCLUSION: Measuring the overall adoption rates of EHR functions is an emerging approach and a beneficial tool for the strategic management of countries. This study is the first one covering all state hospitals in a country using EMRAM. The bottom-up approach to adopting EHR in state hospitals that was successful in the USA has also been found to be successful in Turkey. The results are used by the Turkish MoH to disseminate the nation-wide benefits of EHR functions.