IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF MEDICAL CARE DOCUMENTATION USING VOICE-ACTIVATED WORD PROCESSORS

THIS PROJECT WILL BUILD ON PRIOR WORK SHOWING THAT A VOICE-ACTIVATED WORD PROCESSOR DOES A BETTER JOB OF DOCUMENTING EMERGENCY ROOM (ER) MEDICAL RECORDS THAN EITHER HANDWRITTEN DOCUMENTATION OR DOCUMENTATION THAT IS DICTATED AND TRANSCRIBED. THE SYSTEM IN QUESTION IS CALLED VOICEEM. RECOGNIZING CERTAIN LIMITATIONS TO THE EARLIER EXPERIMENTS, BIRCH & DAVIS ASSOCIATES PLANS TO TEST VOICEEM IN OTHER SETTINGS, USING ER PHYSICIANS AND ER SETTINGS. PHASE I OF THE PROJECT WILL BE DEVOTED TO IDENTIFYING AND RECRUITING TWO OR THREE ER PHYSICIAN GROUPS AND OBTAINING THE COOPERATION OF THE HOSPITALS IN WHICH THEY CURRENTLY PRACTICE. OTHER TASKS TO BE CONDUCTED IN PHASE I INCLUDE A LITERATURE SEARCH, A STUDY OF PATIENT AND WORKFLOW PROCEDURES IN EACH OF THE CANDIDATE ERS, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PHASE II STUDY DESIGN.