Volume 12. Printed Paper Proformas for Maternal & Neonatal Care

(& some Gynaecology)

Volume Editor needed.

If interested in the possibility of editing this volume  Click here

To see a sample page: Click here

Discussion Links: Pending

 

"The paperless office is about as likely as the paperless bathroom."

(Pete Seelos, US Department of Defense, May 1983) 

 

Summary

 

Once it is accepted that in Acute Medicine the Electronic Patient Record is different from, but complementary to, the paper record the power of the computer needs to be used as a desktop publisher to facilitate the careful development of the highest quality of such paper proformas.

 

The basic principles needed to create such proformas are set out in www.fawdry.info/eepd/12_frm/Design.pdf√, and in greater detail in the Introduction to Volume 12 (See below)

 

The potential for improvement in the quality of care that such proformas can facilitate is illustrated by the an audit of the documentation of as simple an operation as a D & C is illustrated in www.fawdry.info/eepd/12_frm/Raslan.pdf√

 

As with maternity casenotes the diffusion of information about such proformas has until now been mainly a matter of chance

 

The long term aim of this volume will therefore be  

a)   to suggest what items might need to be standardised 

      and what can be left flexible. 

b)   to facilitate access to a “gold standard” version.

 

Even if eventually we do enter data straight onto the computer all good cost-effective computer systems depend on getting the paperwork right first.  By far the commonest complaint I hear about medical IT systems is “ We would so like to make numerous improvement but have been told it is too expensive.” That is inherent in the nature of computing.  There is only one long term solution which “get it right on paper first” before starting to design the computer system, especially get the paper proformas right as the first step

 

This can be vividly illustrated by the fact that the most recent version of my paper Caesarean Section Proforma is the 53rd version!

 www.fawdry.info/eepd/12_frm/mat/e_event/OpCS-O.pdf√

 

It has taken many years to get it so nearly right, but I still regularly find ways to improve it.

 

Only by developing good paper proformas first will we be able to cost effectively create an electronic version for use with each operation.

 

And if we try to computerise without getting it right on paper first the only result will be that we will have to live with extremely poor quality systems which are too expensive to improve.  

(Updated 22 Aug 2010 )

 

Introduction www.fawdry.info/eepd/12_frm/Intro12.pdf√