Supporting Patient Care in the Emergency Department with a Computerized Whiteboard System
- aDepartment of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
- bDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
- Correspondence: Dominik Aronsky, MD, PhD, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Eskind Biomedical Library, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2209 Garland Ave, Nashville, TN 37232-8340 (e-mail: <dominik.aronsky{at}vanderbilt.edu>)
- Received 24 April 2007
- Accepted 8 November 2007
Abstract
Efficient information management and communication within the emergency department (ED) is essential to providing timely and high-quality patient care. The ED whiteboard (census board) usually serves as an ED’s central access point for operational and patient-related information. This article describes the design, functionality, and experiences with a computerized ED whiteboard, which has the ability to display relevant operational and patient-related information in real time. Embedded functionality, additional whiteboard views, and the integration with ED and institutional information system components, such as the computerized patient record or the provider order entry system, provide rapid access to more detailed information. As an information center, the computerized whiteboard supports our ED environment not only for providing patient care, but also for operational, educational, and research activities.
Footnotes
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This work was supported in part by grant National Library of Medicine R21 LM009002-01.
