Identifying Reuse and Redundancies in Respiratory Flowsheet Documentation: Implications for Clinician Documentation Burden

Abstract

Documentation burden is experienced by clinical end-users of the electronic health record. Flowsheet measure reuse and clinical concept redundancy are two contributors to documentation burden. In this paper, we described nursing flowsheet documentation hierarchy and frequency of use for one month from two hospitals in our health system. We examined respiratory care management documentation in greater detail. We found 59 instances of reuse of respiratory care flowsheet measure fields over two or more templates and groups, and 5 instances of clinical concept redundancy. Flowsheet measure fields for physical assessment observations and measurements were the most frequently documented and most reused, whereas respiratory intervention documentation was less frequently reused. Further research should investigate the relationship between flowsheet measure reuse and redundancy and EHR information overload and documentation burden.