Ideas That Work: Shift to EMR Creates Additional Efficiencies

Practical pearls from your colleagues

When Hunterdon Center for Surgery in Flemington, N.J., shifted from paper charting to EMR, it acquired wheeled desks for the laptops its nurses and other providers would use in its ORs for electronic charting. While that’s already a huge upgrade for the center, the presence of the wheeled desks encouraged one nurse to hatch an additional idea to make the perioperative workday more efficient.

Previously, supplies like stethoscopes, pens and tape were stored on a bedside table in the Phase I recovery area, as well as in pockets and wall holders in the pre-op and post-op areas. “One of our nurses had the idea to get this neat little under-desk two-drawer basket,” says Executive Director Lisa York, MSN, RN, CASC, CAIP. “Now everything is nice and neat, and the supplies don’t go rolling all over.”

The dual basket clamps easily to the surface of the desk. The price, according to Ms. York? About $20 on Amazon. OSM