Table 1-.

Clinician Perceptions of Verbal and Documented Information Exchange

Verbal Information Exchange

(+) Resident: It’s a lot faster and easier to ask ‘Please, just verbally, quickly tell me what’s going on.’ (−) Nurse: It doesn’t all get written down [at rounds] and the night nurses don’t know, sometimes in the report it gets lost in transition...miscommunication or doesn’t get passed on, and you work twelve hours with one eye closed, basically not having all the information with you. (−) Resident: A third of the time, usually the event is communicated verbally and the issues or treatment and results are communicated verbally again, but nothing’s ever written down.

Documentation Information Exchange

(+) Resident: The [beside chart] of the nurse’s notes…past medical history and pertinent… a log of what happened. If I know a specific event happened, and I’m trying to get more details, that’s where I may go. (+) Nurse: Writing things down in succinct manner physically next to the patient is very helpful. Because [then] everyone’s very aware of it and people start saying, “Hey, did you see them?” “No, let’s call them again.” It’s very helpful in getting things done and communicating, because it’s written down, kind of almost set in stone once something’s written down. (−) Nurse: The computer system doesn’t even remotely match what’s going on with the patient. It’s ridiculous; there’ll be Cardizem hanging [intravenous medication] and no orders for it [in CPOE system].

(+) positive aspect of category, (−) negative aspect of category