Time-Consuming Documentation in the Care Industry: Background and Solutions

How much time do you estimate your nursing home staff spend on documentation each week? 5 hours, 8 hours, or more? In a study conducted by Nuance, researchers wanted to know exactly what percentage of working time is spent on writing and reviewing documents. The result? The social care staff surveyed spent a whopping third of their time just on documentation tasks.

Applied to the social care industry, this would amount to 13 hours based on a regular working week of 40 hours. 13 hours of handling and dealing with documentation – that not only sounds like a lot, it is a lot! This figure illustrates how inefficient nursing home documentation can be. In times of staff shortages and high costs, no social care provider can afford to lose valuable working time due to time-consuming documentation. Read this blog post to discover why documentation is often so time-consuming for care workers and how technological solutions can significantly reduce this workload.

Why Is Documentation in the Social Care Industry so Time-Consuming?

Care documentation is part and parcel of the social care sector. It contains a detailed overview and list of all care procedures, recording successes and failures in dealing with and treating those in need of care. Without such comprehensive documentation, quality management would simply not be possible.

What’s more, communication between those involved is predominantly based on written documentation: every action is recorded, ensuring that relevant individuals are informed about the current state of affairs at all times. The documentation is also used for self-reflection – similar to a mirror in which social care staff can review their interactions with patients. This helps to minimize the number of errors in social care.

There can be no doubt whatsoever that care documentation is indispensable. It must be created, maintained, and read for the benefit of all. However, it is often an unpleasant aspect of a carer's daily routine and a bone of contention for many care professionals. In most cases, care documentation is an error-prone, burdensome, and tedious task. There are several reasons for this:

1.- Extensive documentation requirements

“I have to pay attention to a lot of things when updating the documentation – it eats up a lot of my valuable time.”

Care documentation must be comprehensive in order to ensure the quality of patient care and comply with regulatory requirements. In terms of content, carers are required to document a variety of aspects, ranging from medical treatment to administrative processes. The aim is for others to be able to understand what decisions have been made and what resources used. As such, the documentation should be crystal clear, standardized, and act as much more than just an internal memory aid.

In addition, the documentation must meet data security and data protection requirements – something that demands additional care, procedures, and checks. The data collected in the documentation system must be stored securely in accordance with EU data protection regulations, particularly the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The data must not fall into unauthorized hands, while at the same time clients must be fully informed about where the data is stored and how it is processed.

2.- Manual documentation in heterogeneous systems

“I write every word by hand.”

In many nursing homes, documentation is still done manually on paper or in outdated electronic systems. Entering information manually consumes time that is then not spent on direct patient care. Different nursing homes use different documentation systems that don't always integrate well with each other, resulting in duplicated work, confusion, and inefficient transfer of data.

3.- Repetitive tasks

“I waste time because I have to enter the same data in different forms and logs.”

Carers often have to update and repeat similar information on a regular basis. This is both necessary and time-consuming, as a lot of information has to be recorded across different documents. A typical example of repetitive documentation in the care sector is the regular recording of vital parameters such as blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. These must then be listed separately, e.g., in the care report, in the documentation of medication administration, and in the emergency protocol.

4.- Real-time documentation under high work pressure

“The time I spend in the car documenting information after the appointment would be better spent caring for my patients.”

Care staff follow a tight schedule that leaves them very little time between patients. During this time, they have to travel, collect the necessary work equipment, and complete the documentation. If they have to fill out the documentation at a fixed PC workstation, it means they have to return there every time, which just causes additional stress.

Documenting in real time during or shortly after patient care is perceived as an additional burden. This is because it takes care staff away from their actual work and forces them to constantly deal with the bureaucratic demands of documentation.

5.- Lack of training

“The software just doesn’t work properly. It never does what I want it to do!”

Care staff are usually not sufficiently trained in using the relevant documentation systems. They struggle with the technology, invent manual workarounds, and waste a lot of time in the process. Not only does this slow down the documentation process; it also decreases the quality of the documentation itself.

The trend towards temporary work in the care sector is exacerbating this problem, as it means carers are working across different care services on a weekly basis. If new staff have to be integrated into existing routines and systems over and over again, it is incredibly difficult to maintain a high standard of training.

Efficient Care Documentation with myneva Software

The implications of time-consuming documentation for care service managers are serious. There is not as much time available for care. The quality of care can suffer as a result. Employee satisfaction may also decrease, making it even harder to retain good staff.

By contrast, efficient care documentation boosts the efficiency of the social institution and has a positive impact on the finances. But how can this be achieved? With modern software that solves all the problems mentioned above.

The myneva's documentation software:

• Uses mobile documentation solutions to minimize the time spent on documentation, helping to reduce stress levels for carers
• Automatically transfers information between different systems or documents
• Ensures compliance and adherence to regulatory requirements
• Improves the quality of care with systematic and error-free documentation
• Boosts employee productivity with predefined best practice processes and user-friendliness.

Want to know how much time you can save?

Request a personal consultation now here! Together we will discover how our technologies can transform how your company handles documentation in the social care sector.