Bedside Nursing Information Systems: A Competitive Advantage

The implementation of bedside nursing information systems (BNIS) may offer hospitals a competitive advantage. BNISs improve the productivity of nurses and medical unit staffs by reducing the time they spend on documentation and increasing the amount of quality time available to the patient. Currently, nurses spend about 30% of their time doing paperwork. BNISs are compatible with the major health care trends and resultant objectives. There are many indirect "soft" qualitative benefits associated with the implementation of BNISs: 1. improvement in quality of care, 2. access to information, 3. staff-patient-physician relations, 4. operational effectiveness, 5. organizational communication, and 6. timely capture of information and standardization of procedures. Some of the obstacles to utilization of BNISs are: 1. the acquisition costs associated with implementation, and 2. the legal aspects of electronic medical records.