Time differences in administrating and registration of medication in the Emergency Department

Rationale: Early administration of medication in the emergency department (ED) is essential when treating (life-threatening) diseases in patients. Quality parameters and protocols focus on timely administration of medication, for example the ‘golden hour’ in sepsis care. However, literature often reports time-to antibiotics is rarely accomplished within this advised hour. This could be due to inconsistencies in the time ED nurses administer the medication and the time of registration in the Electronic Health Record (EHR). When this inconsistency exist, reported time-to-medication data by retrospective studies in literature can be questioned.
Objective: to investigate the extent of inconsistencies between medication treatment administration time and registration time in the ED by nurses.
Study design: a prospective observational, time-motion study.
Study population: ED nurses en ED patients
Main study parameters/endpoints: The total number of patients in which administration time of the medication and registration time is inconsistent.
To identify factors (patient related and non-patient related) that are of influence on inconsistencies in administration time and registration time of medication.
Nature and extent of the burden associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: As this will be an observational study, there will be no burden of participation related to the study. Patients will receive standard care, as they always will. Nurses will not be rated or judged based on their performance.

We hypothesize that in many patients there will be an inconsistency between administrating medication and registration in the EHR of more than 15 minutes. Making retrospective studies drawing conclusions on data from the EHR less reliable.

ED visitation

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