Health Care Documentation Management in Hospital Conditions
Authors: Ovčina Amer , Marušić Jasmina , Hajdarević Amela , Spasojević Nada , Eminović Ernela , Mušanović Selveta 
Published: October 2020

Healthcare documentation or nursing documentation as often used in practice is the name of an indispensable part of a patient’s medical documentation, and documentation is an integral part of a nurse’s daily work. Documenting health care in the hospital means recording data on all procedures performed, during the entire health care process for the individual, all for the purpose of systematic monitoring, planning and evaluation of the quality of health care. Nursing documentation serves as a means of communication between the team and is of great importance for the quality and continuity of health care.
AIMS: 1 - To determine the existence of health care documentation in hospital health care institutions; 2 - Examine the importance and purpose of documenting health care among nurses-medical technicians; 3 - Examine the practice of nurses-medical technicians in the process of administering health care; 4 - Present quality indicators that are monitored and analyzed through health care documentation; 5 - Compare the obtained results in two examined areas.
METHODS: This research was conducted in two geographically separate areas of Sarajevo and Travnik. The study involved 210 respondents, 147 nurses-technicians employed at the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo and 63 nurses-technicians employed at the General Hospital in Travnik. Data collection for research was carried out by exploratory and descriptive method. An original authorized questionnaire was used for the descriptive research. The questionnaire was made available to respondents in the electronic form trough Google Forms. The anonymity of the respondents was fully guaranteed. The survey was conducted in the period from July 15- August 15, 2019.
RESULTS: At the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo (CCU), 98% of respondents use health care documentation forms on a daily basis, and at the General Hospital Travnik 77.8% of respondents. In CCU Sarajevo, respondents use more standardized forms of health care documentation, 97.6%, compared to respondents in the General Hospital Travnik, where the documenting is carries out in nursing records, 74.6%. 68% of respondents at CCU Sarajevo believe that documentation contributes to the evaluation of nursing services, while only 19% of re-spondents at General Hospital Travnik believe the same. As the most common shortcomings, the respondents state the lack of computer technology in the department in 74.3%, then adequate premises for document administration in 37.6%, the lack of forms in printed form in 32.1% and 6 or 2.3% respondents did not answer this question.
In both institutions, the biggest shortcoming is the problem of computer equipment in the department, in 70.7% in CCU Sarajevo and 82.5% in General Hospital Travnik.
CONCLUSIONS: The research found that over 95% of respondents use standardized health care processes in their daily practice, document health care, know the basic purpose and monitor health care indicators. More than 90% of respondents in both study groups use health care documentation to plan health care and monitor its outcomes. More than half of respondents in both study groups stated that documenting health care is a problem because it consumes a lot of time. A larger number of respondents from both groups, as many as 30%, state that they do not use the data from the health care documentation for any purpose. The lack of workers in the health care process, insufficient knowledge of information technologies, and the lack of an information system represent an aggravating circumstance in documenting the health care process.