KASIA BAIL Associate Professor in Nursing University of Canberra
LINDSAY BEVEGE Chief Executive, Humanetix Pty Ltd
DIANE GIBSON Distinguished Professor (Health and Ageing), Health Research Institute, University of Canberra
Improving the quality of healthcare? Not wasting clinicians’ time would help
Most submissions to government in health call for increased funding to improve outcomes for
applied in a variety of clinical environments. The evaluation by the University of Canberra was
patients and other consumers. But putting more
funded by the Australian Government. It found
funds into a wasteful system can exacerbate,
that ACE reduced staff time on ‘waste’ activities.
rather than solve, problems.
Nurses spent 6% less time searching for information
Studies from Australia and around the world show
and took 25% less steps per shift. Nurse time on
that nurses spend about 30% of their time on paper-
documentation fell from 20.4% to 6.4%, bringing
based and electronic records. There are roughly
total time saved by nurses to 20%.
1
280,000 FTE nurses in Australia, so maintaining
The overall quality of resident care increased:
these systems costs about $7.5 billion per year.
staff spent more time with residents; responded
Wasting nurse time in this way distracts from care. It is well established that more nurse time with patients means faster patient recovery, fewer readmissions and reduced lengths of hospital stays.2 A 2-year independent evaluation by the University
better to resident needs; and managed the ‘delicacies of dignity’ better. Quality of documentation improved, including legibility, completeness and data accessibility. Resident-focused goal setting rose from 56% to
of Canberra of a deployment of Humanetix ‘ACE’
88% and completed nursing evaluations rose from
in Jindalee Aged Care in the ACT found that ACE
31% to 88%. Completion of resident assessments
improved the quality of care while increasing
increased from 68% to 96%. Documentation of the
efficiency and saving employee time.
nursing process increased from a median score of
ACE is a point-of-care documentation, decisionsupport and clinical workflow system. It can be 60
The Health Advocate • AUGUST 2021
10 pre-implementation to a median score of 17, out of a possible score of 18.
