The organizational and clinical impact of integrating bedside equipment to an information system: A systematic literature review of patient data management systems (PDMS)

• Few articles provide sufficient information describing the implementation of a PDMS.
• A PDMS reduces the charting time, increases direct patient care and reduce errors.
• The workflow should be optimized to integrate the PDMS in the patient care process.

ObjectiveThe introduction of an information system integrated to bedside equipment requires significant financial and resource investment; therefore understanding the potential impact is beneficial for decision-makers. However, no systematic literature reviews (SLRs) focus on this topic. This SLR aims to gather evidence on the impact of the aforementioned system, also known as a patient data management system (PDMS) on both organizational and clinical outcomes.Materials and MethodsA literature search was performed using the databases Medline/PubMed and CINHAL for English articles published between January 2000 and December 2012. A quality assessment was performed on articles deemed relevant for the SLR.ResultsEighteen articles were included in the SLR. Sixteen articles investigated the impact of a PDMS on the organizational outcomes, comprising descriptive, quantitative and qualitative studies. A PDMS was found to reduce the charting time, increase the time spent on direct patient care and reduce the occurrence of errors. Only two articles investigated the clinical impact of a PDMS. Both reported an improvement in clinical outcomes when a PDMS was integrated with a clinical decision support system (CDSS).ConclusionsA PDMS has shown to offer many advantages in both the efficiency and the quality of care delivered to the patient. In addition, a PDMS integrated to a CDSS may improve clinical outcomes, although further studies are required for validation.