Is asthma documentation improved by computer-facilitated data entry?

The documentation of acute asthma in written medical records was compared with data entered into a Computer-Assisted Triage System (CATS) in 104 children who presented to the emergency department and subsequently admitted to the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney. A total of 65 items in 5 categories were analysed and satisfactory documentation was defined as the recording of a specific item in more than 80% of records (written or electronic). Satisfactory documentation was observed for all 6 items in visit details and 9 out of 10 items in triage details for both recording systems. Nursing observations were better documented in the medical record than in CATS (87 vs 25%; kappa = 0.63). Documentation of medical details was also worse in CATS (75 vs 25%; kappa = 0.24) and the documentation of asthma severity was poor in both systems (31 vs 0%; kappa = 0.31). Attempts to improve asthma documentation through the development of a computerized medical record have highlighted further barriers to documentation.