Problem focused integration of information, quality and process management with empirical research: The example of the Essen Interdisciplinary Pressure Ulcer Project.

Issues of information management, quality management, process management, and empirical research are often seen independently from each other. In the Essen interdisciplinary pressure ulcer project, they were integrated to establish a synergy between quality of care, economics and research. The electronic documentation of events and supplementary information was done with the hospital wide patient administration system. Feedback and automatically requests were used for quality improvement. Codes for reimbursement are generated from the clinical documentation. Research studies had been based on the routine documentation. Prerequisite was the cooperation of all relevant groups, nurses, physicians, informaticians, theoreticians and medical controller. In the future, it will be necessary to extend the approach to other relevant nursing problems and to replace the redundant documentation (paper-based as well as electronic) by an electronic health record.