It’s long past shift change, and you’re exhausted and should be headed home. It’s been a monstrous day – the calls never stopped, with no downtime in between. You faced the full assortment of complex patients, difficult bystanders and uncomfortable scenes.

You survived it all and delivered strong care, but the paperwork’s not done and must be completed before you can sign off and return to your personal life. And that’s a challenge: You have numerous important details from multiple calls to recollect and add to complete your patient care reports, based on fragments of scribbled notes and other bits of information in assorted places. The right values and data elements must be identified, matched up and filled in, hopefully with no mistakes.

For many providers, that’s how charting has historically been completed: PCRs that ideally would have been finished with the patient’s care had to wait hours for piecemeal completion later or at the end of shift. Even as ePCRs replaced paper and medical devices advanced and data was more easily obtained, recorded and transferred, the harsh dictates of time and call volume could prevent the timely completion of all fields.

Technology can’t buy you more time. It can, however, simplify and streamline your tasks so they consume less.