Co-Designing Digital Health Applications: Unravelling the Importance of Mobile Bedside Documentation Practices

An estimated one in ten patients experiences an adverse event while receiving hospital care in a high-income country. Good clinical documentation is one of the cornerstones of patient safety. However, in the fast-paced and unpredictable environment of healthcare professionals, there remain challenges for real-time bedside documentation. We improve upon these challenges through digital transformation with a digital mobile application design. We identify the benefits and drawbacks of the desktop format in comparison to the digital mobile application for healthcare professionals in an empirical study based on an action design research project. The main contributions consist of five design guidelines: (i) seamless log-in/out process, (ii) utilizing scanning technologies, (iii) compatibility with other solutions, (iv) sufficient photo quality and security, and (v) comprehensive bedside documentation. Furthermore, we propose a mobile application design for digital mobile bedside documentation applications that follows these design guidelines.