Shared Living Providers (SLP) Experience Documentation Burden While Caring for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD)

Shared living providers (SLPs) have identified administrative burden as a major contributor to burnout and the decreased effectiveness of care delivery. SLPs are individuals that allow persons with I/DD to reside in their residential home while providing caregiving support in daily living activities, community integration, and many other activities. This project addresses health information technology (HIT)-related documentation burden, which is a critical barrier to progress in the intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) support field. The aim of this study is to determine SLPs’ perception of documentation burden while caring for individuals with I/DD.MethodsSeventeen SLPs were surveyed to understand their perception of documentation burden to determine its role in burnout. The survey used to measure documentation burden was the Burden of Documentation for Nurses and Midwives (BurDoNsaM) survey. The BurDoNsaM is a 28-item validated survey, categorized using 6 subscales, representing essential areas of documentation burden. Three of the six subscale in the BurDoNsaM survey was used in this study. The three subscales included were: (1) views about value of clinical documentation, (2) burden of documentation, and (3) time taken to complete documentation. Seventeen of the 28 survey items were relevant to SLP duties and was included in our pilot study. SLPs were recruited after their clinic visit from University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) Munroe Meyer Institute (MMI) Adult I/DD clinic. Survey data was recorded and stored in a secure database. The data was summarized using descriptive statistics.DiscussionThis pilot study was able to identify the areas that cause documentation burden for SLPs. Respondents found value in clinical documentation. Despite its value, respondents reported that the documentation process complex and is time consuming. SLPs are required to comply with an increasing, wide-ranging body of requirements to deliver and receive payment for care of individuals with I/DD. The cost of compliance with these requirements has long term effects, such as, increased cognitive load and burnout. Limitations of this pilot study include a small sample size. Future research should include a larger sample size and qualitative data to further identify the specific areas that cause the most burden.