It took many meetings and a ton of phone calls but we finally have our medical centers EMR equipped with a feature that lets you actually see on the same screen what you need to take care of the patient. Better yet, it can be printed out and placed at the patients room so you can see the patient and then check everything without having to find a computer, log in and wade your way through all the sections of pure computer generated BS.
Originally, the patients chart was a way to keep track of important lab values and information that let you take care of the patient. This was its whole purpose and its most important purpose. It is now a billing, government compliance checking monster in its own right. More time is spent on the paperwork than the care. The actual stuff that you need to take care of the patient is lost in the sea of BS.
I was so happy that we were able to get it so the nurses could print off the single page review of the recent vitals, I/Os, meds and labs. Unfortunately, the medical centers attorneys are afraid that if this is left at the bedside where we used to keep the patients charts it would be both a JACHO and potential HIPPA issue so they made it so you can not print it! So here we go again, Ms. Jones is coding, someone please find a computer and log in and make their way through all the HIPPA screens and all the other BS to find out what meds she is on and what has been going on!
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2 comments:
Maybe that one-page summary could be transmitted to an IPad application, with the IPad hanging from the patient's bed rail, or IV stand.
Everything is better, and allowed, when it is electronic, and there is a keypad between you and the information.
The patient could play distracting computer games and type in his stream of impressions for the staff to review later.
There could also be a complaint/compliment form, choice of meal form, DNR preferences specification, and a convenient order form for items from the gift shop.
Hi Throckmorton - did you hear the Hallelujah Chorus singining with the heavens opened up when the first page printed out? ;) Sounds like a great accomplishment... but ..alas ...too good to be true for long. I'm sorry and can appreciate your frustration.
Off topic: I heard a small part of Rumsfeld interview yesterday and he mentioned that there are now 10,000 lawyers in the military. And paperwork has grown exponentially from 47 pages needed to put something through to hundreds of pages now. Thought you'd identify with that.
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