Breaking in a completely new computer system at work from scratch is about as much fun as slamming your junk in a drawer. Two hundred times an hour.
There are two immutable rules about Electronic Medical Records (more leftover PITA thanks to Obozo's idiocy and meddling):
1) Everyone at every hospital thinks their EMR is the worst that's ever existed.
2) Everyone is correct.
I need more middle fingers.
Epic?
ReplyDeleteEpic would be the least horrible option.
ReplyDeleteBut no.
I worked in IT on Epic from 2007 until I was fired in 2021 for refusing the clot shot.
ReplyDeleteLeast horrible is a good way to phrase it.
EPIC, it is said, makes it very difficult for practitioners to record accurate C-19 vax status. Only patients with in-system vax records are recorded as vaxed -(so no CVS, etc recipients which was the norm). Everyone else gets an "unknown" - you need to dive down to some text entry screens to record as text any other vax assessment - which almost nobody does.
ReplyDeleteAnd your less-than-most-horrible app? ... I also thought EPIC was pretty much THE only option ... maybe not in fly-over country?
Nothing like going to an appointment for a specialist that you've waited five months for and their cloud system is useless because the interwebs are down. No records.
ReplyDeleteCan't tell why you're here.
BTW, having survived cancer, I have an entourage of docs I see. Most of the specialists take time to talk. I've seen bad changes since Obama care. Each one is different. They do one or more of these:
1. Aren't taking new patients. Tired of the BS ppw, and ratwheel, they've settled on their steady customer base. This would be my guts doctor. He's in his 40s.
2. They have office hours twice a week, the other day or two they are doing procedures. When in the office, they are very quick. You're outta there in 20 minutes. This would be my ENT Oncologist. They spend a minimum of time. They'll never call you. You have to deal with the office staff, who are 'indigenous' and morons. This doc is in his 40s
3. They only do procedures now. You see the PA instead. If you need a procedure, you'll see him then. This is the pain management doc, and sort of the doc in #1 now. This doc is late 30s, early 40s. Young dude.
4. They start a concierge service. You pay $2500/yr for total service. Otherwise, you see the PA. This would be my endocrinologist. Last appointment I actually saw him. I said "wow! the great man is in the house! I'm honored" he said the PA was sick. Nice guy though. Real sharp.
Most of the others, if they aren't tapping on their computer as they talk to you, they have a scribe in the room, or connected to india over the interwebs for one.
And that is the worst thing about Obamacare - they concentrate on the computer, not you. It's the ones above that don't, but then have to spend hours typing.
Aesop, there is something I don't understand; when did we start with the proposition that medical records were NOT the patient's property??
ReplyDeleteI lived in the Soviet Union, later Russian Republic, for a while and to this day I still possess the medical records, doctors notes, and invoices for any procedure done to me. Hell their system still has the provision that it is up to the patient to buy the consumables needed for pending procedures. (at the hospital, or elsewhere of patients choice.)
So crazy that in a communist system you have/had some freedom of choice. Here in a capitalist system, asking for a copy of your medical records is considered a heresy. Sigh. As an IT dude I feel your pain. I have gone thru enough system changes, updates, replacements to fill a Steven King novel, with all the horror that goes with it.
Smells like cerner to me.
ReplyDeleteSP RN
My condolences. The bride and I have worked within EPIC shops (2 different hospital systems) and we have been patients in both.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice helping of Gold Bond Lotion (for the tingles) and another of Vaseline for the pain.
Night Driver.
you forgot rule 3: every administrator thinks it's just part of your job to learn a new system and any stress you feel is all you because everyone else can make it work and its sure to pay for itself in 1 year.
ReplyDeleteI’m a retired RN. I went through this at two different facilities.
ReplyDeleteMuch cursing ensued.
Good luck.
Gotta remember the people buying the software don't know shit and the people selling the software know its shit. Which means the people who have to deal with it are shoveling shit from now on. Had that experience thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteOuch. I haven't worked with said systems, but can only imagine the hellbrew of lawyers plus laws that form the backbone and core of the system.
ReplyDelete