Many doctors find computers and typing time-consuming. Which is one reason why EHRs are so slow to catch on:
Basically it takes a doctor less than 5 minutes to find out whats wrong with the patient and now he goes to the computer and is transformed into a white coat wearing secretary who has to spend more that 20 minutes doing clerical busy work. Patients build up, and are waiting longer to be seen, doctors are stressed and unhappy, and there is a communication breakdown. Last week we actually had a few patients walk out after waiting for a few hours. Go technology!
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{ 9 comments }
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So learn how to type, like the rest of the world. Take a computer course. Lots of other people somehow are able to do this and we’re not anywhere near as smart as physicians. Oh wait. Maybe we are.
Hey smarty pants above. I’m not a court reporter but I do type 90 words per minute. However, do you want me to spend my time typing, entering orders, retrieving lab results, etc… that a secretary can do, or do you want me actually seeing and taking care of patients and thinking about their care?
There’s a Kaiser training video showing the doctor focusing on the computer rather than the patient posted on my blog. http://corphq.livejournal.com
Anonymous 12:02 p.m., I suspect you have just offended a lot of secretaries with your condescension.
I’m not sure why kaiserfraud thinks he brings credibility to the discussion. It’s not like he’s completely unbiased or anything.
Buh-bye, losers!
I am not condesending to secretaries. They can do the secretary duties better than me. Why not have them do that? Or do you want them treating the patients. Your panties are sure bunched tight. SHEEESH.
You know ,everyone needs to just breathe. True, EMR do not not speed up the clinical encounter. But their power lies is enabling us to deliver better care.
So stop harping on EMRs. The problem lies in that every doctor practices hamster medicine. Due to well know reasons, we jsut don’t have time. Don’t have time ot build pt doctr relations, to discuss depression, to discuss weight loss and smoking cesation, etc. We practice ractive medicine. Ever doctor wants ot practice good medicine but the systme forces us to see as many people in an hours as possible. Therefore, EMR is of course an obstacle. Until we chang the system to allows for more time with patients and longer office visits, and need for less churning, only then will EHRS power be truely realized.
I was at the North American Primary Care Research Group conf. about a month ago and a guy from Brown was there to talk about how family practice changed as they introduced the EHR into an academic practice. They found that once the docs trained in how to use the EHR, two things happened: the docs talked MORE with the patient and they learned to use the EHR as a new part of the patient encounter, giving patients access to their records and discussing things as they appeared in the record.
What the docs spent less time on was chasing down random bits of paper and calling up for labs that hadn’t made it into charts yet.
does the EHR suck if you don’t know wtf you’re doing? yeah.
Does it mean you have to type some things instead of scribbling on a piece of paper or leaving a tape for your secretary? yeah
Does it give you the chance to have a different and potentially better patient encounter? only if you let it
A simple solution for the typing-impaired physician would be to employ a transcription service that can either type notes from a tape or handwritten notes directly into the system. Once the patient’s data is entered into the system, I trust most doctors have the sense to recognize the enormous advantages of being able to pull up any patient info they need instantly, rather than having to chase papers down.
The VA’s record system is completely computerized, and even as a patient I can access my medical records online and print out my labs, CT scans, doctors’ notes or anything else instantly should I need to take them to another doctor, vs. the weeks to months it can take to get this from an outside doctor with a “paper” office. If I travel to another state, any doctor in the VA system can instantly pull up my CT scans, X-rays etc on the computer and view them for himself, as opposed to bringing in a radiologist’s report which may not be accurate or waiting forever to get film. Most of the doctors there seem to have adapted well to the system, and some have actually (gasp) taken the time to learn the system thoroughly enough to put it to tremendous good use.
Redhawk,
I run a medical transcription company. We actually do that for a few of our clients. We type their dictations into their systems, and they just approve it. If anyone MD is interested, email us at info@echoscribe.com
http://www.echoscribe.com
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