In a ‘thesdan doctors’ office this afternoon for a routine visit, UD experienced, from within her bubble, postmodernity.
First came the affluence part. Affluence and ease.
The office was gorgeous, with stylishly stenciled huge glass doors to the waiting room. A bevy of friendly greeters greeted UD; they were pleased that she had already filled out the paperwork they mailed her a few days ago.
UD scanned the magazines available (Opera News, Washingtonian), grabbed one, and took a comfy seat. Flat screens here and there featured a soundless film about Antarctican bird life. Everyone in the waiting room gazed at its endless bright blue skies.
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Then came the technology part. Their computers, they announced, were working very slowly. Maybe they were even down. They were certainly down intermittently. “The doctors are running a little late. We apologize.”
So more bird gazing and opera updates… But after forty-five minutes had passed, UD told one of the greeters that she would have to leave.
“Oh, don’t do that. Let me check… You’re next. The nurse will be right here.”
Out she came and ushered UD into the doctor’s examining room, where the deal clearly was that UD was supposed to continue the same wait there.
So after fifteen minutes UD got up and started to leave the doctors’ office.
“I’ll knock on the doctor’s door. Don’t leave,” said the nurse. “He’ll be right there.”
UD went back to the examining room but this time she didn’t sit down. She was willing to mill around the small space for another five minutes but that was it.
In came the very apologetic doctor. “Our computers are down! I’ve been in my office trying to connect!”
May 2nd, 2016 at 10:45PM
My term for this is McLuhanesque. The medium of the electronic health record has displaced the original human work of the medical practice. And it will only get worse. Roy Poses and Scot Silverstein remind us of these issues week in and week out on the Health Care Renewal weblog.
May 4th, 2016 at 3:02PM
The situation with electronic medical record systems seems to be quite serious. I know of a hospital where 3 or 4 different systems, serving different areas of the hospital, were consolidated into a single system without much intelligent thought being applied. The result was that a physician seeing a pregnant woman in the obstetrics ward is now prompted to answer questions about the state of her prostate. It’s even worse, I believe, in the emergency department.
Michael Kennedy, one of my Chicago Boyz co-bloggers who is a physician, says that some prospective young doctors are actually leaving the field because dealing with EMRs is so awful
I think we may see a new job category…we could call them ‘scribes’…whose role will be to set next to the doctor or in the operating room and handle the data entry for the EMR system. There is something similar in Air Traffic Control; especially at busy times, a radar controller will have 1 or more assistants to do data entry and conduct handoffs to other positions, etc. The difference is that the ATC computer system was actually designed with the intent of being helpful to the controller in doing his or her job, whereas today’s EMRs seem to have been largely designed for purposes other than assisting the treating physician.
May 4th, 2016 at 3:29PM
david: I think that in some offices a sort of “scribe” already exists.
May 4th, 2016 at 7:29PM
Indeed they do. I have encountered them in two specialty practices. Meanwhile, when I go to see my primary care physician he spends most of his time mashing the computer keyboard, sputtering at it, and ignoring me.
May 6th, 2016 at 7:54PM
Yeah, doctors were always on time and showed perfect bedside manners before the EMR arrived.