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elizabethv
elizabethv
6/8/2016 6:19:35 AM
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Platinum
So Confused
I am continually amazed and confused that it is taking so long for healthcare providers to create digital systems to keep track of clients data. This has always seemed like such a basic idea to me. You would think it would help with keeping track of patients allergies, medical history and needs. It should just make sense that doctors would benefit from this as much as patients. That the push is just now starting is beyond confusing to me.

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Ariella
Ariella
6/8/2016 8:59:49 AM
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Author
Re: So Confused
@elizabethv Let me tell you about the downside of that, though. My husband tried to make an appointment on Sunday morning but was told the office couldn't do anything because the computer system was down. The main part of the appointment was having his blood drawn and his blood pressure taken -- neither of which require hookup to a computer. But because the filing system there is a digital one, they didn't want to do anyting at all without access the the computer. 

In a hospital that is even worse. Nurses spend so much time entering the data on the patients into the computer systems that they ignore the patients who attempt to disrupt them by asking for something. I've seen this first-hand at hospitals that are rated among the best. 

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clrmoney
clrmoney
6/8/2016 11:18:34 AM
User Rank
Platinum
AT&T connected to Healthcare
I think this this is great foe At&T to be doing this theis the data services and products they have available to the public. So addind thsi to their repertoire would just increase more revenue for them.

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Michelle
Michelle
6/8/2016 2:29:51 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: So Confused
@Ariella I've seen a similar shift as digital health records came online. Providers are all very busy entering information into poorly designed systems rather than paying close attention to patient responses. My own medical record with one provider is rife with little inaccuracies that could have been prevented if my answers were recorded correctly. There's nothing live-threatening in all those mistakes, but it doesn't give an accurate picture of me as a patient. 

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Ariella
Ariella
6/8/2016 2:37:19 PM
User Rank
Author
Re: So Confused
@Michelle, indeed. Even for doctors who work for the same healthcare network, say LIJ, there is not the kind of record communication you would expect. For example, at my daughter's last checkup, I was surprised to learn that her doctor never got the information about her prescription from the specialist the doctor had referred her to. She still had the old dosage amount on her record, though it was changed nearly a year before. 

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faryl
faryl
6/8/2016 10:47:30 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: So Confused
Generally speaking, I like that my health care provider has everything online/digital, because I know everyone I see there has all of my records avaialble, and I especially like being able to see all of my lab results, etc. through my patient account.

That said, a couple of weeks ago I had to go to Urgent Care. They were in "triage" mode with an appx 4 hour wait time because a recent system upgrade took the whole system down - so every one of Sharp's Urgent Care locations were unable to to check patients in, access records, insurance, etc.

 

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elizabethv
elizabethv
6/9/2016 7:36:44 AM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: So Confused
@Ariella - There can be downsides to anything. When I worked fast food, customers used to give us a hard time when we wouldn't take orders when the electric went out and we didn't have registers. Make fun of us because we couldn't do math without the registers. Yet it had nothing to do with needing the registers to do math and everything to do with the fountains, that wouldn't run without electricity, and the actual register drawer that wouldn't open without it. So we were supposed to just sit the money on the counter? Find a random pencil box to collect it in?

Sure, it can be tedious to have to transfer written data to the computer (I actually have to do this very thing in my job daily) and if a nurse is ignoring her patients to do so, that sounds more like a nurse problem. (I happen to know they get specified time for charting, my best friend is a nurse.) And realistically, it can save lives. If a person is allerigic to a specific medication, but unconcious and unable to relay that information - a computerized system would tell doctors not to give it to that patient. Or even if they had previously been addicted to morphine, and overcome that addiction. If a doctor didn't know that, and gave them morphine while they were unconcious, they could potentially start a whole new horrible cycle for that person to deal with. To me, the benefits greatly outweigh the risks.

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elizabethv
elizabethv
6/9/2016 7:40:20 AM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: So Confused
@faryl - I agree, my doctors are all connected with an electronic file system, and I absolutely love it. Particularly that I can receive lab results on my phone in just a few hours. But holy wow! A 4 hour wait at urgent care! I don't even know how I would handle that. I had to wait 2 hours at the urgent care the other day with my two toddlers and I nearly lost my mind. Computers crashing are certainly the bane of all technology.

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Ariella
Ariella
6/9/2016 9:11:02 AM
User Rank
Author
Re: So Confused
@faryl my husband recently tried out an urgent care for the flu. He said the doctors were available, but the desk people didn't pay attention to send patients through. The doctor actually came out to look for his next patient. They also were having difficulty with their computer system. No one seemed able to figure it out.

But as for the data sharing, it just doesn't happen. When my son had surgery, the doctor who told him to go into the hospital never got the hospitalization record. We had to put in a request that only gave paper records to us. I'd guess they're concenred about privacy problems in passing it on to any other hands. And even within the system, like the radiologist report getting to the surgeon within the same hopital, the transfer is not necessarily automatic. Loads of times, we had to take the image in physical form -- even an X-ray itself because of that.

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Ariella
Ariella
6/9/2016 9:14:59 AM
User Rank
Author
Re: So Confused
@elizabethv I agree that it is good if it works as it should. Often, though, it does not. Plus there are additional concerns about the lack of security and the lack of attention. It's not just nurses but doctors, too, who focus so much on the computer that they hardly pay attention to the patient. See the comments on  https://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/privacy-and-security-of-ehrs/privacy-security-electronic-health-records/

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