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These are the thoughts of a cantankerous ol' gynecologist who remembers when things were a little different. I try to find a little humor in my life and the people I meet along the way. Come meet the characters in my world.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

EMR Rant – 4 – Templates and Other Fixtures

Techno-Dino (that would be me) is still having issues with that ol’ electronic medical record.  It has things in it that make no sense.  At least to me. 

For example – if the page ends and needs a signature near the bottom, it will almost always put the signature on another page.  I print everything out, because I don’t trust this computer record (dinosaur, remember?).  So I waste a whole piece of paper saying I electronically signed the record. 

I have tried to write letters to consultants on the blasted thing.  It is not yet worth it.  Maybe I will figure it out within the decade.  After all, this is only 2011.  I couldn’t change any spacing of paragraphs, lines, etc.  I’ve been word processing since 1975 (give or take a couple of years – yes, I really am that old, folks), and can’t figure out how to get this one to behave. 

I finally just opened up “Word” and wrote the danged letter over.  I have decided to do this from now on.  I may even save a copy of my letterhead as a shortcut on the desktop because I know how to do that.  I really am somewhat computer literate. 

I’m still learning how to make my own “templates” for things like “normal GYN exam” and stuff.  I probably do a lot more typing than I really need to do. 

Plus, for some reason, now the EMR has spell checker.  However, it doesn’t know how to spell any of the medical words – you know medications, procedures, instruments and other stuff I use all the time.  This includes medications and directions it puts in itself.  So I have to teach it to spell things I didn’t put in – it did????

Remember, this is supposed to make your visit simpler???  I know that the government wants to collect data from these notes.  That’s probably all they are good for.  I’m not sure they are even good for that. 


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