It's 3 a.m. My patient just delivered a healthy baby boy. She's exhausted but thrilled. Her husband is just thrilled. I'm ready to head to my call room. But first, I have to write postpartum orders.
I log into the electronic health record (EHR), and select the "postpartum order set," that ought to let me efficiently select all of the orders a patient will need after delivery with one click of the mouse.
Efficient? Although it could be, it isn't.
The EHR keeps asking me if, "I'm sure," adding about a dozen clicks. (Imagine that you look up a recipe for tomato sauce on foodnetwork.com and the website asked you if you were sure you wanted to make tomato sauce, and once you confirmed that you did intend to serve that on top of pasta for dinner, the website asked you if you really intended to put tomatoes in your tomato sauce.)
At least 100 clicks later, I'm headed to the call room.
What would you do if Spotify or iTunes or your Fitbit worked that way? You would switch apps, programs, or devices. The problem is that most EHRs cost millions and aren't easily scrapped.
This rap cover video from ZDoggMD captures physician frustration really well. I have to admit to taking more vicarious pleasure from the computer-smashing than is reasonable.
It's time for physicians to demand better systems to support the outstanding care they provide to their patients. As ZDoggMD says, #letdoctorsbedoctors.