How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
blogs.jwatch.org
How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
1–10 of 206 posts
Re: How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
#2I strongly agree that EMRs are making this problem worse, not better. And doctors seem to hate quite ubiquitously the extra amount of documentation they have to do. While there is a lot of evidence in some areas that EMRs have improved quality of care and patients' lives, I don't think this is one of them.
Re: How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
#3Medical notes are largely fiction IME. You should request all your medical records from any doctor you have seen and start demanding they correct them. You will be shocked at the lies they tell about you.
You will be even more shocked down the road when you find out how these lies can hurt you.
Re: How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
#4Medical notes are largely fiction IME. You should request all your medical records from any doctor you have seen and start demanding they correct them. You will be shocked at the lies they tell about you. You will be even more shocked down the road when you find out how these lies can hurt you.
Yes at least with paper they were typically tied to one hospital. Now with Epic they are basically automatically pulled over.
Re: How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
#5In (the UK at least) your medical notes follow you as you sign on with a new GP (General Practitioner - first point of medical contact for anything non-urgent).
Now knew this theoretically happened, but was quite bemused to see it happen in practice.
I rescued a rat from the silken-jaws of my pseudo-homicidal cat, and the ungrateful rodent bit through half of my finger - I thought it would be sensible to have a checkup/shot.
I've only got a hazy recollection of what shots I've had when, so my notes were consulted.
Seemingly, according to my paper notes produced from the cabinet, 40 years ago "I was an adorable wee thing" (aged 2).
Re: How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
#6My Primary Care Physician is unable to speak coherent sentences.
I'm half-joking, of course. The guy is top-rated, elected head of the state association. He's widely-regarded as a combination of both brilliant with diagnostics and good with people. He just can't complete a sentence when we meet.
Why? Because he's got some pad he carries around that takes up all of his attention span. He comes into the room, sits down -- and there's this struggle for his attention that I watch play out. It usually involves a lot of verbal grunts.
"So we've got this .... er.. .. and it looks .. hmmmm. .... So this is...."
This could go on for a bit. Eventually we get to either a statement or a question.
Frankly I'd think the guy was having some sort of mental issues if it weren't for the facts that 1) he used to be fine before they all started carrying around pads, and 2) he's fine outside the clinic.
I really hope that the tech community has helped make healthcare better. It's certainly had an impact.
Re: How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
#7Medicine seems like a technological wasteland. They put "notes" into text boxes and call it "using computers".
I wish I had both CS/SE experience and Medical experience so that I could understand what keeps this field in the 1970s. I have suspicions.
Re: How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
#8Medicine seems like a technological wasteland. They put "notes" into text boxes and call it "using computers". I wish I had both CS/SE experience and Medical experience so that I could understand what keeps this field in the 1970s. I have suspicions.
In my experience, it's a combination of a couple of things. First off, the field is heavily regulated (in the US anyway) and the penalties for violating regulations like HIPAA are incredibly high. Second, the field is currently dominated by major players such as Epic, so its pretty important to be compatible with them, but they don't really have an incentive to open up their ecosystem since they have such a stranglehold on the market. Finally, a lot of medical folks have been burned by technology in the past, and, in my experience, often view a lot of the tech they have to use as an insurance and government mandated evil, rather than a way to make their lives better.
Not to say things can't be improved, but there are a lot of factors that make it more difficult than a traditional B2B or B2C product.
Re: How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
#9Medicine seems like a technological wasteland. They put "notes" into text boxes and call it "using computers". I wish I had both CS/SE experience and Medical experience so that I could understand what keeps this field in the 1970s. I have suspicions.
There is a lot of copying and pasting data from one system (i.e. lab results) into the other. This is probably rooted in distrust of the system and fear that the lab results will become unavailable combined with a healthy amount of "cover-your-ass" syndrome.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/why-doctors-ha...
Re: How Did Our Medical Notes Become So Useless?
#10Medical notes are largely fiction IME. You should request all your medical records from any doctor you have seen and start demanding they correct them. You will be shocked at the lies they tell about you. You will be even more shocked down the road when you find out how these lies can hurt you.
In the US you're legally entitled to your medical records too but every time I've done it the response is always defensive, ie "why do you need them", "send me the doctors information and I'll fax it to them myself".