Re:Paper Trails: Living and Dying with Fragmented Medical Re...
by akira2501 on Monday September 24, 2018 @02:15PM
(#18059951)
> So I've come to think that it would actually be preferable to put most of the health data into PDF-like documents
I've thought about this before and came to nearly the same conclusion. It would also help in extremes, allowing doctors to switch back to pure paper should the situation call for it while allowing for that information to be smoothly integrated back into the system once it becomes available again.
What good is an EHR if the power is out?
> I guess some kind of especially important data, such as information on current medication or drug intolerance should really be kept in a fully structured format to enable clinical decision support
Which may help, but as detailed by this article the process of ordering healthcare and the eventual delivery of that care to the patient is often a patchwork of multiple departments and staff with ample opportunities for error anyways.
I used to volunteer in the pharmacy. We'd get an order for a medication. We'd fill and then label that medication. It would then go into a bin on a cart, one bin for each department in the hospital. The cart would go out, and the bins would get delivered. The medication would then be stocked in the department using a slightly different setup for each department. Then the nurses would have their own individual processes for getting that medication, taking it to the patient and then delivering it to them.
An EHR is _one_ very small part of successfully performing this complicated ballet.
I've thought about this before and came to nearly the same conclusion. It would also help in extremes, allowing doctors to switch back to pure paper should the situation call for it while allowing for that information to be smoothly integrated back into the system once it becomes available again.
What good is an EHR if the power is out?
> I guess some kind of especially important data, such as information on current medication or drug intolerance should really be kept in a fully structured format to enable clinical decision support
Which may help, but as detailed by this article the process of ordering healthcare and the eventual delivery of that care to the patient is often a patchwork of multiple departments and staff with ample opportunities for error anyways.
I used to volunteer in the pharmacy. We'd get an order for a medication. We'd fill and then label that medication. It would then go into a bin on a cart, one bin for each department in the hospital. The cart would go out, and the bins would get delivered. The medication would then be stocked in the department using a slightly different setup for each department. Then the nurses would have their own individual processes for getting that medication, taking it to the patient and then delivering it to them.
An EHR is _one_ very small part of successfully performing this complicated ballet.