But that wasn't really the interesting part of the visit. Since my last visit, this clinic has made big strides in converting to electronic medical records. During my check-in I was handed a print out of my Medication Profile, and asked to make any corrections on it. (They missed one of the two prescriptions, by the way.) My doctor worked mostly from a sheaf of printouts of (I assume) previous visits, with only occasional dips into his hand-written versions on the other side of the folder. He hand-wrote his notes, but then stopped before we were done to pull up my record on a monitor in the exam room, type in some stuff, check the results of last fall's X-ray of my coccyx (and print out a copy for me--lovely, it spotted nothing with the coccyx, but notes 'degenerative disc disease at L5-S1', lower back). I asked about the whole electronic records thing, and his frustration is with the input time--I'm not sure if he has to type in his own notes, but he did mention that he must personally deal with each prescription refill, removing any older ones and putting in the new. Only RNs and MDs are allowed to deal with that. I suggested that the next wave of doctors wouldn't make any notes with pen and paper, but he's skeptical...but then, he graduated from medical school in 1965. His habits are pretty well set. <g>
Electronic medical records
But that wasn't really the interesting part of the visit. Since my last visit, this clinic has made big strides in converting to electronic medical records. During my check-in I was handed a print out of my Medication Profile, and asked to make any corrections on it. (They missed one of the two prescriptions, by the way.) My doctor worked mostly from a sheaf of printouts of (I assume) previous visits, with only occasional dips into his hand-written versions on the other side of the folder. He hand-wrote his notes, but then stopped before we were done to pull up my record on a monitor in the exam room, type in some stuff, check the results of last fall's X-ray of my coccyx (and print out a copy for me--lovely, it spotted nothing with the coccyx, but notes 'degenerative disc disease at L5-S1', lower back). I asked about the whole electronic records thing, and his frustration is with the input time--I'm not sure if he has to type in his own notes, but he did mention that he must personally deal with each prescription refill, removing any older ones and putting in the new. Only RNs and MDs are allowed to deal with that. I suggested that the next wave of doctors wouldn't make any notes with pen and paper, but he's skeptical...but then, he graduated from medical school in 1965. His habits are pretty well set. <g>
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