Doctors and Penmanship.
Seems that people are always in a rush these days, even
here
in laid back Santa
Cruz, California.
We have evolved to text
messaging, short cryptic code words and symbols to shorten our
communication.
When we are in a hurry, aren’t we always, we tend to write poorly.
Penmanship
classes are a thing of the past; neat writing is to be commended. A
doctor with
great penmanship is rarer than a great president.
It always
seemed one of the worst offenders were doctors.
Yes those hard working men and women in charge of our health often are
sloppy
writers. You have not doubt been queried by the pharmacist at least
once as to
the drugs that were prescribed. Even then we both can’t always figure
it out,
then, a call to the doctors’ office is in the works. Not only does this
delay
the medication to the patient, it creates more work for all. Some web based
systems are
providing help in this area now. What is coming of age has been in the
works
for various industries in various forms for years, and that is a hand
held
electronic device. As we have all seen at grocery and department stores
is a
device that scans what is on a shelf location and the person types in
the
appropriate quantity to order.
Similarly, this type of device will
be a great benefit to
all of us,. as more doctors use a similar device. The Palm Pilot is a
cell
phone/database tool that can work for keeping such medical information
readily
available and eliminates the writing errors of transcription. Poor
handwriting and the resultant mistakes can be deadly.
California
leads the nation in the percentage of doctors that are using electronic
means
to keep track of patients. Electronic
record
keeping is going to eliminate many errors due to poor
penmanship and speed
the transfer of information. California
leads
the nation, no doubt in part to Silicon
Valley’s
technology, but also due to its’ large healthcare organizations like
Kaiser
Permanente. These EHR’s,
electronic health records, are used by the doctors almost 80% of the
time at
large institutions’ such as Kaiser, but less than 30% nationally.
Due to the
cost and complications of design and
implementation of the systems, they are used not used by smaller
offices with
much more frequency than national use. With California
doctors’ practices greater than
10 doctors, the use is about 57%. We sure can’t count on the government
to
develop one as they have a terrible track record with computer systems.
Maybe
we can get some national standards developed for information and that
will be a
basis upon which systems can be designed. One of the main concerns is
security,
but having the patient control who gets access to the information is
also a
concern as well.
It will be up
to the major health care provides to find a
system that works. I think it would be in their best interest, as the
inherent
efficiencies of transporting the information and images electronically,
is faster,
and with better tracking. Being able to track the data from bedside to
patient
to pharmacy, you have to believe fewer errors will be made.
As we are
evolving and timely
delivery of information
and medication is more important, technology is starting to finally
creep into
the mundane things like monitoring blood pressure blood sugar and the
like,
remotely. This seemingly minor event of having a doctor connected daily
to your
information is a great benefit potentially. If there is a problem or a
trend it
is noticed more quickly than by you finding out with an unexpected trip
to the
emergency ward. That in turn saves all money and headache. The quicker
medical
intervention is realized, the more lives are saved and the quality of
live improves.
Quality of
life can start with where you live. If you don’t
like where you live, consider Santa
Cruz, Ca. It is a pretty place to live, clean air, plenty of
areas for all
sorts of recreation. Jobs of all sorts are available here or over in Silicon Valley, about 45 minutes
away.
About the author. Gregg Camp is a
seniors real estate
specialist( SRES) and has lived in the Santa Cruz area
for 30 years. He has worked in the real
estate field for 20 years and has interests in the healthcare field, in
part,
due to the impact it has on his older clients.
