Monday, March 2, 2009

Health IT Update

 

Some of you may have wondered why I have been absent from blogomania.  Wel it is because my time has been drastically impacted by the necessity of learning how to use an EMR.

In my setting I have had all the 'advantages' of having a full time IT staff to quell my frustration at not being able to perform my duties as a physician.  It is not saving me time nor is it increasing my efficiency.....it is exactly the polar opposite.

It takes me about ten minutes to correlate and coordinate  the information my assistants and data gatherers bring to me as well as perform my physical exam during which I also take relevant history from the patient.  Now it takes me an additional ten to fifteen minutes to enter it into the EMR (that is an optimistic estimate). 

I previously would see an average of 35-40 patients/day. If I add on ten minutes (conservatively) that is 350 minutes/day or almost 6 hours, leaving me with two hours to work.  So even with using my 'EMR"  I can now see about  ten patients/day.

Makes sense to me...sounds like the military.....

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