So I evaluated the patient in the nursing home. Chest pain. She needed to go to the hospital. So I sat down at the computer and quickly wrote a progress note. The ambulance came and took her away.
An hour later. Call from the ER.
Do you have a medicine list on Mrs X? She wasn't able to tell us.
Didn't the nursing home send anything?
They said since they converted to an EMR they have no written med lists
Well I am looking at my EMR in the office and it is not up to date. A number of med changes have taken place since the last time I charted. What does your EMR say?
Oh...this is like from 2 years ago... the last time she was in the hospital!
OK...no big deal...so the ER has to call the nursing home and verbally take the med list and transfer it to the hospital EMR. I, in turn, have to update my own EMR from the hospital list. Each of these actions take time away from the doctors and nurses. Time that could be spent on patient care.
By the way...how's Mrs X's chest pain?
Chest pain...is that what she's here for? We've spent the last hour figuring out her med list. She hasn't been evaluated yet!
That's scary. One would think they'd deal with the chest pain while someone tracked down a meds list. And if I ever need to put a loved one in a nursing home, one of my evaluation criteria will be what they claim their procedure is for giving a meds list to the medics.
ReplyDelete