NateB
Well-Known Member
Get rid of computers period! Major reason I retired at age 64. Turning M.D.'s into keypunch artists is the biggest waste of their time! I dictated my paper medical records based on my hand written crib notes so anyone could read my paper medical records clearly. I could page through my records and see clearly what I did to a patient in the past. Saved me a lot of time. Sure beat "scroll click, scroll click, scroll click" chit.
If I was filling in for another M.D. that didn't dictate and their hand writing was illegible, it was a "beech" to figure out what the heck the doc was doing.
Asked the head hospital administrator if he minded if I dictated all my hospital notes in the hospital system when I went to work at the local clinic I stayed at for my entire career. H&P's and discharge summaries were expected to be dictated. He said it was fine to do all my notes dictated. They would appear on the paper charts the next day and I'd sign off on them before "everything" became computerized.
When computers came online, records now occupy most of a primary care M.D.'s time and make primary care so dissatisfying. Was so glad I was able to
retire and get out when I did. I have no regrets. The student docs coming out now are too stupid to realize how good it was years ago.
Computers for lab work I have a different opinion of. Was happy with that as I could access lab work hot off the press and didn't have to wait for the "hard copy".
Oh, I had many a phone call from an itinerant E.R. doc for a patient admit of mine and received many compliments from the doc as they were reviewing the
patients' past medical records and they could "READ" everything I did in the past in the old records.
I DO NOT recommend to any young person to go into medicine anymore. It's a waste of time. It was so much more efficient in the days of old with dictated paper records. It's nearly impossible to do office work, hospital work and take call in primary care anymore due to the current system.
If one is in an "office only" practice with income based on production only, it's impossible to produce enough if one has a bunch of elderly complex patients to see. They take more time and hence production is down. Plus if one isn't involved with the care of a patient in the hospital, they are clueless once they're
discharged. Can follow with the specialists if they're needed and be familiar with what is going on with the patient before discharge.
Nowadays in the next big city over, primary care docs aren't allowed to see patients in the hospital anymore. That has been going on for
years now. There are "hospitalists" who never see the patient outside of the hospital and are "clueless" as to what is going on. Continuity of care
has "gone to hell".
I recommend to go into another field. O.k. some specialties are better than others but that would take another long post to go into. Kurt (used to M.D. for a living now retired)
Our ED docs dictate their narratives into Epic, but I don't think human transcriptionists are used any more. Other orders and notes are all entered by drop-down boxes or clicking check boxes. I don't know how many times I see a sedated and paralyzed patient with a check box ticked that says every procedure was discussed and the patient agreed.
I started EMS writing paper charts and not being allowed to leave the ER until it was done and left with the unit secretary. We would write on the road and spend a few minutes tidying it up before we went back into service. If we were too busy to write during the run, it still took about 20 minutes and we were done. My role now often requires more intense patient care, but I can spend 45 minutes with a patient and 2 hours documenting everything if we have a lot of procedures and meds to chart. I can only imagine it is more frustrating for physicians. At least we only have 1 or 2 patients at a time.