The medical record quagmire

Computer records can be a lot neater than paper records, that’s for sure. I understand the push for medical records to be online. Except, for me, there have been several VERY annoying consequences.

1. The doctor spends his/her time looking at the computer screen and not at me while asking me questions.

Am I really being heard?

The only exception to this is with one of my surgeons, he has an assistant (medical student?) entering information online while he gives me his full attention.

2. Way too many systems.

All of my doctors are associated with the same hospital. You would think they would all be on the same computer system. Wrong. Each doctor is on a different system, with its own url and sign in credentials.

Don’t get me started on the password nonsense. For “security” reasons passwords now have to be 8 characters long with special characters, numbers and capital letters. Ack, do I really have the time to remember every single password? And now every time I sign in, I have to change my password.

3. The systems don’t work!

For two of the systems, I can’t for the life of me get into them, while I used to be able to. Supposedly, the systems were upgraded. Huh?

When I go to sign in, I get the white screen of death.

I spoke with the Doctor’s office staff about this and all I got was a big sigh and a resigned tone from the person. She said their online system is all messed up and she has no idea how to fix it. She suggested I just call the office if I want anything. Kind of defeats the purpose of putting things online, doesn’t it?

I used to do computer work, back in the day. Rule #1 was that you fixed bugs in the system, especially “mission critical” sytems. I guess that is no longer the case.

So what has your experience been with medical records?

Image courtesy of Free Images Live UK, under Creative Commons licensing 3.0.