When I began my tenure at the University of Florida, the departure of a colleague left a very large inflammatory bowel disease practice that involved a lot of work both in and outside of clinic, just as the electronic healthcare record became mandatory. One unanticipated consequence of EHR is that physicians have to review everything before it is final in a patient’s chart. Thus, I spent countless hours in the EHR system, but was always behind on my charting. This …
An article in Newsweek magazine says, “Artificial intelligence will cure America’s sick health care system” using data and automation to “drive down the costs of health care while increasing effectiveness.” According to Newsweek, it will work like this for diabetes. A company called Virta Health has come up with a smartphone app that is like “a live-in doctor and diabetes coach.” Type 2 diabetics who enroll will enter data such as blood sugar levels, weight, blood pressure, and activity manually …
By Franklin Pachay, Jr. “Clinical Information Manager,” or simply “CIM,” is my reply when a new face in the emergency department (ED) asks what I do. The reaction that follows is probably best described as awkward confusion. I make sure to follow through by explaining that I’m a medical scribe and outline a few things that I do: I help create the physician note; I get the radiology results into the charts; I follow up with labs; I increase clinician …
STEVEN KRAGER | EDUCATION | MARCH 7, 2012 105SHARES Share Tweet Share After undergrad, and before starting medical school, I worked for two years as scribe in the emergency department. I followed emergency physicians and completed their charts as they saw patients. I would also remind the physicians of various tasks to complete, alert them of abnormal lab values and pull up x-rays to be interpreted. One of the reasons I wanted the job was to gain experience in medicine, …
And I don’t love it. When I gained acceptance into medical school, I thought I would one day have one amazing job, or at least one job title where I might get to wear several meaningful hats. I’m a physician anesthesiologist. It’s my duty to play a role in improving the health and the lives of my patients. I studied and trained for many years to have the privilege of understanding the inner workings of the human body, the many …
A common complaint regarding the use of electronic medical records (EMRs) is that physicians spend the majority of their time with a patient “tinkering” on a computer rather than interacting with the patient. Use of EMRs is now mandatory in the U.S., creating many advantages: Patient information can be more easily shared in a secure environment, there are no lost files or records and, of course, the issue of physician hand writing has been forever resolved. But there are downsides, …
I have a lovely pen. It’s a Mont Blanc Meisterstück fountain pen. My group bought it for me on my tenth anniversary as a partner in our emergency medicine practice. It’s a luxury I would never have paid for myself, though I have loved and used fountain pens since I was in college. Ironically, about the time I got it, the window of opportunity to use it in my professional life closed. For a decade, we had a hybrid paper-and-dictation …
Physician Burnout: Are YOU in the Danger Zone and What You Can DO about it. [ our complete Burnout Basics Resource Library is here ] In this article let me show you three key concepts: A way to understand the difference between stress and burnout A method to see if you are at risk for – or suffering from – physician burnout Three distinct methods to reverse and prevent physician burnout. In my work with physician burnout and stress … …
Physician Burnout vs. Fulfillment Why it’s Not a Fair Fight [ our complete Burnout Basics Resource Library is here ] Why does having a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment as a modern doctor seem like such a struggle at times? There is an invisible battle going on, day-by-day between our search for a Fulfilling Career in Medicine and the hidden forces of Physician Burnout. In this article, I will outline why this is most certainly not a “fair fight”. Modern …
Recently, Dr. Scot Silverstein over at Health Care Renewal published this update to the ongoing story of electronic medical records that are so simple, intuitive and easy to use that doctors and hospitals everywhere are being forced to hire “scribes” to run them. We’d looked at the resurgence of scribes in a previous post, and Dr. Silverstein’s article seems to confirm that the phenomenon is is here to stay for as long as most “conventional” EMRs remain fundamentally defective. As …