Please bridge the Digital Divide to my local ER, because they are in dire need of an overhaul. They have computers everywhere, the flat screen look really cool, but as I (and my wife) found out... very inefficient for both doctors/nurses and patients. Sun does this... but not for my ER. Please Sun... Pimp my ER!!
As you may have read my previous post, this week has been... how should I say... eventfull.
A couple of night ago, I had to drive my wife to the ER. Same problem as a few months ago. She was in a lot of pain.
Since we were there a few months ago, I expected for the service to be faster since they knew what they needed to do to relieve the pain. Instead? 5 hours in the ER, redoing everything again, asking her birthdate 6 times (after they put a wristband on her arm WITH her birthdate), asking the symptoms 6 times, taking notes on either a computer or notepad 6 times, asking for her primary care physician 6 times. How many people did she have to deal with? 6 of them at one point or another.
From the receptionist, the first nurse, the second nurse (first one left her shift to go home), third nurse (since the second one was on a break), doctor and the ecography specialist. How silly is that??
The worst was when the doctor asked my wife/I what drugs the nurses injected her with. Did that mean that no one's keeping track of this stuff?? Excuse my rant... there's probably a perfectly fine reason to the madness. During all of that, my wife was still in pain. What WAS displaying on their fancy big screens? Why aren't they using databases to keep track of any of this?
I wished my wife's ID card could do what my Sun Java Card does. I can plug in my java card and get my session/settings, the last thing I accessed, etc.
If they had something like that, they would have her DOB, allergies, current treatment, details of last visit and get us in and out within the hour. Imagine the ability to treat much more people using the same amount of real-estate/people, bringing the cost of healthcare DOWN for everyone. Wouldn't that be nice?
So please Sun... Pimp my ER!