“Please disrobe and put this on,” she said, removing the eggplant-colored hospital gown from a plastic bag.
“Why?” I asked, irritated at the prospect of making an unanticipated transformation into Barney.
“Because you’re getting a complete physical today,” she said.
“No, I’m not,” I retorted.
“You need to put this on so we can give you an EKG and do the physical,” she continued, unfazed by my resistance.
“I’m not disrobing, I am not getting an EKG, and we’re certainly not doing any of the other fun stuff that goes with an annual physical,” I said, the fact that I’d been fasting all day in anticipation of a blood draw not helping my mood. “I am here because my wife’s employer switched our insurance so we have to switch doctors. I’ve been getting regular physicals and I’ve had an EKG in the last year. I’m fine. I just need my blood pressure medication renewed.”
At that moment, the doctor, obviously hearing the ruckus, burst into the room to calm things down.
“What brings you here today?” he asked.
After going through the reason for my appearance, and an overview of my recent medical history, he said to his assistant, “I don’t think we need to do the physical today,” after which she left the room.
“What do you do?” he asked, entering me into his computer as a new patient.
“Actually, I write about the technology that’s used in hospitals,” I said. “What system are you using?”
“It’s Cerner — we got it from the hospital,” he said referring to Barnabas Health.
“How do you like it?” I asked.
“I really like it now. It was hard to get used to, and a lot of work to get all our records into the system, but now it’s great,” he said.
At that moment, the phone rang.
“Excuse me, I’ll be right back.”
With that, he took the call into another room, laptop in tow. I could hear him fielding a call from the hospital, where one of his patients had shown up apparently unable to provide much information about his condition or treatment regimen. Rather than having to ask his office staff for a chart that they may or may not have located, the doctor was able to deliver the requested information in seconds.
Now, I’m not trying to preach to the choir, but for the many of us who write about the industry, but do not live in it, seeing the benefits of an EHR in action are pretty cool.
The funny thing was that, based on the office building and décor, it was the last place you’d expect to find advanced technology. In fact, my former doctor was in a much nicer building with a much more modern feel, but no EHR was to be found. Part of his décor consisted of manila folder walls, each unit of which sprouted multiple tabs in all colors of the rainbow. I wonder how many of those tabs have fallen off over the years. I wonder how many of those were important.
Now that I’m finally seeing a physician with an EMR, I’m excited to experience the difference. I have a feeling it will make up for any shortcomings in the office furniture, and any lingering effects of a rough first impression. I’m also excited that my new doctor and I actually did get off to a great start.
“See you in six months,” he said, as I headed for the door.
“Sounds great, doc,” I replied. “And don’t get me wrong, we’re going to see plenty of each other someday, just not now.” He laughed and — comfortably holding the chart of every patient in his practice — headed off to his next appointment.
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