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medpundit |
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Monday, May 05, 2003For a couple of years, I have noticed a new rival during office visits: The computer. About 90 percent of my visit time is spent watching the doctor type into a desktop computer. The doctor sits facing the terminal, not looking at the patient, and type-type-types, with a few seconds of time-out every once in a while to ask me a question. Before I finish answering, the doctor has turned back to the terminal and types some more. It's like having another person in the room who is getting all the attention, and I hate it! I feel like saying, "Excuse me, are you here today?" If only that were unique to computers. I sometimes find myself doing the same thing with pen and paper. Unlesss it’s a straightforward encounter, I have to write down what the patient is telling me, or I’ll forget. Sometimes there’s just too much information coming at once to trust my brain; sometimes it’s things that are out of the ordinary. It’s so easy to get side-tracked, you wouldn’t believe. And memory is such a tricky thing - for patients and doctors. It’s much better sometimes to sacrifice politeness for accuracy. posted by Sydney on 5/05/2003 08:12:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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