Family health concerns have recently taken me on a number of different misadventures involving local physicians, hospitals, and their computer systems. Yesterday, I had yet another opportunity to witness how our dependence on imperfect computers hinders our ability to receive first-class health care.
An early morning visit to a local clinic revealed that a family member had a very low hemoglobin count, and a blood transfusion was prescribed. To expedite matters, we were instructed to visit the local emergency room, where a referral, faxed by the local clinic’s computer, would be waiting. We went by our house, gathered some personal belongings needed for a stay at the hospital, and dutifully arrived at the emergency room. Unfortunately, no fax had arrived.
Hurried phone calls to the clinic were made, and I was told, “Yes, the information was faxed long ago, but we’ll send it again, if you like.” I told them we also needed the clinic’s lab test results, and was assured that they, too, would be included. Time passed, but still no fax. Calling again, I learned the faxes were sent to the wrong phone number. The clinic assured me that the information would once more be faxed, and to the correct number. Then I learned that the fax machine at the emergency room “might not be working.”
By this time, the fax had become irrelevant, as the emergency room staff had taken matters into their own hands, and was duplicating the blood tests that had been conducted at the clinic only an hour previously. Yet more blood was drawn from a patient that needed a blood transfusion.
Many vital-sign monitors were hooked up, and the patient’s body temperature was taken frequently. Problem was, the frightfully expensive computer-controlled thermometer only worked about 50% of the time. Readings could be 90, 105, or 98.6 degrees. The nurse assumed that 98.6 was the correct reading. He said this happened all of the time, and indeed, this was the pattern for the next four hours.
As we were discussing the problem of the missing computer faxes, the nurse described the hospital’s quirky, multi-million dollar computer network. The idea behind the network is that patient information on one computer can be viewed on any computer at the hospital. However, x-rays, shown on a computer monitor, never look the same as the real thing, so that idea isn’t quite working out. There’s also a problem with information simply disappearing. Certain types of test results, after being input into the system, simply vanish. The nurse said that the hospital has been trying to correct these problems for over a year.
Five hours after it was promised, and halfway through the transfusion process, the computer fax from the clinic arrived. Sadly, it had been mixed up with someone else’s information, all of the prescribed medications that the patient was supposed to have been taking were incorrect, and the lab results were missing. We won’t be visiting that clinic again.