ER Hell: Doctor In Need of Chart Progam Training

Good day, fellow RHU'ers!

I come bearing gifts in the form of stories from real life drama in the ER, well real life drama of a critical access hospital that doesn't deal with major traumas.

I've learned to loathe and love some of the frequent flyers and I've made pretty good friends with a few co-workers. Which is progress for me because I'm usually a friendless, antisocial twat beyond the interwebs.

Today, I'm talk about the survival of my first MD assault that ended up not even being my fault. The day started off with an annoying bang of my printer not printing from a certain program, so we had to hand write everything. Later after my second leaves, I get a call from one of the docs in the hospital.

"ER, this is Slagathor."

"I have this patient here and she doesn't have a program 1 account, so I can't find her in program 2. I need this now."

"Oh, looks like my second forgot to make the account, I'll put that in now."

"This isn't the first time I've encountered this problem. I've spoken to your boss about this before. Do you need to call your boss?"

"No, doctor, I've got it. It'll be in, just give me a second."

He proceeds to hang up. I've managed to keep my cool because A: this is not my account. I did not make the account. And B: I can understand how frustrating it must be when you can't chart and this isn't the first time it's happened.

10 minutes go by, the account is made and in my system and the head nurse comes in and starts talking to me about the account.

"The doctor still can't find her in program two."

"She's in there, look."

I take down my privacy screen and show her BOTH accounts in program 1 and program 2. 
"Oh, so she is!"

Another 5 minutes go by and doctor assface calls again, "Do you need to call your boss?"

"No, doctor, I'm looking at the account right now. She's in there. Is she a regular patient of yours?"

"No, she sees random doctor in nearby city."

"I'll be right down."

Since the ER is quiet, I can sneak off and find out what the hell is going on.

I go into the department and he's fuming at his terminal.

"Look what happens when I search it. It doesn't come up."

I don't say a word. I simply grab his mouse, click on the "show inactive patients" button and low and behold, his patient was there.

"You can chart from there." and I walked off. The nurses were laughing at him when I was leaving. I didn't receive a "Thanks" or "Sorry for being a fucking dick because I can't figure out how to use MY charting program."

So the account I made in program 1 didn't need to be made, because she already had an account in program 2, it was just inactive. This was simply an operator error and it makes me wonder, how many times has he gotten mad because HE couldn't find the account that was already there?

So, to finish off my day. The printer started working JUST as I started to walk out the door and as I came home to drown my shitty day in a bottle of wine, I discovered that my antibiotics would cause me to be sick with the consumption of alcohol.

Fuck it, I'm going to bed!

Cheers,

--SLAGATHOR

 

 

Comments

[Mrs. Lovett]

Alright, Debbie, in the interest of fairness, I'm going to call you Slagathor."

Love it!!!

Also, gotta love the doctor. It can't possibly be his fault or his mistake, and he has to immediately threaten to go over your head and talk to your supervisor! Jerk!

[Queer Geek]

Just because this ass finished med school doesn't make a decent human being. He's still an ass!

[The Last Archimedean]

"Expert": A person who knows more and more about less and less.

Apparently this doctor is so "expert" in whatever his specialty is he forgot to keep stored in his brain elementary computer skills.

As for personality, I've seen enough doctors in my time to know it's a crapshoot. Some of them are arrogant arsewipes, some of them are incredibly nice. I don't even mind an arrogant arsewipe if he's like Dr. House and KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING medically, but if that's combined with also being incompetent at his job it's a very bad combo [ran into that when I broke my wrist many many years ago, the first doctor was an arrogant jackass AND he set my wrist wrong, luckily I broke my cast after 2 weeks and re-broke my wrist, the second doc I got set it CORRECTLY and was also a nice guy.]

[InSecurity]

Just remember: the difference between God and a doctor is that God dosen't think he's a doctor. If you've ever worked in the medical field, that one never gets old.

[Minidoc]

I wish doctors got some actual useful training in hospital computer systems. Most of them get a grand total of two hours of computer training when they start at a new place (if that), and the vast majority of that time is spent teaching the doctors how to do things they will never do. I have had trouble with more frustrated doctors who have had essentially no training on the tasks they are expected to do.
That being said, the doctor did not need to be an ass to you. It is not your fault that he did not get the training he needed. And if he spends enough time playing with the system he should be able to figure a lot of things out.

[Nocturnesthesia]

Working with pre-med students is so, so painful. In Canada med school admission is based on interpersonal skills as well as test scores so it's not too bad, but a few assholes get through. Most of the time the arrogant ones' heads deflate after a few years of medical practice.