News from EMA Course in New York – IT systems in ED – need for scribes

I attended the EMA Course in New York last month and although IT systems were not directly part of the course, the topic did arise and the general feeling of the many US emergency physicians appeared to be that current commercial ED software in place in the USA is NOT efficient and comments such as “terrible” were not uncommonly expressed. It seems that the consensus was that for EP’s to be productive with such software they each need to have a personal scribe to ensure adequate timely documentation while allowing them to have adequate time at the bedside with the patients. Furthermore, it seems that the majority of prescibing mistakes are now because of software design issues and how the software interfaces with end users. Perhaps Australian administrators should be taking heed – just because it “seems” to be a good idea and it is used in the USA does not mean it should necessarily be adopted here.
Source: Oz E Medicine - emergency medicine in Australia - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: information technology information systems Source Type: blogs