EMR makes things somewhat more streamlined. Medicine today is now a lot of ticking boxes and putting in passwords to sign your orders.
This might seem like a "stupid" pearl to share, but I've seen enough mistakes and wrong orders happen on patients that I feel strongly to write about it.
There's a certain EMR called Epic, and you can open different patients in different "tabs" like the Google Chrome browser or Firefox. It's great for productivity and also a great way to make mistakes.
This is especially important for new interns who are hurried, rushed, stressed, and upper level residents who are cross-covering and supervising the care of many patients. It's easy to put in the wrong order for patients.
Examples I've seen range from accidentally ordering a blood test on a wrong patient, to ordering a blood transfusion for someone else. Sometimes errors aren't caught, and the error gets carried through. Luckily, the one resident realized they had ordered blood for the wrong patient and they cancelled their order in time.
Usually there are nurses or pharmacists who review and confirm your order, but it might not always happen.
So you might be thinking, "This is such a dumb entry.." but there are endless amounts of real life examples of surgeons operating on the wrong extremity, which is on the extreme end.
Check and double check. Keep only one EMR tab open on one patient.
Do a mental time out for yourself before you put in orders. The few seconds saved aren't worth risking your career or someone's life and health. Much of medicine is multitasking and being pulled in 19 directions at once and being stressed and trying to be efficient but you absolutely have to focus and prevent mistakes.
Spread your vigilance to those around you.
No comments:
Post a Comment