Apols - this is another one from GP-UK
<Insert>
We have finally been inflicted locally with the computerised cas report and
they seem to have managed, with some of them, to say less than a blank sheet
of paper.
This week a report had as presenting problem: "OTHER COMPLAINT" and diagnosis
of "psychological - general". As I knew the patient and was concerned as to
what it was all about I sent for a photocopy of the cas. card. It turned out
that the patient had been brought in by the police after his wife had
reported him missing and he had subsequently been found in his car in a pub
car park with a piece of hose-pipe and in a distressed state.
In the communication and information age this is a failure of both which
could have had serious consequences for the patient - especially since it
became apparent from reading the cas. card, which we no longer routinely get,
that the cas. staff seemed not to have bothered to tell the psychiatrists,
under whose care this man is, what had happened - an omission which I have
now rectified.
Does anybody else have similar examples? I must say that computerised reports
that I've seen come in from elsewhere do not seem to be quite so dreadful as
our local ones.
</Insert>
Comments?
PS - I recently had a consultant complain about some letters from my practice
- our records are fully electronic ie most of us don't actually write (try it,
it is wonderful) - but one of my partners does write and enters little on the
computer - but he still uses the computer to automatically generate his
letters, so they have no content - he doesnt seem to notice this when he signs
them!
--
Jel Coward
..take a look at the Wilderness Emergency Medicine and Command Physician courses
http://www.wildmedic.org
[log in to unmask]
'There's no such thing as bad weather - just bad clothing"
Anon Norwegian
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|