My understanding from this afternoon is that physician documentation in the PICU was done fully electronically this morning and that the paper charts on both the Pedi floor and in the PICU are gone, replaced by a fully electronic chart. And, I believe that as of this afternoon, physicians and providers are entering most orders electronically.
Image Credit: CrazyMomLife (via flickr)
Make no mistake, this transition is not going to be painless. We should remain vigilant to potential new issues CPOE may be introducing, but also must remain open to the promise which it can deliver. The key, in my opinion, will be in simply making the effort to make it work. Thanks in advance to everyone who's going to be doing that, and special thanks to everyone from nurses to RT to PT to HUCs to physicians and other providers on the second floor who have lived through the first week of pilot and are doing the hard work of the guinea pig.
A resident today told me, "I know you don't want to hear it, but this isn't very intuitive." Believe me, I don't mind hearing that. In fact, I communicate that message to the folks at Cerner all the time. But improvements are made daily and I really believe that there are trade offs with every EHR. We need to make this work.
End of rant.
Congrats pedi folks and good luck over the next week.
Congrats Clinical IT folks and good luck over the next weeks.
