Using Amelior computer system in the ED?

[Dixielee, BSN, RN]

We just started using this system this week in our VERY busy ER and it is killing everyone. It has slowed things down to a snails pace and I am rethinking my future in nursing! It has been a horrible week, patients leaving without ever making to the back after waiting 2 hours to be triaged and then another 6 in the waiting room. I can't blame them, I wanted to leave too! The Amelior support team is there to answer questions and help us along, but it has still been horrible. I know it will get better as soon as we learn where to find the hundreds of hidden "clicks" we need to make to have a coherent chart, but so far, I am not amused! I have been ready to walk out every day! Driving a fork lift at Home Depot sure sounds like fun.

[TraumaInTheSlot]

i feel this way too sometimes. nursing requires too much thinking and sometimes i wish for a job that doesnt require me to use my brain. i want to be the guy who screws the toothpaste cap on the toothepaste tubes, or maybe i will put my face in dough and make gorilla cookies. lol

anyway, try to learn how to vent your frustration. posting here is a great way. i do it by going to KARATE class and punching the *&^# out of someone/something. I also highly recommend MASSAGE, as it will help relax you and make you healthy.

good luck and let me know what the starting pay is at home depot. i hear they are union there.

[Dixielee, BSN, RN]

The most frustrating part of this computer system is that you are trying to chart so fast, because it is overwhelming your life, then you don't have a chance to review it. It seems like care of the patient is just incidental and you hope you have a chance to fit that in somewhere in your shift, the primary focus is the chart and the computer! I picked up just a few charts to look at before I left yesterday to see what they look like upon completion. They are laughable! One young girl came in with abd pain, nausea and vomiting...there are so many things you have to click in the triage portion of the chart, but most are mandatory that you click something....this said she was accompanied by Border Patrol! Obviously the triage nurse clicked the wrong thing, should have been boyfriend, but you are moving so fast, you don't realize you have made a mistake. One chart on the doctors side said...History and Physical: right side, left side preformed by Dr. Blank. WHAT???? Those are just the first 2 charts I looked at. Someday maybe it will get to the point where you can review what you have written, but maybe not. They have made it very difficult to "free text" anything. They said that is by design because they do not want you to do that, they want all "canned" charting chosing from their lists. It is difficult to edit anything. You have to go thru several steps and risk deleting everything in that category. I deleted a whole set of postural vital signs while trying to chart another set. If you want to add something you must go thru several steps to do it, but it is too easy to delete something you didn't mean to. It never asks if you are sure you want to permanently delete this section of the chart! OH, I know it will get better, and probably no one will die as a result of this, because in a real emergency you chart on your hand, a glove, the sheet or a paper towel, then transfer to the computer later, but is should not be this difficult just to document patient care. Everyone now carries around a clipboard with paper or notebook to keep track of everything so they can go back later and add to the chart. GEE, I hate this thing! Progress???? If this is progress, then I want to live in a cave.