How prevalent is e-MAR out there? Are you

mattsmom81 · Jan 23, 2004

Our general floors have gone to EMAR...they hate it. Time consuming, noisy at night...it must be rolled to the bedsides.

We are not using it (yet) in ICU.

FullMoonMadness · Jan 23, 2004

Ah yes Emar. Actually, I hated it at first but have grown to rely on it. It is very nice to have lab values that present themselves when you scan say Coumadin or other drugs that are pertinent to lab values.Also nice to be able to enter your shift assessments from the bedside. But there are ways around all that scanning of the bracelet. I am not going to drag my computer cart down to the last room on the hall at 2 a.m. just to give a tylenol. If I was to use it as it is truely intended,Id never get out of the computer.

NICU_Nurse, BSN, RN · Jan 23, 2004

We were told that our administrators and nursing supervisors were just DYING to catch people not using the bracelets as intended because they were going to scapegoat them and fire them on principle alone, because doing that essentially counteracts your built--in safety with the EMAR system and renders it a useless and expensive piece of time-consuming junk.

Good luck to you. We go live in a few weeks and I certainly am not willing to lose my job over that- if they insist on us using it, I'm going to use it, and if it's loud or time consuming (ie, meds don't get given on time because it takes so long, computers needed by more than one person at a time, etc.), then so be it. Maybe if it's unsuccessful, they'll get the hint. If it is successful, then good for us and good for the patients.

As they say in Buddhism, bend like the willow- don't be stiff like bamboo.

passing thru · Jan 23, 2004

Lots of lookers - - - is emar relatively rare?

passing thru · Jan 23, 2004

P.S. .PM me a couple of scanning shortcuts.

WhyO · Jan 23, 2004

we use scanners/emars. time consuming but we HAVE to do it. very difficult in an emergency situation because you spend ALOT of time going back in later, but works out alright for non bad situations. Can say I don't like it that much, but after you do it a thousand times, it isn't that huge of a deal... .

Dayray, RN · Jan 24, 2004

We have it and it sucks,

I work L&D and I don't really think it has a place there at all. On other units I can see that it might actually be of some use but I have to wonder if it's worth all the time it takes.

It's so cumbersome. I don't use it LOL no one seems to have cough me yet but I haven't used it once in the last 2 months I did for the first month it was out but then I just kinda forgot and when I remembered, I figured why start again.

Administration loves it and keeps sending out propaganda that it has caught thousands of potential med errors. These errors aren't broken down into type so I assume that most are time errors as our system is set up so that there is only a 15 min window for a med to be scanned and be correct.

I would be very interested to see a study on how this crap-weasel of a system effects care. I mean I have defiantly seen it delay administration of meds and I know that it takes up a notable amount of time so I'd like to someone count the minutes it takes nurses away from the bedside (where we really should be).

EMAR is just another needle on the camels back that is causing the nursing shortage. How many new pieces of paper/computer work can they possibly pile on us? I know that join commission is pushing for less and less med errors and they should be but EMAR isn't a good solution IMO.

Zee_RN, BSN, RN · Jan 24, 2004

We use it at my new place (been there since Dec. 1) so it's relatively new to me. It is more time consuming but it's not too bad; taking me a little while to get used to it. The first day on the job, I walked into the room, identified my patient, looked at her bracelet, asked her to tell me her birthday and her name and then gave her her meds. Two hours later I was wondering how to chart them when I realized I had neglected the E-MAR! Had to go back and recreate my med administration.

The biggest pain in the butt, in my opinion, is the meds that don't scan. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't ... you can't scan insulin and many other things that aren't in the system or they changed brands and haven't updated the system on that particular med yet, etc.

I work in ICU and there is a computer in every room so I don't have to deal with the rolling carts. The med-surg/tele floors do, though. And Respiratory wheels around a cart -- which I haven't noticed to be particular noisy. It's just a laptop on top of a cart.

My opinion is still middle-of-the-road. Don't love it, don't hate it. Still deciding.

TweetiePieRN · Jan 24, 2004

We use EMAP system in our hospital. There is a computer in each pts room. In our hospital there is one pt per room.

passing thru · Jan 25, 2004

I think it is mostly to help pharmacy with inventory and all that other stuff they told us is crap.

At $150,000 a year, these tax write-off computers are saving them hiring expensive $150,000 and upwards pharmacists.

mattsmom81 · Jan 25, 2004

Originally posted by passing thru
I think it is mostly to help pharmacy with inventory and all that other stuff they told us is crap.
At $150,000 a year, these tax write-off computers are saving them hiring expensive $150,000 and upwards pharmacists.

ITA. And one of our pharmacists let it slip they will bill from these records too...then he quickly retracted this statement following the uproar. Just another example of nursing doing the work of another dept. When will nursing reap the benefits of this? My coworkers in PCU are even more OT every day because of this time consuming system.

We have all these signs all over the hospital 'EMAR blocks bungles'...now what does this insinuate?.... patients should thank the hospital for this new 'system' that will save them. :rolleyes:

Sometimes I do get tired of all this crap slung our way.