hveltre

EMR's are wonderful if they are integrated and adaptable. Obstacles are the inability to tailor the system to your organizations workflow. At times it feels like putting a round peg into a square hole. Although I could not imagine going back to paper, depending on the system you work with, electronic documentation can be very challenging. At least in the acute care setting. Not have hard stops for critical information, multiple screens and clicks for documentation and lack of integration resulting in repetition are a few of the issues. Chart review can also be very challenging in some systems, my current system actually has a nice view of the record but a prior system I worked with was very difficult. Another issue is the affect it has on your patient contact. Instead to being face to face your face is in a computer and the patient is on the sidelines. We work hard to look up from our screens and make that eye contact and not seem impersonal when conducting an assessment. Good Luck!