General Surgery Interview question electronic charting

[SurgDoc01]

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General Surgery Interview question electronic charting

I have heard from residents that not having "complete electronic records/charting" is a pain. Ex. Not able to check and see if a consult dropped a note without having to physically go to the patients room and find the chart, among many other good reasons like copy/paste : ). Some programs advertise "electronic records," but this may only include some of the Pt's info like H&P, vitals,maybe labs but may not include Daily Notes/orders/In's Outs/ clinic visits ect.

Considering most programs with a half-electronic system obviously do not advertise it, I fear it will be viewed unfavorable if an interviewee attempts to nail them down on the specifics.
If you are aware of any general surgery programs like this, I would appreciate if you either reply, or even send me a PM if you do not want to post it.

 

[Buzz Me]

Just out of curiosity...are you a current applicant looking to avoid programs without 100% electronic medical records?

 

[SocialistMD]

I don't think programs will care if you ask. That said, I think on the spectrum of things that should be in your decision-making algorithm for where you will learn to be a great surgeon, EMR is pretty trivial. Obsess over whatever makes you happy, I guess...

 

[Buzz Me]

I totally agree.

 

[45408]

Pretty trivial. There are still significant drawbacks to EMRs, like the fact that simple progress notes get all kinds of crap automatically imported without any thought process, or the fact that pre-made order sets can be very inflexible.

 

[SurgDoc01]

Just out of curiosity...are you a current applicant looking to avoid programs without 100% electronic medical records?

Most certainly not, it's down on the list. Nevertheless, I do believe programs that misrepresent themselves about anything raises a red flag.

I don't think programs will care if you ask. Thatsaid, I think on the spectrum of things that should be in your decision-making algorithm for where you will learn to be a great surgeon, EMR is pretty trivial. Obsess over whatever makes you happy, I guess...

I agree if you look at it as if it is only EMR it is trivial. I guess I am attempting to use it as a marker. Ex. You can look at the quality of the call rooms as a marker of how the department treats its residents. I am not saying the correlation value would be a perfect 1.0, but I do believe there is a correlation.


I also think that one can look at where the residents parking spots are can be used as a guide to judge how the hospital as a whole treats is residents.

I am assuming that an organized charting system can be one of many markers of how organized or efficient a hospital system is.

Sorry if I offended any of you guys at programs without complete EMRs. I was not trying to imply that it is necessary. I am doing my best to evaluate each program objectively rather than the subjective reputation. I admit I am bias towards technology (not that its perfect) and believe systems that incorporate thisearly on will be more efficient, allowing more time for the things to matter rather than chart chasing and chart checking all day long. We are all using the technology of this forum vs writing letters and books right? There is a reason that Freida notes which programs have EMRs, I am just trying find out who has real EMRs.

Once gain sorry to offend anyone. I guess I should not ask about the electronic OR boards you can access from everywhere vs the old physical white boards.

Thanks to those of you who PMed me

 

[blue2000]

It's a big question, and may be difficult to nail down.

What about programs that rotate through multiple hospitals in multiple systems? Are you going to weight the different EMRs at the different hospitals?

I see what you're saying about call rooms & parking spots representing how people treat residents, but I think it's a bit of an oversimplification of things. For instance, at my residency which was at a state university, the state mandated that state employees could not get free parking. So no matter how much my chairman loved us and treated us well, we were never. going. to. get free parking.

Those external measures are not as important as the people who you train with and who train you. Having supportive attendings who understand the rigors of training and push you to be your very best is so much more important than a nice TV in the call room. The problem is that the intangibles, while more important are often the most difficult to assess in the 8-24 hours you are visiting a program. I would rather have the attendings I trained under than the best EMR in the world. No question.

One more thing: EMR has it's down side. When I was an intern, we did handwritten notes. I was always done with my notes by the end of work rounds. Once my program moved to electronic progress notes, the interns had to spend an hour (or two) doing electronic notes after rounds. Seems less efficient to me.

 

[Buzz Me]

Most certainly not, it’s down on the list. Nevertheless, I do believe programs that misrepresent themselves about anything raises a red flag.

Seems like a roundabout way of going about it. You're going to ask programs what their EMR system is like...then ask applicants/current residents what the ACTUAL system is like...then compare the two? To look for programs lying to their applicants?

Seems like you'd be better off just talking to said applicants/residents about the actual atmosphere of each program. Or see what you think when you interview there. I think you're making the whole thing a lot more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[dynx]

Most certainly not, it’s down on the list. Nevertheless, I do believe programs that misrepresent themselves about anything raises a red flag.



I agree if you look at it as if it is only EMR it is trivial. I guess I am attempting to use it as a marker. Ex. You can look at the quality of the call rooms as a marker of how the department treats its residents. I am not saying the correlation value would be a perfect 1.0, but I do believe there is a correlation.


I also think that one can look at where the residents parking spots are can be used as a guide to judge how the hospital as a whole treats is residents.

I am assuming that an organized charting system can be one of many markers of how organized or efficient a hospital system is.

Sorry if I offended any of you guys at programs without complete EMRs. I was not trying to imply that it is necessary. I am doing my best to evaluate each program objectively rather than the subjective reputation. I admit I am bias towards technology (not that its perfect) and believe systems that incorporate thisearly on will be more efficient, allowing more time for the things to matter rather than chart chasing and chart checking all day long. We are all using the technology of this forum vs writing letters and books right? There is a reason that Freida notes which programs have EMRs, I am just trying find out who has real EMRs.

Once gain sorry to offend anyone. I guess I should not ask about the electronic OR boards you can access from everywhere vs the old physical white boards.

Thanks to those of you who PMed me

I don't think anyone would care if you asked specifics about the EMR system. It wouldn't even cross my mind that it was a red-flag. You'd just seem interested in how things work at that hospital.
I can tell you that your bigger issue during interviews is going to be over thinking things.
If you want to spend 7 years with a bunch of uptight dickwads interpreting your every move/sentence then play everything close to the vest lest you upset someone thats easily upset.