UChicago and the EMR factor

[528]

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Hello!

As ranking time comes down to the wire, I was wondering if anyone could help me tease out how important having an EMR is in the daily life of an internal medicine resident. I very much enjoyed the University of Chicago's program, but coming from a medical school that has a good electronic medical record, I can't imagine some of the busywork that must go into finding a chart to hand write orders/notes etc as my understanding is that they do not yet have their electronic medical record in place. I am unclear as to whether they have electronic orders, but my impression was that most everything was done through the paper chart (including reading up on histories of patients?).

I'm not sure how heavily this should factor into my decision (if at all) as I am trying to tease out where on my list this program should go relative to others, mainly Mayo and MGH. I'm thinking about multiple factors, but the lack of an EMR seems to keep coming up as an important issue when I think of the UChicago. I wondered if anyone could comment on this who is familiar with the UChicago system.

Thank so much for your help. All the best to everyone compiling rank lists this week!

- 528

 

[argh]

I don't think electronic medical record should factor in at all. I went from a medical school with an electronic record to a residency program with paper charting, and I have to admit that I kinda like paper charts. There's no cutting and pasting, and there's less fluff to cut through when you're looking through a chart. As long as you have access to good discharge summaries, EMR vs. paper charts shouldn't really matter. In fact, I find the VA's CPRS system kinda annoying.

 

[DJ LACTULOSE]

EMR is nice when you are looking for notes from consultants or surgery (who often have really bad handwriting). i kind of think surgery prides itself on bad handwriting and short notes, but i digress.

i've heard some of residents say that while EMR makes writing notes a lot faster, something is lost when you just copy and paste the previous day's note. now these residents were at programs where there was no EMR, so maybe they were just trying to defend what they have.

but i know that personally, i get a chance to just sit down and think when i'm writing notes. and that's part of what i like about medicine. i think when you just copy and paste the previous day's note and make a few changes, you end up having a lot of unecessary info in the note.

then again, if you have terrible handwriting, this all goes out the window. the whole point is to be able to commnicate with someone else. i wouldn't really consider this a deal-breaker when choosing a residency. you'll get used to whatever you have at the program you match into.