Comments on: A Hospital is a Shocking Thing

By: Trick

Trick — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:39:55 +0000

Last night, while sitting in the CTU I witnessed something like that Karina. The woman next to us spoke no English so the poor doctor was trying to figure out what was going on and the poor woman couldn’t communicate between each other.

The issue is obviously a huge one, I recognize that, and Adam you’re quite right that the in hospital information exchange is as important. My post got slightly derailed as I wrote it. But Evan makes the good points for some of the biggest issues.

Florida Hospital is half-way there, the nurses are all equipped with Panasonic laptops which are known for their durability, and they have wireless. But it’s just a matter of getting that information dispersed and keeping it up to date between departments.

By: Evan

Evan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:24:33 +0000

The issue isn’t that this system wouldn’t be brilliant and welcomed. The issue is getting _all_ systems integrated so you only have to enter any piece of information once.

This is idea that nurses/docs carry around PDAs which automatically update databases and things.

Unfortunately, in the real world, development time, costs, and the plain reluctant to change will most likely kill this.

Imagine: A 65+ Year old doc staring at his new pocket PC like it’s a tricorder from Star Trek. Sure he knows how to be a great doctor, but he’s not “good with the gizmos.” This represents a huge problem in terms of adopting such revolutionary, albeit welcome, measures.

By: Karina Vedder

Karina Vedder — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:24:12 +0000

I think so many people have experienced what you have. What is scary is when the patient cannot speak for themselves or do not have family or friends watching out for them – what happens then? My mother had a similar experience last year in the hospital. I would help out as well if anyone wants to get this project started, either as developer or software tester.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:47:47 +0000

It seems to me that even more important than getting information to the patient’s family (which, don’t get me wrong, is important) is solving the problem of information-entropy among hospital staffers. I can’t think of any other system that handles such critical information, and yet requires so much inefficient repetition.