Sunday, September 14, 2008

medinnovationblog: The Chart Before the Horse, Part 2

medinnovationblog: The Chart Before the Horse: " Data entry has thus become King of the Ward, Supreme Ruler of the Dark Data Domain, and health care professionals have become data entry serfs. Nurses are now the chart police and paper tigers. They spend more time policing and prowling through the chart than nurturing, observing, and caring for patients and collaborating with doctors."

The tragedy is that this is now true in India as well. Rather than learn the good stuff from the USA, all we seem to copy is the bad stuff. Documentation has now become the be-all and the end-all. It seems that paperwork is more important than patients. I think this is because medical practise is now being taken over by bureaucrats and lawyers who want to control and regulate the ways doctors practise medicine by passing laws - and all they understand is paperwork ! Today, in India, under an Act passed by the Parliament, if you do not fill up a particular form properly, this is considered to be a criminal offense, for which a doctor can be jailed for 3 years !

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