Category: Technology

  • Some Ideas for a Healthcare Dashboard

    Some Ideas for a Healthcare Dashboard

    When I’m at work, I sometimes think about having the perfect healthcare dashboard. I use EPIC at work, and for the most part it’s adequate. But the dashboard that I see each day when I open EPIC is not useful to me at all. I’m not able to easily customize it, and so I just…

  • Outdated Technology: Do Nurses even Care?

    Earlier this week I wrote about technology tools for nurses, and how everything we use seems to be so outdated. One thing I wondered: Do nurses even care? So I posed the question on Reddit and got some terrific feedback.

  • Technology Tools for the Bedside Nurse

    Bedside nurses have one of the toughest jobs. So why do we get stuck with some of the crappiest technology? I recently had the opportunity to orient to a job on a med-surge floor. Having not worked in a hospital for the past 7 years, I was a little surprised at the lack of basic…

  • Documenting in the EHR in ALL CAPS

    Documenting in the EHR in ALL CAPS

    On the first day of my allscripts instruction, I was advised that when documenting in the EHR, I should always use all caps, in other words, to always type in capital letters. As someone who is trained in graphic design, this irked me! Capital letters should be used for a reason, not as a default.…

  • The Retreat from (and return to) Blogging

    I’ve been thinking about NotNurseRatched’s post about the state of nurses in social media. I’ve definitely retreated from social media for some of the reasons she describes (incivility, name-calling, pitchfork wielding), but the truth is that I want back in. I love blogging. How much sense does it make to give up something you love…

  • The Cost of Implementing EMRs

    A NYT article today points out some of the current problems with digitizing health records. It focuses on the potential for fraud and abuse by hospitals around coding and billing. But what about the potential for abuse by the companies that sell EMR technology?