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Painful computer operation:

Get ready for it....

The computer system we all use is the brainchild of some ... administrator at the Foothills hospital a looooooong time ago. Apparently, it started out as a program for ordering supplies - it was never intended as a patient/care-directed system at all. The General and Lougheed had been on a system called BHIS since before 1988. It worked just fine, thank you. Foothills has been complaining about its system for YEARS, and so the powers that be decided that we ALL get to hate it now. It is the most useless, user UNFRIENDLY, vague, time-consuming piece of (deleted) I have ever worked with. (Can you get that I don't like it much?)

For example, the nurses in the Emergency Department make their own requisitions. Just to put the patient's number into the system so that the requisitions will print out in their area of the department requires AT LEAST seven screens. And you haven't DONE anything yet. To make requisitions, you have to sign in, pick your patient, pick your doctor (every screen is followed by a screen that essentially says, "Are you SURE this is what/who you want?")..... Our ER has tried to expedite the process and we have order sets - some often-ordered tests under Emergency. However, ANYTHING outside that requires lots of frustration. Also, tests are located under specific headings and names, so if the doctor doesn't order the EXACT name of the test, good luck. Every time you order an X-ray, you go back to almost square one. Therefore, ordering multiple x-rays is a huge deal. The old system had blank type spaces so that if you wanted something that you couldn't find on the regular list, you could just type it in (for both lab and x-ray) with what was called a GenCode. That doesn't exist anymore. The alternative is doing a manual request, which is time consuming as well (writing out twice on ONE form the name, birthday, AHIC #, date, doctor etc), but still better than using the computer. The system doesn't allow for any special changes to requisitions either. For example, doctors often ask for different tests to be done on each of the four vials of cerebral spinal fluid gathered after a lumbar puncture. There's no way to order that - sometimes you write it on the request and hope the lab gets it. While making requisitions for someone who is quite ill, it's not unusual to have to go through 25 screens or more. Gee, do you think this takes the nurse away from the bedside? Sheesh.

The system probably is responsible for at least two forest deaths a day - no kidding, this thing spits out paper like you wouldn't believe. You get a big sheet with all the stuff you ordered on it. That's helpful. But then you get several sheets (seems you can only get a couple of tests ordered per sheet) TWICE, labeled "send with specimen" and "retain on unit". EXACTLY the same printout. We chuck them, because the paper collection is HUGE. Then the lab sends 1-4 printouts that say, PENDING meaning, "Ya, you ordered these such and such tests, but they're not ready yet". Thanks a bunch. THEN more paper comes with one or two results on them, and more PENDING. You end up with several sheets with assorted results and pendings...very confusing.

Name withheld by request.