Page one of this issue of TRENDS is on the topic of communication as expressed by the use of words. An error made in speaking can be referred to as a slip of the tongue. When transferring information electronically using health records, a different kind of error might be called a digital slip of the finger. The May 2018 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society provides an account of how a physician upon concluding a visit by a patient typed discharge instructions, orders for a laboratory test, and follow‐up information into the electronic health record (EHR), at the moment her husband asked a question. While in the middle of selecting a diagnosis from a dropdown list to justify the test, the physician hit the “Accept” button when turning to answer the husband’s question. After doing so, he refocused on the wrap‐up and referred her to the laboratory for a blood draw. She then checked out and received the printed summary of the visit. Unfortunately, he inadvertently had selected the diagnosis “Walking Corpse Syndrome” (a rare mental illness in which patients have a delusion that they have died) from the dropdown list.
Once home, she and her spouse were astounded to read the diagnosis of “Walking Corpse Syndrome” on the visit summary. They called the office, panicked and obviously upset. The physician explained that it was an error caused by pressing the “Accept” button, sensing that she felt he somehow had been hiding a diagnosis from her for some time. Several apologies later, he learned that to avoid a similar experience in the future, he must inform patients when he needs to concentrate on the computer for critical data entry moments. He also began to dictate notes with the patients listening so that they are engaged in that part of the interaction with the computer.
Other Articles from TRENDS June 2018
WORDS AND THEIR PLACEMENT REALLY MATTER
Apart from gestures and semiotic influences, such as wearing a white coat and having a stethoscope, communication between a health professional and a patient relies heavily on language in the form of words—whether spoken or written. Read More
FUNDING AND AGENCY RESTRUCTURING
The House Appropriations Committee in June 2018 released the text of its fiscal year (FY) 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education funding bill. The proposed legislation...Read More
DEVELOPMENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Two issues in higher education attracted a considerable amount of attention in June 2018. The newest is an announcement by the Trump Administration to merge the Departments of Labor and Education into a single Department of Education and the Workforce...Read More
AVAILABLE RESOURCES ACCESSIBLE ELECTRONICALLY
- Academic Medical Centers And High-Need, High-Cost Patients: A Call To Action
- Youth Risk Behavior Survey Results And Trends Report
- New America’s Survey On Higher Education
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ROBOTS, AND THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY
The aging of the U.S. population and the extent to which multiple morbidities characterize a large segment of that sub-group provides assurance that the health care industry will continue to be robust for decades...Read More
PRESIDENT’S CORNER — ASAHP MEMBER FOCUS
Name and Title: Kim L. Halula, PhD, Associate Dean, College of Health Sciences... Read More
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT DEVELOPMENTS
Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) become law in 2010, Congressional Republicans have vowed to repeal and replace it. With the advent...Read More
QUICK STAT (SHORT, TIMELY, AND TOPICAL)
Genetic testing and spending on that testing have grown rapidly since the mapping of the human genome in 2003, but it is not widely known how many tests there are, how they are used, and how paid for...Read More
HEALTH TECHNOLOGY CORNER
The results of a study published on April 18, 2018 in the open access journal npj Digital Medicine is based on an evaluation of the effectiveness of using Twitter to search for individuals who become lost due to dementia...Read More