now, I’m a primary care doctor.”
She gave me a glowering look. “I see.” Reaching over the counter, she pulled out a small tablet. “Here is our chart. It’s all digital now. You need to plug them in between each patient, or you run the risk of them going dead. If we have a power failure, we’ve got only the batteries on these tablets and the backup generator in the server room to print off what records we need to go back to analog.”
I nodded. Many hospitals were moving to similar systems with the speed technology had been advancing just since I got out of medical school. It was digitize or get left behind.
“May I?” I asked.
Skye handed the tablet over without a word.
I was relieved to see a program I was familiar with. “We used this at Harvard, during medical school, to run simulations.”
She gave me a tight, angry smile, her green eyes flashing. “I’m sorry we’re not as advanced as the hospital you worked for in Boston.”
“No, you misunderstand me.” I opened the file for the first patient on the schedule. A six-year-old boy complaining of a sore throat. After skimming his history and other intake questions, I gave the tablet back to Skye. “Boston was the one that was behind. For them to be as advanced as they are, cutting edge, really, they desperately need to upgrade their basic record-keeping systems. Harvard was always using the latest and greatest to try to train the doctors in the newest methods, including the newest software.” I rattled on, desperate for her to not think I was insulting little Bluewater Memorial. “I love this hospital. I meant that.”
I’d wanted to move home from the moment I completed my residency and had even looked into doing my residency here at Bluewater. I figured I’d commute in so I wouldn’t actually live in the county, and not disobey my alpha. It would’ve been on a technicality, but still.
She sighed. “Come on. The RN should be ready for you to go in.”
Nodding, I followed her to the first room. The layout of the offices was a little labyrinth-like, but I knew I’d get the hang of it soon enough. Skye stopped at a door. “This one is yours; I’ll take the next one down. If I go in with you on each patient, we’ll get hopelessly behind.”
Nodding, I took the tablet again. “I’ve done this a time or two. I gotcha.”
After examining the patient, I asked the RN to order a strep test and went out to the hall to the little alcove set up for doctors to put their notes in before going to the next room. It helped us be able to see more patients each day without getting way behind on our notes.
As soon as I put in the info I needed, I checked the schedule, then looked at the intake notes, and I noticed some problems. The nurses weren’t filling the notes out completely and hadn’t updated each section.
That was a problem. I’d actually had cases before where the most obscure fact about the family history or patient symptoms had helped diagnose. If they didn’t fill it in completely every time, something might get missed.
In most parts of my life, I wasn’t a stickler about much of anything. Except charting. I had to be a dick about it, whether I wanted to be or not.
Skye walked out of the room beside the one I’d seen my first patient in. “Hey,” I said. “Can I ask you something?”
She nodded as she tapped at her tablet. “What’s up, doctor?”
“First, please, call me Anthony. Or Tony.”
Skylar sighed and looked up from her tablet as if I’d asked her to do me some huge favor. “I think it’s best if we keep things professional, Dr. Mason.”
Fine. I’d play along for now. “Well, what would you recommend for getting the nurses to chart a little more thoroughly?”
She narrowed her eyes. “What’s wrong with the way we chart?” She’d lumped herself in with the rest of the nurses, though she was more doctor than a nurse, despite not having an MD or PhD.
“It needs to be more thorough. I’ll play along and work whatever schedule, and I will be as flexible as I can. Easier for me to blend in here than for the entire staff to adapt to my way of doing things. But one thing I can’t bend on is charting.”
Her nostrils flared. “We’re thorough. But I’ll make sure the staff knows to dot