Why Computer? Why?

Due to changes in regulations in health care over the last decade or so, most ophthalmology practices now operate using an electronic medical record (EMR). For practical reasons, a practice usually can’t employ its own IT department to help with the EMR. Often, the practice also doesn’t have its own servers to run the EMR. For most practices with many different offices, the best solution is to have a secured cloud to run the EMR so that it can be accessed by computers in many different buildings. However, when there is a problem with the cloud or the computers, it can become a nightmare. There are problems scheduling patients. There are even bigger problems with patients who arrive, as there is no electronic record to know what happened with the patient previously and what the patient needs at that appointment. Finally, when the computer problems are finally solved, often there a many many hours of work done by the staff and the doctors to enter the notes from patient visits recorded on paper into the EMR. So it hurts when the computer glitch happens, and the pain continues days to weeks afterward.