Be careful what you wish for. I was at a meeting last winter when a complaint session about EPIC started. I raised my hand and made some comment about what should be done to correct the issue being discussed (I actually don't remember the details of the conversation, but they are irrelevant to this story anyway.). As I was in the elevator leaving the meeting, another participant turned to me and told me that I should join the physician informatics team. I stood in the lobby and thought about it for a few seconds and decided that would be a good idea. I went back upstairs and informed the person in charge that I'd like to join their team.
Fast forward a few months to the present. I have since met with the right contacts, went to Madison, WI to EPIC headquarters for advanced physician training, and now spend my "free time" working on computer projects. This is the first time I've worked on a computer project in nearly 10 years and it feels like I'm in college again. I never in a million years thought I would use my computer science background being a physician. Yet here I sit, calling functions and creating data structures in a large and powerful software package, all in an attempt to improve productivity and provider happiness.
I initially didn't like EPIC too much, and I didn't make that a secret. However, the more I use it and learn about it, the more I like it. It really does have the power and customization available to be quite good. It's all about setting things up for each user's preferences, which can be a challenge. This is the purpose of the physician informatics team - to put a group of docs together who both utilize the software and understand the daily challenges who also have the knowledge to work with the software. It really is something terrific EPIC allows.
No comments:
Post a Comment