The EHR system at the hospital occasionally argues with me about my orders.
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I may order a brain MRI, or CT angiography, or pretty much anything, and when I click to submit it a box pops up, telling me I shouldn’t be ordering that.
Sometimes it’s based on cost, saying that the MRI is more expensive than a CT, and according to some internal algorithm I should do that instead. Other times it says the test isn’t appropriate given the patient’s condition, age, zodiac sign, whatever. It might also say the test is redundant, because the patient just had a brain MRI during an admission last month.
I ignore them. There’s an override button to close the box and order the test, and that’s what I always click.
I have no objection to a reasonable review, but neither the computer nor its algorithms went through medical school, or residency, or read journals regularly, or have 20 years of experience in this field. I’d like to think (or hope) I know what I’m doing.
I don’t take this job lightly. When I order a test it’s because I’m trying to do the right thing for the patient. To find out what’s going on. To see what I can do to treat them. In short, to help as much as I can within the limitations of modern medical practice. Sometimes those things don’t always involve saving the insurance company money, or trying to get by with a previous study’s results.
Dr. Allan M. Block
Medicine is not a cookbook. While guidelines can be useful, every patient is different, and treatment plans have to be adjusted accordingly. It would be nice if this was the one-size-fits-all world the computer algorithms would like, but patient care is anything but.
I’d also rather “overcare” than “undercare.” To me, that’s just good practice. If I follow the computer’s advice and provide less care than needed and miss something, I’m pretty sure “because the computer told me not to” isn’t going to stand up as a defense in court.
I’m going to just keep on practicing medicine using, as one of my past attendings would say, “clinical correlation” and keeping what’s best for the patient in mind. Anything less may be fine for the computer, but not for me, and certainly not for those I’m trying to help.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.