I recently saw an orthopedic surgeon and talked to him about his system. He carries an old fashioned recorder with him and talks into it about the visit. He then uses it to input all his data.
He said it is actually a timesaver since he can see more patients more quickly. He starts recording into it before he leaves the room and finishes before entering the next room. I didn’t have to wait on him either.
He said one of the office girls inputs the data.
Must be a surgeon thing. I went to see one back a few months ago. During the initial visit I was sitting across from the receptionist answering some questions and over the shoulder was the doc’s office. I could see he was alone and talking, I’m thinking the guy must be a nut talking to himself then I saw the little recorder in his hand. Then after he saw me in the exam room he was talking into the thing on the way out the door.
Doctors have done this for years and years. I don’t see what is wrong with that system, other than some foreign docs are hard to understand and I have seen some history and physical transcriptions that are hysterical. Or uninformative. I read one that said “the patient is basically circling the drain”. WTH? Or they just have blank lines where the transcriptionist was flatly unable to understand what was said.