Frog and Goat

For the bulk of today I’ve been steadily working on fantabulous handouts for my contracting gig. One of the handout jobs was just to format something that was already content-ready. The other handout (the actual fantabulous one) is nearly ready but I had to stop. I was overcome by a feeling of embarrassment for the system. Yeah, I was embarrassed for a piece of software. It happens.

It is a long story but I’ve contracted with the state since late 1998 (on a full- and part-time basis). I’ve been there for the “dark” days of the software product. I was there when it was so unstable that we had to regularly cancel the afternoon portion of a class. I’ve also been there when huge strides have been made and am actually proud of several things that have changed about the system. Really. I will actually stop a class to tell folks how happy I am that some functionality or another is now available. When I write Help topics and training documentation, I try to let that enthusiasm peek into the equation without ruining the professionalism of whatever it is I’m writing.

Today, though, I had to stop because I was embarrassed about two sections of the software that are coming out later this year. I’m a little thankful that I’m not on the training schedule for these two items.

My boss laughed when I talked to her on the phone this afternoon and told her I’d have to pick it up tomorrow. She feels my pain. The bottom line is that we’re there to train the system not design it. We’ll train whatever the system has to offer–good or not so good.

While I was at the doctor’s office yesterday, I wondered why doctor’s offices don’t use kiosks to collect data from their patients. I hadn’t been to my primary care doctor since 2000 (what can I say–I’m healthy) and that meant that I needed to fill out pages of forms telling them, again and again, my name, social security number and birth date. Wouldn’t it have been easier to sit me down in front of a kiosk terminal, have me complete a simple page of information and have a database correlate all that information and spit something out for the clerk or nurse to shove into my file?

Ok, so there are rickety people out there who can barely walk into a doctor’s office and find a place to sit in the waiting room without help from someone–they can get the wasteful pieces of poorly copied forms. The rest of us can sit down and type in or even just use drop-downs and check boxes to complete the endless forms. I know there is a way to ensure all that data is secure so HIPAA is golden.

When, oh when, are we going to drag everyone kicking and screaming into our brave new world?