Where is my [fill in the blank]? and Passive Tracking

This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series Tracking Systems

Where is the Chart!?!? If you visit different EDs, one of the most common tracking-type refrains you hear is “Where is Room 5’s chart? I’ve been looking for it for fifteen minutes!” Such problems delay ED patient care, and are one of the great motivators for moving to an all-electronic chart, one that can be […]

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The Magic Number 7 (or maybe 4?), Forced Errors, Triage, and Color-Blindness

This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series Tracking Systems

In its most pedantic definition, an ED tracking system is a system for tracking things in the ED. Tracking things that, well, things that we need to keep track of. People. Orders. Labs. Consults. Messages from docs. Many different bits of information that are needed to keep the ED running smoothly. One of the reasons […]

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Performance, Data Pixels, Location, and Preattentive Attributes

This entry is part 8 of 12 in the series Medical Computing

A good principle for medical software is to design for the ED as a worst-case scenario. If it works there, it will work anywhere.No clinicians are as time-pressured as those in a busy Emergency Department. There, distractions – even seemingly minor ones like presenting a complete CBC instead of an abstract – slow the clinician […]

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