For me to know, for now

I surrender! For years now, my coworkers have been pestering me to "write a book, write a book." While I've always believed it would be an interesting project - writing about nursing and hospitals from an insider's perspective - it hasn't been a top priority for me.

That was before EPIC (supposedly NOT an acronym). Epic (there is no rule regarding capitalizing this 'term' or not) changed everything. Hailed as the long-overdue modernization of healthcare recordkeeping, Epic would "fix" many of the problems that have frustrated hospital professionals and jeopardized patient safety for years. Problems such as illegible orders, inaccessible data, and poor communication between departments would all be resolved with Epic software. Patient information could be accessed by multiple users at the same time from any computer in the system. Medication errors would decrease, as physicians would enter orders electronically, eliminating the risky business of a nurse or secretary actually having to read their hasty handwriting. Records would be permanent, hospital events would be trackable, and accountability would be inescapable. Bottom line: safer care for patients, less paperwork for caregivers, and most importantly, fewer preventable sentinel events.

Wow, that's amazing! Epic sounds like the ideal solution to every healthcare ailment. Why, then, was there so much cynicism and skepticism among the nurses? We should be cheering and yahooing and patting the management/consultants/committee members/people who know on the back for their brilliant and exhaustively discussed decision to purchase Epic software (the older version) to the tune of "lots of money." We're not really sure how much, but I will find out. So what then, is the problem? Well, the problem is the point here, and should eventually stop all the pestering I've been subjected to.

So, I will write the book. I have decided on a title (sorry, can't share). The preface is partly finished (I lost two paragraphs when my husband called me away from my computer to help him balance his checkbook and when I finished that job, I saw my laptop had overheated (again!) and shut down. I take this as a good sign. No problems, no good. I will tackle the problem so something will get done, or at least something should. Finally.

I'll keep you posted. Time for bed.