My Little Corner of the Chest Clinic

I have moved from my spacious Newmarket and Main office with a large corner desk and a view of palm trees and a garbage dump to a little computer desk in the corner of the boardroom at the Chest Clinic! Thankfully the room is air conditioned and after a bit, I found someone to help me get the internet connection working. I have a cupboard that I can lock and I moved some boxes around so the corner is a little less claustrophobic surrounded by electronic and condom boxes...

I took a bit of a break for awhile, but I have been back at work for over two weeks. It was a little disheartening to find that the use of the system definitely relaxed while I wasn't here supervising. Also nobody was entirely honest about their use of the system - forgetting that I would notice the gaps of information in the computer and the effect that one person not using the system has on the whole process! Even if I weren't so involved with every chart that goes through my hands, with a click of a button and my handy dandy administrative report, I can see that they too took a bit of a holiday!

All joking aside, it was a bit frustrating discovering that yet again two steps forward means one and a half steps backward. On the plus side, a HIS specialist came to visit and he thought they were using the system (well they probably were that day) which inspired his recommendation to keep working on the system and push forward faster with the rollout to the rest of the country. The lack of usage and some small details inspired me to write a letter that prompted a little action and a lot of laughs - with such confessions as "I have a confession to make. I am only one person. I am not magic. I can only be in one place at a time. I can only see so much clinic activity in my time here. More than ever, I need your continued help and support to make this system work for you. It's not for me, it's for you and the patients you see" and instructions like "take the pen away from the doctor" (reaction - we can't do that! my response - pretend you're me and if they say anything, send them to me).

I am continuing to work on modules for the system - currently the focus is TB. Because of my time at the Chest Clinic and the fact that they are essentially in full time, they are using TB as an example that the system can work (I am so proud of my people!). They want to make sure that the system can produce the required reports for tuberculosis and that the data from the system is of the quality required. It's a bit of a task with some inconsistent use of the system and the amount of back data that needs to be entered, but I'll keep working away at the planning document and hopefully keep encouraging system use and maybe someone else will take charge of the back entry of quality data and we will prove that the system can work. Still. Again. :)