A Country Doctor Writes:

What are the odds that the Bucksport EMR that I use for my telemedicine services there should become non-functional on Friday and my local clinic’s system should have a major crash the very next day?

We live in a state of dependence on tenuous infrastructure. Not long ago, Texas was paralyzed by massive power failures and soon thereafter we learned that both government and industry e-mail systems were hacked by foreign countries.

The increased centralization of information and resources and the simultaneous increased remote access to them has created a situation where users may become helpless, unable to work, communicate, eat, stay warm or even wash their hands after using toilets they can’t flush.

My Bucksport clinic upgraded their cloud based EMR in some fashion, so now my two workhorse iPads of different generations can’t access the system. Upgrading the operating system or the app didn’t help.

My local clinic’s EMR is working, but not the prescription functionality. Greenway (hi, guys, I’m talking about you again!) experienced a major failure in their clearinghouse functionality Saturday morning. I ended up printing and faxing prescriptions during my morning clinic hours, but colleagues doing catch-up work from home couldn’t use that option. Many patients didn’t get their refills this weekend.

I finished my Saturday clinic schedule and spent the rest of the day tending to my farm routines.

So here it is, Sunday morning. Overnight, the operating system on my newer iPad Pro updated, and now I will install and try the very latest app for my telemedicine job. I will also crank up the old laptop, which has a different app and also a plugin for a browser based access to the system. My next clinic on Tuesday is at stake. I will keep my fingers crossed.

We landed on Mars with great precision but the more mundane technology closer to home isn’t as perfect.

Wish me luck today.