Doctors and Penmanship.

Seems that people are always in a rush these days, even here in laid back Santa Cruz, California. We have evolved to text messaging, short cryptic code words and symbols to shorten our communication. When we are in a hurry, aren't we always, we tend to write poorly. Penmanship classes are a thing of the past neat writing is to be commended. A doctor with great penmanship is rarer than a great president.

It always seemed one of the worst offenders were doctors. Yes those hard working men and women in charge of our health often are sloppy writers. You have not doubt been queried by the pharmacist at least once as to the drugs that were prescribed. Even then we both can't always figure it out, then, a call to the doctors' office is in the works. Not only does this delay the medication to the patient, it creates more work for all. Some web based systems are providing help in this area now. What is coming of age has been in the works for various industries in various forms for years, and that is a hand held electronic device. As we have all seen at grocery and department stores is a device that scans what is on a shelf location and the person types in the appropriate quantity to order.

Similarly, this type of device will be a great benefit to all of us, as more doctors use a similar device. The Palm Pilot is a cell phone/database tool that can work for keeping such medical information readily available and eliminates the writing errors of transcription. Poor handwriting and the resultant mistakes can be deadly.

California leads the nation in the percentage of doctors that are using electronic means to keep track of patients. Electronic record keeping is going to eliminate many errors due to poor penmanship and speed the transfer of information. California leads the nation, no doubt in part to Silicon Valley's technology, but also due to its' large healthcare organizations like Kaiser Permanente. These EHR's, electronic health records, are used by the doctors almost 80% of the time at large institutions' such as Kaiser, but less than 30% nationally.

Due to the cost and complications of design and implementation of the systems, they are used not used by smaller offices with much more frequency than national use. With California doctors' practices greater than 10 doctors, the use is about 57%. We sure can't count on the government to develop one as they have a terrible track record with computer systems. Maybe we can get some national standards developed for information and that will be a basis upon which systems can be designed. One of the main concerns is security, but having the patient control who gets access to the information is also a concern as well.

It will be up to the major health care provides to find a system that works. I think it would be in their best interest, as the inherent efficiencies of transporting the information and images electronically, is faster, and with better tracking. Being able to track the data from bedside to patient to pharmacy, you have to believe fewer errors will be made.

As we are evolving and timely delivery of information and medication is more important, technology is starting to finally creep into the mundane things like monitoring blood pressure, blood sugar and the like, remotely. This seemingly minor event of having a doctor connected daily to your information is a great benefit potentially. If there is a problem or a trend it is noticed more quickly than by you finding out with an unexpected trip to the emergency ward. That in turn saves all money and headache. The quicker medical intervention is realized, the more lives are saved and the quality of live improves.

Quality of life can start with where you live. If you don't like where you live, consider Santa Cruz, Ca. It is a pretty place to live, clean air, plenty of areas for all sorts of recreation. Jobs of all sorts are available here or over in Silicon Valley, about 45 minutes away.

About the author. Gregg Camp is a seniors real estate specialist( SRES) and has lived in the Santa Cruz area for 30 years. He has worked in the real estate field for 20 years and has interests in the healthcare field, in part, due to the impact it has on his older clients.