Because my school is hip to all the newest technologies, the entire dental clinic is digital. We use strictly EHR (electronic health records) and the clinic is completely paperless. This is usually a good thing: instant access to all my charts, digital x-rays that are "developed" instantaneously, consent forms that are signed on a signature pad directly into the computer, etc. Today, being 100% digital was a very bad thing. The clinic runs on a program called Axium, which is run on every computer in the clinic (well over 300 of them). Axium is a bit of a pain in the ass and we run into problems with it daily, but it is supposed to be the best thing for large institutions. I hope so, because otherwise we are putting up with daily headaches when a better option is out there. Today, Axium outdid itself and crashed...and burned...and then crashed again...and burned some more. This morning, the clinic managed to limp along as people were able to sporadically use Axium to pull up charts and x-rays before it would freeze. I managed to finish 2 gorgeous looking amalgam fillings on my first patient of the day before Axium locked up on my computer. Then all hell broke loose. About 10:30 AM, the entire system crashed and locked everyone out. No access to the schedule. No access to patient charts and x-rays. No access to patient contact information. No way to collect fees for services rendered. The clinic was a mess. My 11 AM patients showed up for their endodontic consults. We went down to talk to Dr. J, but ended up having to reschedule because we couldn't pull up any x-rays (a necessity in endo). At this point, I considered calling my afternoon patient to warn her about the possibility of rescheduling. Problem was, her phone number was listed in the program that wasn't working.
We returned to the clinic at 1 PM, hoping that Axium had been fixed during our lunch break. The minute we stepped in the door, we were instructed to not open any of our instruments and to sit tight for further instruction; Axium was still down. Patients remained in the waiting room, and security blocked the doors. The clinic was on lock-down. Everyone on the clinic floor started getting excited at the prospect of having a Friday afternoon off and we all started joking around. (We were seriously giddy and laughing so hard. At some point we were being so ridiculous and probably inappropriate that Dr. C joked, "I can see the lawsuits now. I'm going to have to Puerto Rico and change my name to Jose.") Photos started appearing on office doors, making fun of the situation.
About 40 minutes later, an announcement was made that the clinic would be closing because they could not get Axium working again. I went down to talk to my patient and to let her know I would call her next week to reschedule. Luckily, she was super cool and excited that she now had time for a nap before work (my kind of girl). Other patients were not so happy. One lady was practically irate because she had taken the day off work and driven 2 hours to get to the clinic. Ouch. I feel sorry for the student that had to clean up that mess.
So, I was home again by 2 PM to enjoy the 70 degree weather and the rest of my "snow day". I celebrated with a nap.
No comments:
Post a Comment