The reason I was so in need of Retail Therapy last week was because our computer software at work was, well, doing what it was apparently designed to do. That is, if you believe (as I have strongly come to suspect) that it was designed by the minions of Hell Itself.
About two weeks ago I noticed that when I was clicking on the last of the 5,856 buttons needed to turn this incredibly awkward program into a patient note, the computer was inserting the wrong addresses for the patients' follow up instructions. Since the Headache Hell of 2010 I've only worked in one location, so telling people to see me in 2 weeks in a location 20 miles down the road was nonsensical at best. I assumed that this had been happening since they installed the new program last October, and that I had only just noticed this particular glitch (since there appears to be at least one glitch per day to trip over).
Tech support happened to be on their biweekly visit to our building, so I pointed it out. They looked into it and discovered that I had no less than EIGHT erroneous addresses and phone numbers listed in the system. No problem, they said. We can just take them out, they said.
The next day I started to get messages from pharmacies that my prescriptions couldn't be filled because they didn't have a phone number attached. That seemed so far-fetched that I initially just re-sent a couple dozen scripts, continuing to send new ones as well. Since I send in about 100/day, this began to pile up in a MOST significant way by the second day.
I called tech support. Interestingly enough, the response was along the lines of, "What addresses and phone numbers? We never took anything out?" And as Satan's little helpers continued to work on the problem, patients began calling to complain: "Where's my prescription???"
So by this point, for every prescription I've sent for nearly three days, there are at least three messages: The original request, the bounce-back, and the patient re-call. We have no way of knowing for sure what is missing and what's gone through. They are now shipping all of my refills to the residents and my nurse practioner, effectively doubling their workloads, and the front desk and the nurses are getting KILLED with phone calls and irate patients. I can feel my artieries hardening, because as I am seeing patients I have to remember that I CAN'T SEND ANYTHING TO A PHARMACY. I have to add what I want to their medical history, and then ask someone ELSE to send it. I forgot that detail more than a few times.
This drama went on for a FULL WEEK. Ultimately they had to install some massive new program, field test it, and then let us run it. It worked for everything except controlled medications: No pain medications, no ADHD medications, no anxiety medications, and in some cases, no seizure medications.
The final fix as I understand it involved suspending all my priveledges and then reinstating them.
A thought hit me as I arrived home on Friday evening, and I sent this text to my office manager: "Would you call human resources on Monday and just make sure I'm still on the payroll?"
One full week after everything was working again, we are still having patients call in or show up to see what the heck had happened to medications that they thought had gone to pharmacies, some insisting that they wouldn't leave the building until they knew for sure that the prescription was actually sent in.
Holy Lord.
DeeDee
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