Stepping Back

It has taken a few months, but we are finally settling into our home and the surrounding area. We haven’t lived in a place this small since the early seventies, when I worked in another college town for a state university. There is much to be said for a community of this size. We don’t miss the crime rates and traffic jams associated with larger cities. Unlike more rural areas, the town is large enough to offer stores, restaurants and medical services. What’s not to like?

Technology is the answer and a surprising one, since the town is built around a technical university. The university is wonderfully up to date, but the same cannot be said for the town. It hampered our search for a home. Some realtors offered a webpage with a handful of listings, but no one offered a comprehensive database that could be searched by home hunters. Rental applications were frequently on paper and acceptance took weeks, since references and credit checks are still done via mail. You can’t pay for most local utilities and services online and, when it’s available, it comes with a fee for the privilege. 

The biggest surprise for me, however, was health care that lacks electronic medical records.  When I signed in for my first doctor’s visit, the receptionist checked a typed paper list instead of a computer screen. I like my new doctor, a nice young man, who thinks the climate here is cold and sports a heavy winter jacket to protect himself from the fifty degree temperatures. Despite his youthful appearance, he confides that he uses very little technology and finds the internet scary. I expect this from my older brother, but not from a smart young physician. Prescriptions aren’t electronically sent to my pharmacy, so Calico had to deliver the paper ones by hand and wait for them to be filled. My next visit was scheduled on a paper calendar and my credit card payment was done with one of those machines that imprint the card onto paper, when the handle is pressed down. That was funny, but the lack of electronic health records isn’t.

Medical records software is far more than a way for medical practices to bill patients and insurance providers. It allows health care providers to quickly access health information, which can be vital in emergency situations. Even within a small practice, it is easy for things to fall through the cracks. I experienced that a number of years ago, when a small cardiac practice missed the results of an echocardiogram that indicated my heart was in big trouble. Three months of frequent visits for my rapidly deteriorating condition passed before a cardiologist unearthed the results from my voluminous paper file, apparently filed without ever being reviewed. I was quickly scheduled for treatment, but the delay cost me needless suffering and extra time for recuperation.

The past decade has held a lot of improved access to records. When we were living in the city, we took it for granted. Now, it seems as though we have taken a giant step backward. Would I like to return to city life? Not at all, but I’m hoping that this community will soon be adopting the advances we had taken for granted.