We were all busy working away this morning doing our usual tasks and then it happened, the lights went out! Now this doesn’t seem like an event that should stop the show, but it just about stopped our office production.
The electricity had gone out in the past, so why was this so different? About six months ago our medical office went paperless, which means we have a computer system that does everything, no more paper charts. When the electricity went out our server automatically backed up and shut down, which worked great.
We did have patients in each treatment room so we opened the blinds to let what light in that we could. But we the staff really could not do our jobs or for that matter much of anything. As I sat there trying to decided what to do, I had this brief glimmer of hope because we had laptops in each treatment room that were fully charged, we could use them, hallelujah, we could continue to function! As I said that was a brief thought because the laptops are connected to the server wirelessly and they could not connect to the server because it was plugged in and shut down.
We could not connect to the internet because the routers were plugged in and there was no electricity. We could not scan, copy, fax, phone, or flush (okay we could flush, but it just seemed to fit in so well there). Our computer system tells us who is coming in, when, what for and how long they are expected to be there. All of this information was not available to us and that was a strange feeling. We are so dependent on electricity as it is the life source to our EMR (electronic medical record) system.
After this initial shock and the realization that even though we have advanced light years ahead with the technology we have at our fingertips in the office, a simple blackout renders us paralyzed. We just pulled out the old pencils and paper and started taking notes like we did in the not too distant past.
The lights soon came back on and we were able to boot everything up and get back to business as usual without much trouble for the rest of the day. But I couldn’t help thinking about how much we depend on the advanced technology that is available today and remembering that it was not that long ago that it didn’t exist. We have come a long way in just the past 20 years, think about what your job was like then and now…pretty amazing isn’t it?
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