I recently came across this really interesting Wall Street Journal blog post. In it a recent college graduate gives a nice rendition of the challenge of changing from student to employee. Turns out, this newly minted graduate has found work at the popular healthcare IT software company: Epic.

Of course, the fact that Epic is hiring a recent college graduate should come as no surprise to anyone in the EMR and healthcare IT field. Epic has long been a haven for new graduates since their hiring practices seem to favor training new blood as opposed to hiring experienced EMR practitioners.

However, reading the above post made me think back to when I first got hired for a job working with an electronic medical record. This part of the blog post really hit home (emphasis mine):

Starting Aug 1, I will be calling Madison home. As a project manager for Epic Systems, I will be working with hospitals from start to finish on implementing health care information technology. This position is a wonderful opportunity to work in a young, fast-paced environment with a high level of independence, not to mention a fair amount of travel (which is perfect for an adventurous 21-year-old). Best of all, the ability to help improve patient care, create better processes and in general aid hospital systems is just the kind of feel-good work I was looking for at the beginning of my job search. Preparing to work every day on a beautiful and themed campus that is sure to leave any architecture buff or Indiana Jones fan speechless, I couldn’t be any more excited to begin this next chapter.

While I’m sure we could have a fascinating conversation about some of the points this girl makes about working at Epic, the part in bold took me back to when I had a similar vision.

I remember all too well telling so many people that I was going to have the opportunity working with an EMR to transform the way someone’s healthcare would be provided. I mean, I had the chance to be able to possibly even save people’s lives.

Turns out that I haven’t thought too much about this perspective in the last 5 years. Sure, I guess it’s always in the back of the mind. The focus on patients has always been paramount for me. I believe I truly have made the patient experience and patient care better in the work I’ve done.

Maybe time has just jaded me to too many things and the romance is gone. Certainly I still could be helping to save lives. I guess sometimes the minutiae of what we call work gets in the way of remembering the bigger picture of what’s possible. Maybe that’s why Epic is smart to hire so many recent college grads.

This week when I was at the AAFP conference in Denver, I had a doctor say “Will an EMR system help me to provide better patient care than my current paper charts?”

I’ll save his personal feeling and my thoughts on the question for a follow up post later this week. For now, I’ll leave it open for discussion in the comments. I think this will be a lively comment section. I’ll preview my answer by saying that I think the question is partially framed the wrong way.

What do you think?

For today’s weekend post, here’s a thought provoking comment:

Imagine what EMR software would look like if it didn’t have to worry about billing, insurance and reimbursement. Would we then see much higher quality EMR software in regards to patient care and physician workflow?

I look forward to reading your thoughts.