Texting While Treating

Imagine yourself in a cab in Boston when the cab driver asks "is it OK with you if I text and drive?"  My guess is that you would say "no" (perhaps with some added expletives) because you understand the relationship between texting while driving, inattention to the road, and the increased possibility that you will be injured or killed in a crash.

Today, at my occasional Thursday noon lunch, some of the physicians were discussing the introduction of computerized medical records to their practices.  One doctor, whose practice is months into the process of medical computerization, complained that he couldn't concentrate simultaneously on the patient's statement of her history and the need to record the encounter into his computer.  The doctor was texting while practicing - no less a dangerous activity than proposed by the cabby.

But what if the cabby had said - "Look, the government says I must text when I drive?"  Or what if the doctor says "The government is telling me to text during our office visit?"  In either case, the risk is that inattention to the task at hand may result in injury to you.

So the next time you are in the doctor's office and the doctor's eyes are focused not on you, but on the keyboard and computer monitor in front of her, fasten your seatbelt and hold on: you may be the victim of a lifethreatening error caused by operator inattention.

The message to doctors: you can't deal with your patient's serious medical issues when your mind is focused on your computer.