electronic charts have their built-in measures to prevent errors
This is at least a subset of the kind of software my dad works on. I remember him talking once about how someone was trying to get him to force doctors to dismiss every alert individually instead of just being able to select-all-dismiss, and my dad said that all that would do is waste time because the doctor would wind up mechanically dismissing 50 alerts without looking at them instead of doing it all at once, and trying to force the doctor to be conscientious with software was not the right way to go about making doctors be appropriately meticulous.
(Disclaimer: I probably misremember some substantial part of this.)
Yeah, the problem with introducing any safety procedure is that if you have to do it a thousand times a day, it eventually becomes mentally automated. It’s like clicking “I agree” to EULAs, or “let this program access to the Internet” on one of those versions of Windows that would incessantly ask you whether you wanted to let a program access the Internet (never had one, but heard awful things from people who did).
I’ve never used a program like that, so I don’t know whether the bar for alerts is set high enough that most alerts will be real errors, or whether it gets into so many nitpicky things (you’re using an antihypertensive with another antihypertensive! What if that causes hypotension?!) that you eventually develop a reflex of clicking through them. I’d hope the former.
This is at least a subset of the kind of software my dad works on. I remember him talking once about how someone was trying to get him to force doctors to dismiss every alert individually instead of just being able to select-all-dismiss, and my dad said that all that would do is waste time because the doctor would wind up mechanically dismissing 50 alerts without looking at them instead of doing it all at once, and trying to force the doctor to be conscientious with software was not the right way to go about making doctors be appropriately meticulous.
(Disclaimer: I probably misremember some substantial part of this.)
Yeah, the problem with introducing any safety procedure is that if you have to do it a thousand times a day, it eventually becomes mentally automated. It’s like clicking “I agree” to EULAs, or “let this program access to the Internet” on one of those versions of Windows that would incessantly ask you whether you wanted to let a program access the Internet (never had one, but heard awful things from people who did).
I’ve never used a program like that, so I don’t know whether the bar for alerts is set high enough that most alerts will be real errors, or whether it gets into so many nitpicky things (you’re using an antihypertensive with another antihypertensive! What if that causes hypotension?!) that you eventually develop a reflex of clicking through them. I’d hope the former.
If you want more detail about how much care should go into designing a safety system, try The Checklist Manifesto.