Saturday, September 5, 2009

Twitter in the Operating Room

A hospital in Iowa is experimenting with Twittering in the OR, to help families track the progress of their loved one's surgeries.


Is this the wave of the future?


“Ok, Linda, you will scrub the case, Lisa you’ll circulate,” the charge nurse would say, “Oh, and Julie you’ll be the twitter nurse.”


I can imagine some of the tweets:


Surgery delayed doc on back 9…


Grandma not responding to anesthesia, double checking doses…


Pizza here, y’all have change for a twenty?...


Is CPR 1 breath to 5 compression, or 2 breaths to 30?...


Just imagine the lawsuits...


24 comments:

Melissa Stover said...

hopefully it won't come to that. i don't want my surgeries documented on twitter.

Becca~CapturingSimpleJoys said...

That's funny. Does the family REALLY want to know all that happens and is said in the back? I think not! :)

Unknown said...

That is too funny! You could stay at home & not even have to sit in the waiting room.

He & Me + 3 said...

No thanks...I will wait ever so patient in the waiting area, praying. That would be just too much for me to handle.

Eyeglasses & Endzones said...

Uh, OK. You can be the twitter nurse, if you really must be...I just don't want to read anything about BM's during the birthing process!!! LOL.

Pam D said...

I started typing "thanks, but no thanks", and then I thought back to my next-door neighbor's intestinal surgery for diverticulitis. I sat with his wife in the waiting room; it was supposed to be 3-4 hours and went nearly 8. After about hour 6, she was in tears; when a nurse finally came out to do an update, we were thinking the worst. It was, in fact, great news; the doc was able to do a lot more than he thought he could and so spent extra time and took great care. Tweets actually WOULD have been nice and would have alleviated a lot of anxiety. Maybe there IS a place for those, keeping staff IN the O.R. and family OUT of panic attacks!

Valerie said...

Julie, loved this post as I'm currently sitting with my sister and sweet nephew in the CICU after Eli's open heart surgery. (Actually, we are in the progressive care unit after a tremendously successful surgery yesterday morning! A little after 24-hours Eli is sitting up and smiling...batting at balloons!)

Not sure tweets would have been appropriate during the open heart surgery; the hourly phone call updates were way more personable for my sis and brother-in-law!

Blessings,
Val

E @ Scottsville said...

Oh my!!! But ya know, if they did give updates every 10 minutes like "All's going well, in mid-something-or-other, will be out in 30", that might be great! ha ha ha

E

Elyse said...

I know we are into technology...but this is a tad overboard!
~Elyse

Unknown said...

Seriously!?

Tricia Nugen said...

So weird. I had just talked to CNP(hubby) about this the other day! I can't imagine sitting out there waiting for an update from ICU on so and so and what if I got the wrong tweet? or the nurse accidentally tweeted what she wanted for lunch! Take me back to the simple life of medicine please. Where everyone paid either with their fresh vegetables or cash and they all get a shot of PCN! They don't call you and bug you and you don't have to fight with the insurance company to get grannies medicine approved for another month!

I love my job I love my job! ;)

Foursons said...

Ummm...yeah. I'm not to sure about that.

Aspiemom said...

That's too much!

Anonymous said...

Geeze....PLEASE, do not tell me it is coming to that, I am having a hard time with the local new stations twittering while "broadcasting"....TALK to US live!! Please......

Beth E. said...

You totally crack me up! The last pic is what got to me...what a hoot!

I guess, though, if this really happens that it won't be a laughing matter at all!

Kelley said...

tooo funny!

The Blue Sparrow said...

Oh man and I live in Iowa! What about our hippa laws?

Mr. Daddy said...

would you call that being Twitterpated??? LOL

Krista said...

ooh I don't know about this idea! I can't see it turning out well! Imagine seeing an ambiguous tweet about your family member "patient 1234 not responding to medication" and then getting the dreaded FAIL WHALE every time you refresh for new updates! argh!

Helene said...

That's hysterical...I loved the one about CPR!! I heard on the news that there was some lady keeping her family and friends up to date on her labor when she was giving birth to her first child....modern technology sure has come a long way!

Rachel said...

Oy! I cannot imagine. I mean... I'm sure as a deaf person, this would be a great technological tool to have (since the phonecalls wouldn't work), but would much rather have a nurse pop their head out every once in awhile to let me know personally. Else I'd get online and start researching everything related to the tweet! :)

Jen said...

I can't believe this either.

Mrs. M said...

It would be nice to know what is going on, any way it is presented. Usually it seems like you just wait and wait and wait....Maybe they will start training "twitter nurses" to scrub in and simply work on the "updates". ;-)

christy rose said...

Maybe a little info but not everything! I am not sure how I feel about this!