Brothers In Blog

When the affordable personal computer came on the scene, one of its many promises was to make redundant tasks easier. Then, with scanning and the low cost of data storage we could now eliminate the need to retain so much paper that were the source documents for those aforementioned tasks. In my opinion, and employment experience in IT, those promises have fallen short of a “WIN” for technology.

The argument that the computer has made simple tasks easier depends on the manual task once performed. When I was in Business College, we were taught the “write in once” payroll accounting method. This involved a columnar ledger with strategically placed carbons between the paychecks being written and the ledger. There was a fair amount of handwriting that had to be done and errors resulted in having to void the erroneous check and start all over. With accounting software, calculating, posting, and printing checks is now a snap. That’s one for technology! However, a recent experience at a local medical center demonstrated a clear mistrust of the digitally saved data at the expense of making a simple task an exhaustive one for the worker.

My wife recently had a follow-up visit for some outpatient surgery that was performed several months earlier. Upon check-in at this nationally acclaimed facility, my wife was barraged with questions: name, address, social security number, date of birth, employer, insurance subscriber (that would be me), and then MY social security number. My wife fired back with all the correct responses while the clerk followed along on her computer monitor. Expecting to be awarded a dinner for two coupon for a job well done, my wife was instead given a multi-copy form WITH carbons and about 12 return address sized labels with printed patient information and told to head down the hall to her doctor’s office.

All the way down the hall I was shaking my head and chuckling out loud thinking about the effort that was put into verifying the digital information only to print it out on identical pages separated by carbons and a full page of return address labels. No wonder healthcare costs are out of control. It takes a small forest just to process a day’s worth of patients at this facility. Upon arrival at the doctor’s office, I was met with the biggest insult of all to the digital age.

I opened the door to the doctor’s waiting room and headed straight for a chair closest to the magazines. My wife interrupted my flight with the announcement, “I need to sign in.” I replied, “Sign in? Lord have mercy, I would hope after that interrogation they know you’re here!” Nevertheless, my wife MANUALLY wrote down her name and the current time. The really crazy thing was that her name was called within 30 seconds and no one had checked to see if her name was on the clipboard. What was the whole purpose of that action then? Gee, how did they know she was waiting in the lobby. Do you think it was that magical invention called the “computer?”

Overall, I was floored as to this facility’s inability to utilize technology to shorten the time their employees play game show host; eliminate the printing of documents; and let go of antiquated manual processes. It’s obvious that despite these advancements in technology, we just aren’t ready to let go of our paper. Opponents of digital imaging argue that digital files can be altered, compromised and even lost forever. Gee, sounds like the same argument that can be made by paper foes.

Neither media is perfect, but at least by going digital safeguards can be put into place to track any attempts to alter original data, secure it from unauthorized viewing or theft, and it doesn’t take another tree to make a backup copy. If we aren’t going to let technology do what it promised then we’re better off unplugging our PC’s and using the CD drive as a cupholder.