Emails: um problema sério; prontuários eletrônicos também.

O caso abaixo registrado na área da saúde nos Estados Unidos é somente um exemplo entre vários outros do perigo dos emails dirigidos de forma impulsiva e, principalmente quando ao invé de responder ao emissor e, dirigido a todos. Outro problema de conteúdo é a dificuldade em se estabelecer o prontuário eletrônico. A Kaiser Permanente é a organização mais bem administrada com uma equipe excelente de epidemiologistas no apoio, imaginem então outros locais e organizações.

Critical Case:How an Email Rant Jolted a Big HMO A 22-Year-Old's TiradeMade Trouble for Kaiser;Mr. Deal Got Fired, Famous By RHONDA L. RUNDLEApril 24, 2007; Page A1 LOS ANGELES -- On a Friday morning last November, Justen Deal, a 22-year-old Kaiser Permanente employee here, blasted an email throughout the giant health maintenance organization. His message charged that HealthConnect -- the company's ambitious $4 billion project to convert paper files into electronic medical records -- was a mess. In a blistering 2,000-word treatise, Mr. Deal wrote: "We're spending recklessly, to the tune of over $1.5 billion in waste every year, primarily on HealthConnect, but also on other inefficient and ineffective information technology projects." He did not stop there. Mr. Deal cited what he called the "misleadership" of Kaiser Chief Executive George Halvorson and other top managers, who he said were jeopardizing the company's ability to provide quality care. "For me, this isn't just an issue of saving money," he wrote. "It could very well become an issue of making sure our physicians and nurses have the tools they need to save lives." Mr. Deal signed the email. Before sending it, he says, he printed out a copy and handed it to his boss. "She gave me a look like, 'I think you're going to be fired,' " he recalls. Soon afterward, his office phone was ringing off the hook. IT staffers later arrived to seize his computers, and Mr. Deal was placed on paid leave from his $56,000-a-year job. Kaiser refutes Mr. Deal's assessment of its custom software system, developed by Epic Systems Corp. The company says HealthConnect is doing fine despite some missteps. Ultimately, the company fired Mr. Deal, who worked on patient-education booklets and provided technical support to his department. But the email episode shows that, in the digital age, flicking away whistle-blowers isn't as easy as it once was.