A Computer Problem At Work Which Became a Gift Later

Three weeks ago, our IT department scheduled some updates for the electronic medical records system from 2 to 4 a.m. and we couldn’t use the computers for charting. By 6 a.m. they were still not done updating. Well, that went on all day until they discovered that it was not a software problem but a hardware one and it didn’t get fixed until about 10:30 the next night. It didn’t really affect me personally because I was off from work the next several nights. When a computer outage happens at my job, the backup plan is to use our old paper charts. Those papers are being kept under lock and key  and unassembled so that the doctors are forced to use the computers rather than get a form to chart on with their illegible writing.

When I came back to work after my weekend off, the unit secretary approached me and pulled me aside. I thought she was going to tell me about the shelves that were rearranged in the area where I make chart packs. She said that she has been very appreciative of what I’ve been doing with the charts because I made her job easier. She further clarified that during the daylong computer outage, she was about to assemble charts from the cupboards that were under lock and key (she had the key) so they could admit patients. Before she did that, she decided to check the shelves and see if there were old charts left there. Sure enough she found the old charts that I had leftover and kept from the time before we used electronic medical records. I still had about a hundred left. She said she was so relieved to find them and as a token of her appreciation, she handed me a TGIFridays gift card. I was stunned by her offering and was further shocked to see the amount of the gift card! Wow, I get to eat very well for several meals! I haven’t been to TGIFridays in a long time. It was way back when I was meeting chicks from AOL (America Online) IRL (in real life), and we would have lunch or dinner at Fridays. Ooops, perhaps that’s TMI (too much information). Anyway, it was sure nice to be appreciated and rewarded. Hmm, I wonder who I can take out to dinner?

Public comments below, private comments: E-mail Me!