Are Computers Really Helping Me?

Short answer NO? Long answer... sometimes and maybe.

Disclaimer is I am not tech savvy. I am not one to know a gigabyte from a ram. In my world clouds are soft and fluffy, make me dream and wonder and helplessly reach out for (especially from planes) and imagine exactly what they signify and consider their origin. I learnt to touch type at school "asdfjkl;" isn’t even that helpful on a smart phone anymore, where consistently I suffer with "fat fingeritis", "dropsy syndrome", "lock screen and angle issues" and squinty eye problems. If only a 'pop socket' came with a treasure trove of helpful goodies, but it doesn’t, just cheap, poor adhesive glue.

So those who have followed me know I have been on a quest in 2019 to move our beloved Ananda Aged Care into a more paperless era. I went with a stern bandaid approach, I retracted, I reconsidered, I second guessed myself, and for now I'm just in a waxing and waning situation of pain and glory.

It seems logical right? More efficiency, less time scanning and copying, saving resources on consumables like paper and ink and perhaps improving efficiencies that could save money but more than that reduce waste and help to make us more green? Help transparency, improve discussions, allow collaborations and ease of access. Then there's privacy and no longer is it the 'shut the door' kind of keeping one's dignity, it's a whole realm of permutations and combinations that are a code breaker's delight, and a mundane human's headache.

The sad reality in 2019, for me at least, is that every single step has been tricky, unsettling and certainly not easy, or at least not as easy as I had hoped. Getting Wifi and a universal power source to protect us in times of blackout was mind boggling. Working out which devices - and even now it seems we made the wrong choice was boring and needed effort and concentration. The resource to transfer to software programs with a mismatch and disregard for current paper based systems is still evident, I crave flexibility, integrations that haven't happened yet and nuances that haven't been realised. Tech companies that only want to talk tech when we are dealing with an ever changing playing field of regulation, poor defined expectations and an aged care sector under intense scrutiny and speculation. Tech companies don’t seem to understand that we are caring for human beings, it's not always black and white (or grey) sometimes it's multidimensional, and it's never transferable, the uniqueness of humanity is something that isn't relocatable to the tech that I'm seeing. Nothing is ever clear cut, there is not one fit for purpose, the multi-systems, features and logins are painstakingly tricky. I diligently put more and more urls (is that website addresses?) and usernames, passwords, prompts for passwords and dig up my maiden name time and time again into my special password holding app. Lord help me if I forget the password to the password holding app!

Then there’s the friendly conversations that suddenly turn serious, terms, the fine print, the long-winded contracts (one - sided to say the least) and all the conditions. The subscriptions, the hidden costs, the pitfalls and the lack of integration, the basic conversations starters that are just missing. The disjointed systems, the numerous functionalities and tips and trick which make me sweat oh and the stress of... Paying. Per. User.

The codes, the indexes, the tabs and the lists of sublists which are all different, the functionality is mostly flawed to some extent and there is so little room to move, to create, to explore new avenues or to customise. Shoving our logo on the top isn't enough. Taking time to sit down and see what we do is not possible and so the party line is to conform like everyone else does. I am often frowned upon for voicing my concerns and certainly I'm not known to be an easy customer, but that's how it has to be sometimes.

I feel sick about the hygiene of devices, the anonymity of sitting in front of a screen, the neck and back and finger aches and the dreaded wifi outage! Having multiple providers, 4G, 5G, no NBN and really missing my fax machine ha! Sometimes it keeps me up at night if we have enough data protection, if everything runs as smoothly as it could and whether we will ever have our staff move away from the reassuring feel of paper (me included)?

Reading complicated text is much easier in hard copy form; preferably with a pen and a cuppa, a comfy seat and a footrest, sitting back and assessing the words and phrases with ease. Call me old fashioned? As yet there is so much more work to do with technology in health, especially in aged care. I welcome some opportunities for growth in this space, for innovation that calls for simplistic technological improvements without the need for long-winded training, user manuals and trouble shooting. Bring me tech savvy individuals with a background in health so I can have a meaningful conversation about what I'm trying to achieve. I have to orientate Agency staff, new staff, contractors, time poor Doctors, computer illiterate staff (in fact some of my workforce doesn’t yet have an email and doesn’t really want one either). It's a hard slog. Remember I'm here for our residents, and our staff, the rest has to slot into that agenda, and I make no excuses for that.

The pendulum is swinging away from the computers for me, but maybe with the new financial year (or the next full moon) I will start to see technology as being more of my saviour rather than my nemesis. Who knows, I may yet get rid of all the paper one day soon... someone just has to convince me to purchase a new Kindle, but that discussion is definitely for another day.... I’ll just pick up my trusty paperback for now while my computer works on 'updates 60% completed' - “do not turn off your computer”....

Dr Pooja Newman MBBS

Clinical Director Ananda Aged Care, founder globalaai