I‘m getting surgery soon – nothing heavy duty, just a hernia. So I arranged to see my GP for a pre-op physical a week in advance. The surgeon’s assistant assured me that my doctor would receive the necessary instructions. All I had to do was show up – which is one reason why I did not open the thick envelope I received in the mail from the surgeon’s office.
I’ve received these envelopes before for other procedures – or so I thought. Usually they contain a map of the city, parking information and dietary restrictions for the night before the day of the knife. And, as I said, I had been assured the GP would know the drill, and she, in fact, had confirmed that she thought she knew what the surgeons wanted. But then she asked, “Didn’t they send you anything in the mail?” I confessed about the unopened envelope.
“But what does it matter?” I asked. “You know what I need for a pre-op.”
“I do,” she said. “But you can never tell about surgeons.” A call to the surgeon’s office got no reply.
So I got my physical and went home. But 8 a.m. the following morning my doctor’s office called. They had just heard back from the surgeon. I needed one more test done – a chest x-ray. I was going out of town for the rest of the week, leaving in a few hours, so I literally ran to the medical center, waited my turn and got it done.
Okay, so maybe my GP should have known I needed a chest x-ray and maybe this is my fault, actually – I ignored the envelope. But an hour and a half after I gave blood at the hospital, I got all of my labs back and 4 hours after my jog to the hospital, the results of my chest x-ray were made known. And this is my dilemma: This information was sent to me electronically, through what the medical center called “Healthtrak.”
Ever since I enrolled in Healthtrak two years ago, everything about my medical life has been sent electronically, including appointments and cancelled appointments – or so I thought. Except, as I discovered, the order to have a chest x-ray, which came on paper in an envelope that I did not open, because I assumed that everything I needed to know would come through Healthtrak. After all, isn’t that the point of going electronic? Saving time and saving paper and saving the environment – that’s the pitch.
I bring this up now because today at the university where I work I had to sign a form that attested to the fact that no alcohol was charged for a dinner I had hosted and for which I was requesting reimbursement. I had to sign the form even though the printed receipt from the restaurant said so, plain as day. Under the form I signed were a couple of dozen copies and a few other forms. “What are these?” I asked our program coordinator. They were to be sent around to the different offices at the university that needed to have a record of the fact that I charged a dinner and requested reimbursement for food and did not request reimbursement for alcohol. But 25+ sheets of paper? Couldn’t this have been done online? Every time I go on a trip I have to fill out an electronic form. When the provost sends us a survey to rate our dean, she sends an electronic form. We are “formed” here to death.
Now, I really like this university. We are off the beaten track, so to speak, in the southwest, but we are rising rapidly in the rankings, gaining ground on many of the finest universities in the United States, in many cutting edge areas like biodesign, nanotechnology and, most significantly, sustainability. The “S” word and the attempt to save precious resources represent a major, ongoing laudable effort here. We’ve been praised for accomplishments in sustainability – and our Global Institute of Sustainability – around the world.
In fact, when I came into the office today I learned that the university was surveying the way in which employees traveled to work in order to find ways to reduce emissions and waste. I was pleased that my university was so careful, so aware of the importance of saving precious resources and I was happy to provide the information – until I was handed the form – a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper.
Now this university has 13,000 employees. So that’s 13,000 sheets of paper devoted to saving the environment. I won’t even ask why this couldn’t have been sent electronically. I am sure no one would know the answer.
Besides I am now about to get my anesthesia. I can see the glitter of the scalpel as the darkness engulfs me.
