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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If the Pitt can function without computers, why can't the other trauma centers that are sending everything over to the Pitt?[/quote]

It's a fair question but I think the idea is that the Pitt had warning and therefore had time to set up an analog system. It's also just one trauma center sending patients to the Pitt -- there is another center down but they are routing their patients to a different hospital. So the Pitt is not the only one still running (it may be the only Trauma 1 though, I can't remember the nuance).

It's a thin premise but it doesn't bug me that much. I mean, I read a lot of sci fi and fantasy, and often the entire premise of a story will be very thin. But the point is to create a situation you want to explore because of what it allows you to say about people and relationships. They want to overload the ER with patients and also force them to work without certain modern administrative technology because it will allow them to tell certain stories. I'm okay with that.[/quote]

They clearly had systems in place to handle the network outage. I'd assume that they run drills for that sort of thing. Do I remember correctly, did the computer systems turn off when they disconnected the network? Why not just leave everything on and running, just not connected? [/quote]

I think if the computers aren't networked, there's no point. A doctor/nurse/admin could enter patient info and it could be saved locally on the computer, but if it can't communicate with other computers, you're still going to have to relay that information. Going to paper forms and the old system of using triplicate forms and passing charts through stations depending on where the patient is in the process is going to be more efficient than continuing to use computers and... what? Printing out charts and notes and handing them around? Might as well go fully analog. Especially since, as the show makes clear, the attending and charge nurse are all old enough to have used and trained on analog systems, so they are going to be able to oversee that system more easily than if you tried to do something hybrid.

It also parallels what we saw last season when Dr. Abbott shows up to help with the mass shooting event. Trauma personnel are trained on creating triage systems that will enable them to treat patients and save lives even in a situation where the ordinary hospital systems don't work. Last year, it was the sheer overwhelm of having so many critical patients coming into the ER at once. Instead of a normal check in process and moving people through chairs, clinic, ambulance pay, trauma room, and patient rooms, they had to set up zones and tag patients using analog means (I think they used colored wrist bands) so that everyone would know where a patient should go and what their general status was without needing to check an actual chart.

I have also participated in on-site triage trainings like that. That's where hospital personnel are dispatched to the site of a major accident (like a bridge or building collapse) and have to institute a system on site to help facilitate treating certain critical patients on site (before transferring them to a trauma center) as well as assessing and treating more minor injuries so those patients don't wind up flooding a trauma center that needs to focus on the most critical patients. Obviously Abbott (and Dr. Al-Hashimi) would have also done similar things while working in war zones. Many of the methods for handling mass trauma events were developed on battlefields. [/quote]

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