My humble answer: It seems you might have made a good observation, as I've thought the same. It seems we do twice as many EKGs as we did ten years ago, and we do a ton more treatments and definitely more ABGs. So it makes you wonder if something is going on here.
You can look at it this way:
The first 8 years I worked as an RT everything new made the job easier. Examples include:
- Better EKG machines
- Microprocessor ventilators
- Protocols
- Protocols create so much paperwork it would be easier to just be a button pusher
- Order sets double our workload
- Government regulations setting criteria for reimbursement that has scared hospitals into ordering treatments automatically for some disease conditions (see order sets above)
- Fear of malpractice has doctors over treating patients (as I wrote here)
- Pharmacies have cut back on RTs carrying their own meds, meaning drugs must be double and triple charted
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