It's OKAY to use a wired keyboard and mouse
One of the ambulatory surgical centers I work at has transitioned from from paper records to electronic records. To facilitate this, a desktop computer was installed in every OR next to each anesthesia workstation.
I generally think the conversion to electronic records is long overdue. It requires some adjustment but ultimately reduces our intraoperative workload dramatically.
However, someone - I'm not sure who - made the decision to purchase wireless keyboards and mice for each of our OR computers. I'm a little annoyed by this. Wireless peripherals (keyboards, mice) belong in a conference room, or maybe someone's desk. They confer no real benefit in our work environment, and add several points of failure. Consider the following:
- Wireless peripherals need batteries. If one dies, finding a replacement batteries during / between cases can be massively inconvenient.
- Wireless peripherals have a habit of being lost, or migrating to other ORs. Finding/resyncing mice creates unnecessary downtime.
- Wireless mice are easier damage when they drop off our floating wall-mounted workstations.
- Wireless peripherals cost more, in the short and long term, due to the higher device cost and the aforementioned battery issue.
Therefore, at our OR workstations, it makes more sense to use wired keyboards, and wired mice. Unfortunately, the purchases had already been made when I became aware of the decision.
Anyway, I walked into an OR the other day, and I saw this monstrosity:
If you don't understand the photo: that is a wireless mouse with a "harness" around it, fashioned out of surgical tape. This was jerryrigged by a previous anesthesiologist, presumably to keep the device from being lost or damaged in a fall.
Friends... I am in pain. This kills me. There is no reason for us to suffer this way. I don't blame my colleague for his/her creative solution, but wouldn't a wired mouse with a short cable make more sense? It shouldn't need to go anywhere!
Let's all make a commitment not to buy wireless mice and keyboards where regular USB mice will do.