Hi everyone. I’d like to introduce myself and give you all a huge thank you. We couldn’t have done it without you.
I’m the it_wife of a family doctor in central PA who has been in practice since 93 and has just gone out on his own. In practical terms this means that I have a doctor who can’t type but is very efficient with the paper templates he has developed and refined over the years. He was determined to start off with an ehr system rather than switching over a few years down the road. We opened the doors on July 1st and it has been quite an adventure, to say the least.
Here are just a few of the posts I’ve found to be incredibly useful:
1. John, the guy who had the cojones to write in plain English, “What are the hidden costs that are going to piss me off later?” Between that sentence and this board, I was sold on AC.
2. Everyone on the thread that explains how to get the snapscan to work with Amazing Charts even though it looks like it won’t.
Fujitsu Scanners Snapscan and Twain 3. Faxes. How I have come to hate faxes. Thank you Leslie. We don’t use Paperport, but I’ve copied nearly everything else.
My Paperport Document4. Tablets. This was actually a make or break part of using any emr altogether for a number of different reasons, but most especially because the hunt and peck method is slow and does not induce patient confidence in their health care provider. There were lots of good posts about possible solutions on this board.
Starting New Practice - need your blessings 5. I can’t remember the name of the guy on this board who’s wife is the doctor. But the other day when my doc was having a meltdown because something was going wonky with the computers (again), I was able to keep it together only because I knew that this too was a shared experience. I was also able to rescue the tablet before it got stabbed to death.
There are lots more posts here that helped us get up and running, which says a lot. New things are stressful. We had a new building, new staff, new computers, and a new way of charting. Along with learning an ehr system, we were ordering supplies, deciding where to put the little fridge for storing medicines, etc. Although there were times this felt like a disaster, when I take a step back and evaluate, I'm stunned by how well things are going (knock on wood). And a large part of that is because I have learned by the collective experience shared here.
Of the six members of our “team,” I am the only one who knows how to make a shortcut on the desktop. No kidding. The tablets came with Vista. The server has Windows XP. We do have real IT guys who set everything up, but . . . all it takes is one little blip and everyone is in full freak-out mode. Lots of those blips I’ve been able to fix because someone took the time and effort to share how they did it. So when I say things have gone well, it is with a serious sense of amazement.
Thank you all very much.
Barbara
