1) Perhaps there is a way to do this that is fairly straight forward, and Maybe I'm not as savy a user as I should be, seeing that I am a PM and not a provider, but... We are now in the midst of a P4P issue with Aetna for tracking tests and orders for these test? Not the values in the tracked data section, that we know about and use. Instead our new P4P is for the actual test and it's results of things like colon cancer screenings, labs and the like. Now is there an easy, straight up way, ala "reminder" to follow up with orders written, referals created, lab test requested or orders sent with patient, so when Mr Jone's labs or test results don't come back in a week or two, that we know to start looking for them. And Just as Importantly, somehow have the return of results relate back to the original orders written, and be recorded that we recieved them, called, wrote or scheduled a F/U visit with, for, or to the patient about the results or reports. I guess saved to a new special part of the chart for such things perhaps in tracked items of the summary section? Oh, and they want to track, and therefore punish or reward "formulary compliance" too. Good luck figuring out how to track that in a simple EMR or small office. Good Greif.
The patient may have missed the appointment or not followed thru on the Blood Work order we sent them out with even. But now we have to be their "Den Mother" and hold these people's hands, to get them to hopefully follow thru with good common sense tests and screenings? Where is this grown adult's responsibility to do the right thing or accept the consequences of their lack of pro-active actions? But I digress here, We need a good, simple way to track these things, follow up on these things, both for patient care and ever increasing over-site and to defend ourselves against the onslaught of legal action.
2) I have asked for this before. For those who have used QuickBooks, Intuit has always had a very simple way to make back-ups that are properly saved and formatted, for easy re-installation of your data back to a good copy of the program. They have a simple little icon of a disk, you point and click, follow along and choose one or two options as to where to save the back-up, and as Bullwinkle would say... "Presto", a perfect back-up in just the format the program likes best. And restoring one's "company" is just as easy because it is in just the perfect format that the program likes best. It even has a choice to check the data's integrity (which adds a small amount of time to the back-up, but obviously is well worth it) too.
I have had the program "flag" my data less than a handful of times over the course of three years now, for some sort of an issue. And just like AC it has an Amazing Utility type thing too, that checks your data, cleans it up, and then you can go back to making a good clean back-up. BUT, right now the only way to get this type of a "feature" is to subscribe to the off-site back-up service. And I'm still not sure that the "service" checks and verifies the integrity of your data; which obviously is paramount once you put all your charts and things into a single database and format, right? Lastly, good off-site back-up may be a very valid thing to do, but I would still like to be able to have a properly formatted, immediately accessible, integrity verified, back-up feature, that I can save to any media that I so choose, whether or not it is in conjuction with the off-site back-up service. Most of the PM modules like Altapoint seem to believe in this feature too, so please AC...
Thanks for Listening Vinny
Paul
