Vicki,
First, I remember when day one with AC lab requests. The lab has taken every single one without an issue. Radiology wanted a signature. I was passive-aggressive, and it drove me crazy. Finally sat down with It and Security and they gave me a list of like 18 things I had to meet. I told them I did when in actuality I met about five. But, they haven't had an issue since.
The problem is they don't see the forest for the trees. Do they really think someone is going to download AC, write for a scoliosis series, enter a valid rule out and diagnosis and take it to the hospital? Would someone want an x-ray that badly. And, of course, the result would come to our office, and we would question it. But, who would do that? Those who would would probably be trying to get Oxys.
OK, the pdf. All Adobe PDFs (can't speak for all the Acrobats out there), allow you to make a stamp. The trick is making a translucent stamp rather than an opaque one. The latter is obvious when the opaque white part blocks out part of the order. But, with a translucent one you can stamp right over it. In fact, I go out of my way to cover something so it looks real. The other key is to make sure the signature you make looks like your original, e.g. terrible. If you need help making one, I can show you if I can find my cheat sheet. You can also have it done through the web for $35.00. Sounds like a lot but....
Here is a real crazy thing. The pharmacists would not accept a blank script with electronic signature underneath my name. But, they would take "Digitally signed by Albert Adams, M.D. So, I changed by name to first name: Digitally signed by Albert" and my last name to Adams, so it came out "Digitally signed by Albert Adams, M.D.
The next irony is that since I now use ePrescribe and only fax about 5% of what I used to, I have gone back to the Electron Signature only, and they accept it every time. The big issue with these companies is that many of them you can't call them on it. As much as I would like to not send scripts to Wal-Mart, if my patients want to go there, I can't really not let them.
