After you make your order hit print order then select the printer for it to print on then I always save and close. It will automatically show up in your plan. You wont need to put it in the plan separately. I only send orders to my MA if they need to set up an appt for a consultant for example. The orders can be seen in the past encounters tab. Just highlight orders and it shows you what and when you ordered and who handled the order last. Under the view tab...you can view orders when you are out side a patients chart. That part of ac allows someone to go in and reconcile each order to a result. This should actualy be done when the result is imported and there is an option "reconcile to order" in the importing area but this function is not yet turned on by AC. It doesnt work yet.
We try to reconcile tests and results and harrass patients who don't do things ordered. I would like to give them about three months before I harass them. It is very labor intensive and we are probably 6 months behind in reconciliation. If patients do their tests, the turn around time is less than a day but to go back and find all the tests that patients haven't done is not easy.
When I write orders, if the ICD code isn't already there for the diagnosis, I just write it in next to the order. The lab can code it, they are the ones getting paid. I haven't had a problem with this. I have a coder in my office and the orders are written and given to the patient before the coder does the coding so if it is a new diagnosis the code isn't there yet.
In previous discussions, it seems that most people don't track orders looking for tests not done. They feel it is the patient's responsibility to get an ordered test done. It is surprising to see how many people don't do things we've ordered. I guess how much you track this stuff depends on the malpractice climate in your state.
