Jim,
Hi. Welcome to AC. I will try to help. I hope you don't mind if I throw in a few opinions on your ideas.
First, it sounds like Amazing Charts will be perfect for you. Solo practice. Not many computers. Very nice.
I think the summary sheet is a good idea. The only issue is I find the summary sheet to get a little convoluted as the problem list is more of a list of diagnoses. But, see what you think.
If you could get the courage to do it, I would try to get rid of the paper charts. I know it's like a lifeline, but they are costly, and then you find you have data in two different places.
The biggest issue I have, and the one I hope I can persuade you to change is the paper progress note. The whole idea of an electronic medical record is so you can document electronically. AC is, by far, the fastest EMR on the market in terms of documentation. Why not document right in the room, save the note, and be done with it? I am not sure how many patients you see in a day. If ten, then write it all down and go to your office later and do your note. But, if you see 20 to 30 patients, you will find yourself charting long after your last patient has gone for the day. Then you will find yourself trying to remember those tiny details. You can do all of your charting in the room. If you discipline yourself, you can make sure you finish your notes before you leave the room. I make it a rule to even type my consult note before leaving the room. Out of the room = done with the patient encounter including documentation. Now, even though you may forget a detail or two by documenting later, you probably can write a more thorough note, but I think that is offset by the amount of time you waste doing that.
I understand your idea about your visiting doctors. But, I have medical students documenting and saving notes on day 1. AC has no learning curve. It's flat. You can figure it out in one day. If you scan in the paper notes of the locum tenens, now you have progress notes everywhere instead of in Past Encounters.
I am unsure on how to network my tablet PC with my server; should it be wireless (would encryption make this safe in a University building?) or should I simply take my backup CD from each day and load it into my tablet each morning?
If would have to be wireless unless you used wired RJ45 Ethernet jacks and then plugged a patch cable into the laptop each time you entered the room. I would suggest using a good Wireless router with WAP or higher and using MAC addresses as suggested by Paul. I think DHCP is just fine and just as secure. With wireless, it's a good idea to limit the DHCP scope on the router to the same number of computers that are on the wireless network. I am not sure what you mean by the Backup CD, but I would say no. I would use the wireless router to connect to the "server" and access your data. Also, your reference to the backup CD infers you would have one daily backup. Make sure you have at LEAST two weeks of data backed up on CD-Rs or DVD-Rs and not CD-RWs. And, take home the Friday CDs.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=189I still want to attempt to do all of this without my patient computers connected to the Internet. I will have an Internet connection with my personal laptop and printer.
I am having a bit of a problem with my trial and error on Amazing Charts (I lost one daily encounter because I could not understand which action saved it). Is there a primer, either written or electronic, that would guide me through?
Why do you not want to connect your patient computers to the Internet? The Internet is where all the information is. Just from my perspective, but I would estimate I use the Internet at least 20 to 30 times a day. Too many good sites such as Lexi-Comp, eMedicine, UpToDate, etc. to have to wait to look it up. If you have a good firewall configured correctly and use software firewalls such as Zone Alarm (free), security shouldn't be much of an issue. Just as with medicine, it's a risk/benefit issue; and my thought is the benefits far exceed the risks.
In the program itself, the help contents are very extensive. You can read through them. It shouldn't take long for you to feel comfortable saving a note. You can continue to print them out (paper again) or print to PDF and save in a folder for awhile for security until you feel comfortable just with the electronic chart. It's nice with an MA because he/she can take all the subjective data and forward the chart to you. So, at first you can open the chart from there and choose not to delete it from your inbox, so you will always be able to go back and at least still have the HPI, ROS, Vital signs, etc.
Well, there you go, I knew I would take a completely opposite approach. Hope it helps. Feel free to email or PM or post back with any questions. Welcome to AC.
Cheers!
