Jim,
Those are excellent comments. Just goes to show you that the more each person listens and explains, the more understanding and learning goes on. Wow, that was way too mushy, lol.
One of the things I am learning from Brian and you is the reliance on the $4.00 generic drug list. I guess with my pediatric population and the fact that MANY are Medicaid, I haven't had the opportunity to use that much. Plus all the meds that are on the approved side of the med list are covered anyway. My other patients are generally private pay, so they have only the co-pay. So, that explains a big difference and why printing works better for you and Brian. I should say, that I still print quite often. It is quicker and has its advantages. The federal government back in October passed a law requiring all Medicaid scripts to either be on tamper proof paper or be called in or faxed. This moved us to faxing ALL scripts at that point as I didn't like asking what insurance they were on (although it is usually on the Superbill). That law lasted about two weeks I am told, although I adhered to it for weeks. Your reasoning about the allergy would even be more helpful if the allergy were populated during that visit. But, I do see the advantage there. Another difference I think between peds and FP/Adult medicine is that the parent(s) grab the script and then have maybe five seconds to fold it and stuff it in their pocketbook before they have to tend to their energetic child (being nice here). So, they don't even look at the script.
I'm impressed and jealous that you have printer/scanner/copiers in each room. I am stuck with only a printer. Just to be accurate, when I was with old practice, we had a network and Internet, but the fax machine was basically a standalone so we didn't fax from the desktop. Here we have a digital, networked fax so that every computer is connected to it. Since it is networked with IP address and all, you connect to it via a web interface and enter all of your fax numbers. So, nothing has to be done on the AC side. Not sure how your network is set up, but you must have some connectivity given you are sharing a database. There may be a way to connect to an Ethernet port with a networked fax machine. It's nice to get faxes in to a computer where you can save, print or delete each. Saves a lot of paper. And, by the same token, it's good to be able to fax anything from any computer.
If you are ever interested, I found a couple of decently priced fax machines which are networked and can do PC to Fax and Fax to PC. These are over at Tips and Tricks.
http://amazingcharts.com/ub/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4556&page=1#Post4556I'm happy to hear about your backups. Thanks for the kudos, and I am hoping we do have a get together. If so, and I can come, I will probably just crash it and not let anyone know who I am for awhile.
