Wow, much food for fodder. First, a couple of important notes. One of the reasons Adam and I talk like we do a lot of the same things is the following: We both started our employ (yes that means employees) with hugh hospital-owned practices which cared about the bottom line, cash, and not about the patient. The providers did, but were always hindered due to these situations. And, you finally do get out, these "great backers of healthcare" do everything they can to insure that none of your patients who have come to know and trust you, knows where you are. Adam credits me with a lot of mentoring, but it was he that got me rolling into my own practice. And, as most of you on here know, while solo practice won't get your rich, it is something that makes you proud.
Adam, like many on here and for good reason, is rather cautious to take the leaps that I and others on here have taken. At least for Jim and Adam, it isn't a blind leap. But, I must say two things: Once Adam decides to take that leap you best get out of his way. 24 hours a day until done. The other thing that while I know the ins and outs of PC and networking, no one and I mean no one picks it up faster than he does. From clueless to a totally guru with Cisco PIXs. So, it's been exciting to see him add the AC to his office. It's refreshing, because all of us make these great suggestions (read complaints
), but I think he sees it as a paper-saving, time-saving and documenting improvement.
As to the pharmacists with problems with the digital signature. One has to remember that there are 40 very competitive pharmacies here, all of which have an average of three pharmacists. So, that is 120 having to accept the script. Most will with some eduction. So, for paving the way for Adam, I, like Leslie, have already done the blazing. Now, I don't know if the phamacies look at TCFM (Adam's office) as, cool, finally a pleasant guy to work with or, oh no, another Bert.
Actually, the only issues I EVER have are the CIII to CVs. The reason it got confusing was Federal law was trumping state law so everyone had no idea. Plus, we have a locally owned pharmacy that is incredible, and they are willing to live on the edge, so to speak, when it comes to these things, and they do accept Vicodin, etc. with an AC, not personally signed script.
@Adam, do you think you can just send a few rheams of Xerox paper per month to the "X," and call it good?
As far as the netowrked printers, I haven't looked at them all. My sense is that "most" networked printers that have an Ethernet port will be able to do PC to fax and vice versa. But, I would make sure. I threw the Brothers on there, because they seemed reasonable and Brother has a good name. Muratec and, I am sure, other fairly pricey machines work well, but even they have designers and engineers that must have been not thinking when they designed it. For instance, you can put all of the contacts in the computer (those you grab when faxing from your PC) in alphabetical order. And, even those those same entered contacts go into the fax machine so you can manually click on them when actually physically faxing, those cannot be put in alphabetical order. You can make them alphabetical for a moment, but after the fax, they are back to numerical. Plus, no matter how much RAM you have, you only fax around 50 sheets or so many Megabytes of paper from your PC, so if you are sending a 200 page file, you have to break it down into four sections. Annoying.
@Paul, I am not sure I can completely help you, but at least try this. When you go to print dirctly to the fax macine (if I am understanding you), whatever print driver you are using -- click on properties and see if it is set on "to spool" or "not to spool." There are aobut three settings. Spooling is where the printer or fax macine will immediately store the job as well as other print jobs. It is usually the way to go, but sometimes printing "directly" to the fax machine is the better way if there are issues. This is another benefit of a client/server with the server actually having a server OS. The server can actaully manage the faxes and things will go more smoothly. As Adam says, though, unless the fax is critical, I wouldn't worry if it went. If it doesn't go, you will hear about it soon enough. The other nice thing about the slightly more expensive digital and networked fax machines is they do have the browse interface so your receptionist can check in a minute or so to see if it went.
@Jim, Keep it up. And, remember, you don't have to be completely paperless. Everyone has their comfort level. I suppose if I crashed and lost all my backups, etc.; I wouldn't be as gung ho on paperless. I read somewhere that if you went to the main office of an EMR like Logician or eMDs or whatever who all tout being paperless, they would all most likely have a good deal of paper on their desks and filing cabinets.
