Eric:
I do not use the billing features of Amazing Charts, so I am not qualified to answer questions about getting CMS 1500s to come out right.
However, I did have some thoughts on ways to record a hospital visit in Amazing Charts. My thoughts were focused on recording the entire stay in one encounter, to correlate with a bill that I had created:
First, I would create a "dummy" encounter, which I would assign a chief complaint of "HOSPITAL STAY, DATE #/#/2008". I would then set the date of the encounter to the initial date of the hospitalization.
I would then either add a templated phrase in the HPI such as "Patient was hospitalized at General Hospital during the dates above." Or if I wanted to go all-out, I would forward the chart to the appropriate physician, so he/she could update the Past Medical History with the latest developments, and possibly even add a brief synopsis of the hospitalization. This would be helpful for the next person who saw the patient.
Next, I would enter in the corresponding ICD-9 codes associated with the hospitalization, to support the billing, and to simultaneously populate the Patient Summary. You might want to add a templated phrase under "Plan", making clear that the patient was not seen in the clinic that day, or recording any further data you might need to support your billing.
Finally, I would attach the scanned H&P and Discharge Summary, and I think that would be a very nice little record of a hospital stay.
ADDENDUM(S): By the time I typed this note, you had posted the second time. Another option you might consider is the "Addendum" feature, which can also generate an invoice.
The downside is that this would create a lot of little "Addendums" containing minimal data, cluttering up the "Past Encounters" view, but the physician can screen them out, if you can't figure out any other way to do it.
