Home Forums Discussions Problems is there a section to put in patient labs?

hello, I have been using amazing charts now and was wondering if anyone dictates in or types in laboratory data. And I guess this also applies for radiographic studies.

The question is, where in the amazing charts can one put in labs?

of course, we can scan labs and then look at them as an imported document but it would be nice to have a place could dictate some labs in?

I have been putting them in the history of present illness.

Any suggestions?

It sound like you could import a word document to dictate into. If you have IE set up right you may be able to dictate directly into the AC imported items menu.

Just an idea, I don't know if it will work for you.

i take it then everyone imports labs in and just reviews them there?

We have just set up our quest diagnostic bridge. We are trying to get used to it. It feels so wierd not to have the paper lab report in hand and to be able to write on it, etc. However, There are going to be so many benefits when it finally gets fully rolling.

What I can tell you, the lab report shows up in your messages as a lab that needs to be reivewed. You click it, and it opens for your review. There is some problem with the highlighting of the abnormal labs. For example it will highlight an abnormal Total cholesterol, but sometimes it will not highlight others. I dont know why yet.

There is a box on the bottom of the screen where you can add comments and also send your MA or nurse a message for the patient to follow up or add another test, etc.

The nice feature is the ability to print the report out with your office letterhead on it. It looks pretty good, at least better then handing them something that says quest all over it.

Once you have signed off of them, you can review them again in the imported items tab.

I think it could be better, but we are just getting our feet wet with this portion of AC.

Steve,

Good question. I don't know if I would go out looking for a solid solution until version 4 comes out. It may change all of this anyway. But, to answer your question in some respects, everyone does it differently. Some people import, some do as Jay does. I don't import anything. I just import to my own program. Won't go there right now.

If you dictate into a Word document, it may be in paragraph form which may be hard to work with. Some use Excel files. You make a default template with anything you wish to track. You can use different sheets for different things such as labs or problem list, etc. Then, like a Word document, you simply import that default Excel sheet into each person's chart. You can then simply go to the Imported Items tab and open the Excel sheet and bring up all the data in editable form. You can then, use the power of Excel to get means, modes, averages, etc. and make graphs, et. al.

Putting them in the HPI makes it hard to see all labs at the same time and see any trends. You will be forced to go through each note to see them which would be a bit awkward. I think this is a glaring omission in AC, which may be corrected or changed in 4.0. Try the Excel sheet, though.