Home Forums Discussions Feedback and Recommendations peds ages in yr/mo/day: ie 1yr, 3mo and 21 days???

As peds MD confirm that AC can calc patients age in terms of yr/mo/day: ie 1yr, 3mo and 21 days when given birthdate and any date of visit?

Hi. I am a pediatrician and have used AC since August 2003. I am unaware that AC can do this. So, all of my 11 month olds are still "zero." Basically, the age calculations don't really get accurate until the child is around four years of age as I see it.

These types of inequities for pediatric patients show up in other places as well. For instance, I have asked many times for the Kgs and Lbs to be in two separate boxes on the vital signs so that no matter what you entered, it would convert to the other. This may not seem important until you have a FTT child and you look at or print out the weights. It's difficult to see 23.4 lbs and 10.9 kgs a week before and make any quick sense of it. Also, all of the caution parameters for blood pressures, weight etc. are based on adult norms. The frustrating thing is the code for this just can't be that hard to write.

I looked on the Internet once for 3rd party software for this type of calculation (you would think there would be tons), but I just had my software programmer make one. But, it still isn't the same as being in the program itself.

But, we should be used to this. After all kids are just "little adults," right?

When you open a new note, it tells you how many years, days, weeks or months since the patient's last visit. Adding specific aging data shouldn't be too tough

Hi,

Where would you like the more detailed information? Might be a simple change, and I can approach Jon with it if I know where.

On the patient list on the schedule screen it impractical to do too much, as the width of the column isn't wide enough for a lot of detail.

The age calculations are indeed accurate from birth on - not from age four. If there's someplace they aren't get me specifics, and I'll see about getting it fixed

Regards,

V.

Vinny,

Sorry, I think I wasn't clear enough. Certainly, most age calculations in any program would be accurate from age zero on.

What I was referring to was that since AC doesn't break it down very well, then I can't really utilize the age much until the child is four. In other words, if it says four in AC and the child is actually 4 years 8 months, using four years of age is OK with me. However, if the child is 2 year 8 months and AC says two years of age, that is not accurate enough for me, and I have to do the calculations.

Hope that helps.

Hi Bert,

Where do you want to see this displayed?

V.

Vinny,

Now, that I look more closely after 3 1/2 years, it does display it at the bottom left. Some ideas:

In the patient list, rather than 0, maybe 3w or 4m. Or maybe when you hover over a name, it could show the exact age and DOB.

Possibly move Name and DOB from below Book Appointment which would allow more space under the patient list, to put the name, DOB and specific age when highlighted. I know when I call in a script and am trying to pull up the DOB quickly, I sometimes get the DOB mixed up with the date of last visit. Probably just my problem.

And, consider specific ages in searches.

These are just ideas, not something I am really shooting for.

It would be nice to see it on the log in screen for < 12 mo, but I agree that screen is crowded.
Certainly putting it on the top of the note with further breakdown would be good
< 2 months give weeks and days
< 6 months give months and weeks
< 2 years give months
< 5 years give years and months