Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Work Release

As a surgeon I tend to write a bunch of work/school releases. Is there a spot for that in AC? Currently we're faxing a preformed document and scanning it in. I was wondering if I could just make a template somewhere in AC so all I had to do is fill in the date to return to work and the restrictions.

Anyone have a good system for that?

Set it up in the note section

1. Pick the pt.
2. choose or create your template by right clicking
3. Print, it will ask you to save it. then print

You can create a template to meet your needs in the letter writer. Right click on the pts name in the pt list. Then choose print notes and consult letters. Then right click in the letter body to create templates.

Thanks so much. I thought there must be an easy way but I honestly never saw the "compose letter" in the bottom right corner before. Easy as usual.

OK, I thought it was fixed.

I'm not in the office everyday and patients come by for work releases or a work release is faxed to them. In the paper world, my nurse would fill out the work release and stamp it with my name after verifying the date to return to work/school.

With the computer, I have to be the one logged in, create the work release, sign it, fax or print it. Is there a way around this?

I might have to stick to paper for these otherwise they are getting a work release signed by my nurse or my office staff which businesses ain't gonna take.

Travis,

Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but everyone who needs to do those kinds of things for me especially my MA, has my signature. In other words, under their user demographics in the admin section, it is all my information. The only difference is their logon and level of access. So, when my MA types a letter, my signature is already on it just as if she stamped it.

One may think this gives her too much power, but she already has the ability to call in scripts and, as you say, stamp your signature when you are not there.

Ya, my signature is scanned into AC and attached to all documents that allow a signature. we do this for rx's, the letter writer,etc. My staff can do anything and everything when I am not in the office.

Plus I look at it this way, I'm paying these people to make my life easier. I cannot do this a simulateously limit them in their ability to help. Either help me 100% or not at all, that's my viewpoint of MA's.

Bert,
That's great. I thought about it but wasn't sure how that would work. I see if I can get that implemented tomorrow. I trust my office staff especially since my wife is one of them. She has signing privileges for everything anyway so this will work perfectly for her.

It's these little tricks and work-arounds that makes this board so very valuable.

Plus we have a Word Template document that they can write anything on, such as to insurance companies, work releases, this and that, etc. It has my signature scanned right into it. They can make anything look like it came from me.

Some of you will think this is scary or reckless. Oh well, it's what I need to do in order to survive, make a buck, see my kids, and maintain an exercise regimen.

Until someone stops me, I keep it up. I'm my own boss afterall, I can pretty much do what I want. Yay for solo practice!

OK, I do this too,when I am in surgery ( or taking a day off). My office staff knows full well what my log in is, they can write release letters, prescriptions or what-ever. This was always the case with the paper office, there were pre-signed prescriptions, they could call in an Rx, etc. There is more than one signature stamper in the office, they could stamp my signature onto a form 1040 if they wanted. It is ( and was ) necessary to have trust in your office staff.
What we are currently doing is trying to be more transparent/ honest and printing up the release or order under their log-in with their name and they write in beneath their signature "for Dr. Lehmann". so far this has not produced any problems and is an honest representation of delegation of authority. They then forward it to me for a sign off. I don't know what we will do when every thing is truely electronic, but that is not here now, and these things are still on paper going out of the office.

When I am away from the office , I use the rdp (remote desktop protocol) to check my emailthrough out the day and then address the needs of the office (ie. work release or Rx).

This is the exact work around I've been trying to come up with! Entering the dr's demographic info and sig to individual user's accounts! This will make work excuses, scripts and orders so much easier to print. And I'm going to work on creating a word template we can use as well!

One can also type in Word, then print to PDF. It is easy to add a signature in PDF. You can even make it translucent, which is very cool since if it overlaps something, it doesn't cover it up which is a sure giveaway it was a stamp.

In fact, with my PDF stamp I purposely overlap a bit so the pharmacy or whover really thinks it was signed originally. This, of course, is a bit tricky to make. I can show you how, but I would have to pull up my directions.

As to Word, there is a company which takes your sig and makes it into an actual font. Then you just enter it. It looks EXACTLY like a real signature and overlaps as well. It cost me about $20. You can put it on as many Word programs as you want. Probably Open Office as well.

Translucent? Or do you mean transparent background? I've made all the sigs with a transparent background but it's tough to get them just right.

The whole thing is laughable really. Give me a solid digital signature any day of the week over the security of a photoshopped signature. But it's tough to explain that to folks.

For example, my doc has been frustrated that he can't sign labs after they've been imported. Well, that's because I can't figure out how to make AC use pdf annotator to view pdfs instead of Adobe. He figured the pen icon was just broken in AC. I had previously set up pdf annotator so the medical staff can DRAW on the labs (before they're imported), which they LOVE, because they can do things "the paper way." When the lab is imported to the patient chart, the documentation is easily visible.

BTW, if anyone knows how to put annotator into AC as the default pdf viewer, I'd love to know how

Barb, there are two approaches to this. One, the viewing window is an IE browser pane. It will render html and if you have an activeX plugin viewer for a given file type then you can set that as the default viewer and it will appear in AC. Try to set pdf Annotator as the default, show-in-ie plugin.

Two, you can just set it as the default .pdf viewer, then when the doc wants to edit they right click, then select view in default application. It will open in .pdf Annotator.

HTH, always glad when I might be of help.

Well, if you are making your signatures as transparent, then you are ahead of 90% of those on here. It took me a while until I bought photoshop.

I am a little confused about PDFs, because you can always open a PDF in its native application as Ben says. There are hundreds of 3rd party Adobe applications. I just use Adobe Acrobat 9.0. Expensive, but it does everything.

I still like the Leslie method for PDFs and importing.

What's the Leslie method?

It's so good, I have deemed it a white paper. Still a classic and a must read for anyone using Brother MFCs or Paperport.

Head hung low, boots shuffling in the dust....aw gee whillickers, Bert

Oh, THAT one. I printed that out before we opened the office (on cardstock so it'd last longer). Honestly, if not for that post and the others on that thread, we'd have been in deep doodoo. The fax management has been the single biggest challenge, even more challenging than learning how to use Amazing Charts.

We don't have paperport, but I kind of wish we did. I wish it wasn't so expensive! Right now we're doing fine with printing faxes to pdf but when it gets busy, I'm worried we're not efficient enough. All that right clicking, selecting the right printer, going through the windows print picture just so the medical personnel can annotate the labs; there's definitely got to be a more streamlined or automated way.

I copied our document flow from that thread almost verbatim along with the folder structure.

Regarding the prescriptions, orders, and return to work slips; if you change the demographic data for the MA, doesn't this affect how her charting is recorded when she enters information as an addendum to the chart? Won't it look like the doctor has entered that information?

I wish there was a button in the prescription window that says print for stamp or print with doctor's signature or some other way to print a document that has the doctor's signature and perhaps the MAs information somewhere along the bottom, like the old way we used to note the typists initials under the signature line.

Yes, and it was also, more importantly, affect messages as they will all say saved to the chart by Dr. so and so. I suppose they can enter their name or use shortkeys to automatically enter their name.

The thing that is weird is that we already have the functionality in the order writer. It allows an MA or whoever to write an order and allow it to be signed by the physician drop down. The nice thing about it is, it won't even let you send or print it without the physician being chosen.

I called support for Brother given all of the interest on the board about Brother's ability to import as a PDF. They can't. None of them can. Their explanation was that with paperport, you can easily convert it or it tends to come right it and be changed into a pdf. Leslie and others would have to fill me in.

Personally, I am a hardware PDF guy and not a software PDF guy. Yes, I have more software programs than I can count that do this to PDF and do that to PDF, but I really want my networked fax machine to Fax to PC in PDF. Ultimately, one should be able to choose between tiff and PDF, but PDF is basically the de facto standard. I have also heard on here that Brother MFCs tend to work better being connected directly to a computer via USB and somehow being shared from there. I think Brother is a good machine, and I even recommended it once -- it seems to work for a lot of users on here -- but I wouldn't recommend it anymore. I think at minimum, the fax machine has to PC to Fax, Fax to PC and be networkable all in PDF. AND, and this is key, the interface GUI for PC to Fax has to be intuitive unlike, say, Toshiba.

But, Bert, it is inexpensive, something which for me is much more important than faxes incoming as PDF. It is very easy to convert faxes from .tff to pdf, taking less than 10 seconds to do a whole batch. Other than the automatic document feeder not working right, they have been great machines for me.

Leslie

Leslie,

Great machines. I have a post on here recommending them after much research and giving two models to choose from.

http://tinyurl.com/brother-fax

I am not knocking them nor anyone who buys one.

I am just stating a fact that after much discussion, that it does seem incapable of importing directly to PDF just so those looking into MFP/C will have all the info prior to making a purchase.

I apologize if it came across otherwise.

I mean I have not authored a white paper yet and am thus just an assistant AC professor and not a full professor like you.

My front office person asked me today "why can't the faxes just come in as pdf? seems like extra steps we shouldn't have to take."

I agreed with her but it is cheap, Paperport is a nice and easy piece of software, and the time isn't that significant.

Oddly, the Brother machine scans directly to a .pdf file. Seems like a picture is a picture and if you can bring a scan in as .pdf you should be able to do the same with a fax. guess not.

I just bought a great, much more expensive, HP all-in-one but I sure don't want to change my Brother fax software, update the fax phone book, and do a change-over. I'm sure it would bring faxes in a pdf though.

It would. And, not to offend anyone, because as I said, for the money it is hard to be a Brother MFC, but I told the person at Brother that if I were in the market for a fax machine, the only reason I wouldn't consider his product was because of the PDF issue. He refused to listen to me. I have always thought that if one person actually TELLS you that, then there must be other people who don't and just go elsewhere.

If Muratec, Toshiba, HP, Dell, Xerox, et. al can all Fax to PC in a PDF, I don't understand why they can't.

Bert,

I did not take your comments as anything but constructive so, quit apologizing!! If I were making the money you are I might opt for something other than the Brother also.

Well, now that you're a mod, you can expect to make at least 50% more than you are making now. Plus, Anthem is scared to death of mods.

OK, no more mod jokes. Promise.

Hi ever'body!

I've been using paperport as the basis for my charting system for years. I like the ability to stack/unstack/reorder pdf files - so like a three-page note comes in on the FAX, pops up on the screen, and I can zip 'em into one pdf.

I have the Windows FAX console save each FAX as pdf to my paperport desktop. I still have to drag the corresponding .tifs to the recycle bin though.

Signatures: How about those annoying companies that call you back on things like diabetic supplies, saying you have to resend your order because they don't accept "signature stamps." I free-hand my signature in paperport and I've still gotten the occasional call, with the know-nothing on the other end telling me "this looks as if a computer made this signature; sorry, but Medicare won't accept this." Unreal.

I have instructed my staff not to respond to "jerk clerk" comments like this, after we return the first fax signed. All subsequent faxes are trashed, phone calls deleted from voice mail.

We do inform the patient that their pharmacy, supplier, etc. is making it difficult for us to continue to care for them, and offer the telephone number if they want to help. And yes, some patients can be just as nasty to these services as they are to our office personnel.

By the way, the patients have usually already received the diabetic supplies in question, even before the fax returns with the doctor's signature.

Ditto!! I will resend one fax telling the supplier this is the only notice they will get. If they need an original signature, they will then have to send me the original form along with a SASE. I have recently had so much trouble with one particular one I called the patient and told her she will either have or get her supplies elsewhere or get another doctor to approve them as I am finished dealing with her present company. I also tell mail order pharmacies out of state who say they cannot accept stamped signatures that I do not practice in their state and that in Indiana it is legal and if they need it some other way they will have to send an original.

Leslie

You are right Leslie, these invisible "fax only" suppliers NEVER send a proper records release, so we don't really have to respond at all.

My office recently had the same issue with a nurse who promoted herself to a "geriatric case manager", and started demanding tests and meds for her clients, and wanted to "consult" with me by phone. I told the patient to either fire her or me.

Is it just me, or have these medical sharks multiplied in the past few years?