Home Forums Discussions Problems Sync failure, anyone?

My wife user her laptop at home to work on charts. In the morning, she goes back to the office and syncs (return and sync to the main computer).

Every other week, we have a sync failure. Tech support is useless. They have me upload the databases from the laptop and server, and seem to "work" on them for a week at a time. They promise a full resolution (last time was 3 weeks ago, and no permanent resolution).

Their "fixes" last about 2 weeks.

Anyone else having such issues?

If you can't remotely access the program on your main computer from home and no one else is using the data, why not back up to a thumb drive, work at home, then restore the data the next day.....would only work if you are the only one using the program. We have used symantec??pc anywhere and just remotely access the main computer from home. It wasn't easy at first but once I learned about screen scaling it was just like being in the office. You have to have a stable IP address, if I remember correctly. We don't need remote access much anymore. Work is done at end of office hours.

Thanks. Problem is that the wife uses Dragon when she's using it at home. I don't think that will work the way you suggested.

I already have a free LogMeIn account. It's quite nice.

Problem with thumb drive is that she's not that computer savvy, and also we have staff arrive before her.

Wish tech support could just fix the issue.

ANSharda,

Sorry, you are having these issues. I have never used sync except in a lab environment, but I would just never trust sync from any company with this type of data.

I hear your frustration with tech support, but they aren't going to fix your problem any faster if you call them useless. AC is different than other companies, because I think we are all in it together. Sure, you pay them, but they are trying. If you think they are useless, call or email Jon and tell him in a nice way.

How much sooner does your staff get there in the morning? What do they put on AC? Is it scheduling? Maybe you could make the laptop the "main computer" and have her bring it home. Then, whatever things your staff needed to put on AC could be put on then.

I understand your statement about your wife's computer savvy. But, my guess is you are underestimating her. You can set the backup program to go directly to the USB. She uses it, she clicks on the Backup icon that you have a shortcut to on the desktop, and it goes to the thumb drive. Someone at the office could import it. But, I don't like that idea either as you are moving data everyday.

For me this was a temporary situation. When I first started using ac, I had to enter Pmhx, allergies and meds at home the night before or my office hours the next day would be a disaster. I did this work at home in the evening for about 2 months. After that, many patients were in the database. I had most of my 3 inch thick paper charts summarized and entered. Now new patients and even old patients who are not in yet don't slow me down and I can manage to get all my documentation done during office hours. Easy, easy. I still use a thumb drive and back up because I have two offices and right now this is the easiest way to deal with it. We are looking into a virtual private network that will make this unnecessary.....I think. I am really computer illiterate. I have been walked through this.

Despite all my whining, we are finding exactly the same thing as StLawrence, even after only 7 weeks on AC. Our office is close to home and peaceful on weekends and early mornings, and that's when we are doing the preemptive data entry; already the repeat visits are far outnumbering the first-timers when we look at our schedule, and the summarized data is there, making the actual encounter note very quick and easy, and the farther out I look on the schedule, the more true it is.

The point is, that I think you should try to move away from working at home as soon as possible. Moving data around and merging it is inherently risky, and now there are those HITECH sanctions to contend with if someone rips off your laptop while you stop for milk on the way home. I would not have gotten talked into going electronic if I had not become convinced my life would be better (for many reasons our office will never see any stimulus money), and leaving work at work is one of the good things. I think it should be one of the "adjustment goals" of an electronic office.

Folks, thanks for the words of advice.

Bert, I'm calling these guys useless out of frustration. Going 3 weeks without a final solution is just not acceptable. They gave me an interim fix after one week, and stated that they would like to find a final fix for this.

My wife went to a nursing home on Friday and Saturday. She completed all her notes over the weekend. The interim fix worked for a couple of weeks. Now, the notes are stuck on her laptop until tech support fixes the issue once again. The thought of making the laptop the main computer is even more scary.

I don't know how to reach Jon. If he's reading, he should be well aware how frustrating (to put it mildly) it would be to not be able to get his work done. The laptop is now useless until the issue is resolved. That's her office computer. Back to paper until tech support decides to get some work done. So which encounter is on paper and which electronic?

Sarcastic remark: Maybe I should buy her 2 spare computers to work off of while tech support works on the data files. Heh.

I doubt he is reading this. You would have to email him. I would just tell him the situation only.

I am confused as to why this has happened multiple times. It would only take once before I gave up. I hear the word "sync" and I run like crazy. Here I am with 20,000 encounters, hundreds of meds, etc., and I am not going to corrupt that with some encounters from the hospital. I mean that in a helpful way. I hope you take it that way. I would sit down and come up with another possibility. Maybe make the nursing homes an entirely separate database.

Why can't you use a laptop as the permanent database?

I had that problem with the earlier versions of AC. Lost a lot of notes going both ways. Now I just use Log Me In and no problems. I will sync no more.

Good point. Don't they have Internet access at the nursing homes?

I think, Bert, that it sounds like she and I share the issue that for a lot of our patients we feel the record needs to be narrative rather than templated. That means either being a great typist (not me) or relying on Dragon. I know nothing about virtual private networks, but is there a solution in there someplace?

Why not print the note and import it into the patient's record in the main computer, especially if it is only a few nursing home visits.

http://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2009/12/review-logmein-ignition.html

Good point, David. I forgot about the dictation part. Since, I don't use LogMeIn, Dragon or iPhone; I had no idea if the above link's ideas would work. And, the fact that it is written by a lawyer scares me even more. Then again, if a lawyer can use it, it can't be that hard.

Just my opinion, but I doubt there is enough bandwidth using LogMeIn, to allow Dragon on the home laptop to dictate into AC on the office computer. Sometimes even screen refreshes are slow on a LogMeIn connection.

I use both (separately), so I'll give it a try and post back.

Hey John,

How about if she dictates to an email on iPhone (it mentioned that). Then shoot the email to her staff. They then type it in and forward the chart to her inbox, and she approves it and signs it off.

Dictation normally works like that. You see a patient, dictate the note, someone transcribes it from voice (but here from email), and it is then transcribed and sent without signature or with editing and signature.

I do a little nursing home work. I take a steno book and take notes. Then at home I Logmein and type my notes. I used Dragon Speak years ago and found it to be more trouble then it was worth, but I type pretty well.

I believe that at least in theory if a virtual private network were in use, it would allow one to use Dragon and AC and all the high bandwidth stuff on the portable laptop, then just send the data itself to the database file at the work server. That is my understanding of the theory, at least. The implementation of this is unknown to me. It might well be using a howitzer to kill a fly. The steno book and LogMeIn seems simpler.

When I do a comparison, all things I do at the hospital go into the hospital system. I get a fax for the H & P and D/C Summary which is imported. So, in effect, they are two separate worlds.

Why not have a laptop just for your nursing patients. I don't do anything in a nursing home, but how often do these patients leave the nursing home and return to your office?

When you get back to the office, that laptop is simply your nursing home clinic computer, never to be intertwined with your regular office patients.

I work with an office that does jail medicine - they have one laptop that they use for jail pt. and computer for office. 2 separate databases and if they really wanted to put copy of jail chart in one in office they could print/fax/import.

Personally I wouldn't want jail pt. to follow me to office......just me.

We have identified a bug in synch and our Developer’s are currently working on a solution. We apologize for any frustration and inconvenience that this has caused you.

More news to come next week.

Trish

This would be fine if she want to dictate and have another person transcribe it. But I think ANSharda says his wife uses Dragon to dictate directly into AC on her home laptop. So this would be an extra step.


Well, I completed my experiment, using Dragon on my home computer, which I connected by LogMeIn to my work computer running AC. To my surprise, the dictation into AC over the LogMeIn connection from home was almost as fast as dictating into AC while sitting in front of my work computer. So I guess the local computer is doing all the heavy lifting with DNS, leaving the data being transmitted essentially keystrokes. This turns out to be really useful, if it holds up on repeated use.

So I guess this may be one possible work-around for ANSharda's wife, until Tech Support gets Amazing Sync out of beta.

Thanks, Trish.

John,

That is an awesome experiment and maybe one that deserves an entire new thread.

As for syncing, I don't think I would trust it whether it was alpha, beta, release 1, release 2 or full. Nothing against AC's development team. The chance of something screwing up once is higher than I would want. On number 365, wow. Just couldn't do it.

I agree with on of the postings that this would be a good time to make the transition, if possible, to not working from home. This is a standard I have had since residency, and have tried to maintain in solo practice. Even if you don't get home until 7 pm, stay and get it done. Then home time is free time. This isn't for everyone, but I find I can usually get out by 6 pm and have the evening to recharge the batteries, so to speak. If there is a little work to catch up, you can do it from Log Me In. I don't trust the syncing after I followed the directions but lost a couple charts. That scares me.

Ryanjo,

I'm impressed that this works. I was told by Tech support that it would not, so I told my wife to not even try. Didn't want to make more problems.

I will have her try that out.

From what I have found out after pointedly asking, there is definitely an issue with sync that others are also experiencing. Tech and the developers are actually using our data as the "model" to determine the best solution; supposedly because I was able to give certain answers to their questions.

The corruption occurs whenever you open up an imported item while offsite (you know, just to see what a patient's cholesterol level was, for example).

Hopefully they will be able to resolve this soon.

In the meantime, It's dictate through the internet.