Home Forums Discussions Problems Apology to AC User

While on a panel answering questions at the conference, the subject of the Rolodex issue came up. One of the users (I do not know her name) stated she did it a certain way, and it still didn't save the name.

It didn't make sense to me, but for whatever reason, without really thinking, I said to her (in a somewhat loud voice -- somewhere between talking and yelling), "The, you're doing it wrong!"

She left before I got a chance to apologize to her, but I still owe an apology to everyone in the room.

So, I apologize for being rude.

Thanks.

If anyone knows how I can get in touch with her, please let me know.

This conference was run with great candor overall I really doubt anyone was wearing their heart on their sleeve. I am sure the person involved was not offended but I do beleive the problem she brought up does exist. It is just not a consistent problem.
Overall this was great AC conferenve. I m on the user board for the first time. Overall it was a great get together of very intellegent and progressive folks. Great job by the whole AC staff. Thank you.
Nisha

Nisha,

Thanks for the kind words. Just wondering if you were sitting near the back.

I guess it is difficult to see whether it is a bug or whether there is way we are doing incorrectly, if it is intermittent.

Do you mind if I ask if you were one of those in the back who were communicating this issue as well?

I'm having rolodex problems that I brought up yesterday am but you didn't insult me in any way, shape, or form. Maybe I am doing it wrong. I don't think I'm doing it wrong but maybe I am. It isn't just me. I have an office manager who is entering physicians into rolodex. He does it one way from the rolodex screen I think. I will sometimes just add a new doc in the quick add screen in orders that he would then need to enter more info on. We have restarted the program etc and the info is not saved. We have used 5.0.28 until the conference. Did the upgrade to 5.0.29 for the conference so I haven't used that version yet but will today. I was not sitting in the back but I think the issue was brought up by someone in the back initially.

Thanks. Well, if you were sitting in the 2nd or 3rd row on the left, then it was likely you I felt I offended. If so, I am relieved you were not offended.

I must admit a few have mentioned on here they have had problems. I, myself, have had issues with it, especially when entering from within the letter writer (in the edit section). I just took that to mean I was rushing. Since then I have tried to figure out why it was not working all the time, and I thought I had it figured out, which is why I was too adamant at the conference.

So, hopefully, Jon will fit it. Actually, I will also ask my biller who adds many, many physicians and consultants to the rolodex and see what her take is on it.

Thanks.

I was certainly not offended. Then again I am immuned. My IT guy is my husband so when anything is wrong it's always my fault never the program or the computer! THe problem with the rolodex is an annoyance more than anything else. Now when I enter names I stare at it with the hope it will "stick" and stay "stuck" ! It probably just needs fine tuning.

I have an idea on the Rolodex. I will start a thread on it shortly.

I had some ideas about the rolodex and was going to play with it today but unfortunately when we arrived we had no computer. Electrical storm took out our rouder???is that how you spell it. I guess we need one of those power packs or something for the router???whatever. I did half a day on a laptop with older version and no current database but I'm solo so I know I wasn't missing anything. I had so looked forward to doing all sorts of fancy things and am just lucky that we got through the day.
With regard to the rolodex....I also thought it was rushing and I didn't do something right but on a slow day we made sure we entered properly and still the people entered were missing and we were just recognizing the problem before the acuc so when someone else mentioned it I jumped in. How could any of us ever be insulted by you Bert....we are in awe....just blessed to be acknowledged by the great one in any way.
So half of today's visits will be scanned in with the note referring to scanned note. I don't think I did anything I want to search on today anyway.

Wow. Thanks. A couple of thoughts. As to the router, many people forget to use an UPS. Since the modem, switch and router are all three important things, you may as well use one. My recommendation (highly) is Cyberpower. I have had no luck with APC. When you look at any, consider getting the AVR versions. Those are Atomated Voltage Regulators. It isn't just the surge, it can be the brownouts, so this keeps the voltage in a steady 95 to 120 range.

But, you reminded me of something I should do but I have never gotten around to it. On my UPS, there is an Ethernet port in and out, so that the Ethernet cables from the jacks are covered as well. Given your description, the high voltage could have traveled down your cables. My only concern is if they are Cat6 and can run at 1Gb/s would the Cyberpower UPS be the weak link.

Now on to your router. Are all of your computers connected directly to the router?

Wow is right...my husband is my IT guy and he'll see this later. I couldn't even begin to answer those questions. I do know that the router was only half fried and I was able to use the system in the afternoon but some things weren't quite up to snuff so he has to work on that office tomorrow. I'm off to my other office tomorrow and hoping nothing went wrong there while we were gone. Lucky we were in Providence and enjoyed nice weather while they had major storms here at home.

I would just have a switch around, and you could connect through that. You don't need Internet activity to connect to AC. But, then again, the chance of this happening again, is rather low.

Actually....lucky for us we had a spare router in our spare parts stash. Won't need to buy anything except maybe a surger protector/vps whatever. I was all set to codify my drugs and start eprescribing today after a short interuption due to the bug. This will delay our conversion to V5.0.29. That was going to be today. Installing 28 was so easy. We did it from home. Now it probably won't happen until after the holiday. We also have alot of work stations, inspite of being solo. Because we live in the Boondocks, we have frequent power outages. Bangor Maine would be considered a big city compared to here.

I guess you need a generator. When you say you were all set to codify your drugs, did you mean you were going to do it all at once?

I was going to do it as I saw patient. Might be able to do it today. I have been eprescribing for a while. Maybe a month and didn't understand the codifying thing or why some drugs were bold and others weren't. Our main pharmacy told us that some scripts still were faxed and we didn't know why. I didn't select from the list because I didn't like the look of the codified drugs. Instead of hydroxyzine it is hydrOXYzine. I like things neat and tidy and that just looks wrong to me but I'll bite the bullet and try not to care.

We have not started e-prescribing yet. My impression from the meeting is that 5.1 will be so much improved (in this particular area) that we will wait for that before proceeding- though we are using 5.029.

And with regard to the original thread... we have had the same issues with the Rolodex dropping inserted contacts. As outlined in a recent post from our office, there are also other quirky limitations to the Rolodex as well.

On the Rolodex, I have stopped seeing the problem everyone is complaining about. I'm running 5.024. Did you press the Add New button? You sure?

Try this workaround. Go into a patient's chart--even a dummy patient--and us the demographics screen. Click the referral tab, and click Add New. this will now take you to the Rolodex again, where you can add the contact. Be sure to clikck the ADD New button on the rolodex screen first before doing anything else.

@StLawrence: I went through the same thing at first. But, the only prudent thing to do for New Crop is to follow the ISMP guidelines.

http://www.ismp.org/

http://search.ismp.org/search?q=tal...ollection&oe=UTF-8&restrict=ISMP

After awhile I got used to them. They are used in our hospital anyway. Eventually, they have to be codified or they can't be sent by ePrescribe. This, in and of itself, cuts down errors. Then, throw in the fact that the pharmacists are getting more and more familiar with the Tall Man lettering system.

I think the goal is to codify as many, if not all, medications in your charts. The only downside as Jon pointed out is if you choose the wrong medication or strength and then select all patients. It's more efficient that way, but it can cause 100 patients to suddenly being on 1 mg of Clonidine rather than Clonazepam.

@Wayne,

Thanks for the tips. I brought up the Add New button on here and at the conference. BUT, correct me if I am wrong, one can't even enter a name if that is not selected, e.g. the first name is deleted once you tab to the last name.

Bert, I was sitting very near the 2 ladies who had problems and they didn't seem to be to upset about the issue, just disagreed that the "add new" was the problem. They were doing that and it still wasn't saving. They had talked to me earlier in the day about the issue.

Yeah, it can't be the Add New. If you don't click on it, you can't even get past the first screen. It is kind of quirky. I do have to say that I have never seen it say that it saved to the database and not have it save. But, I have had times where it didn't. The issue is finding out which happens when and why?

I haven't sat down and played with it. Our rolodex was in place a long time ago and was put in by one of my MA's. I might take some time and see if I can get it to duplicate and figure out why.

I do know that the only time I have had problems is if I did it from the letter writer, e.g. getting ready to write a letter, and the name is not in the drop down list. I click on Add/Edit and enter the data and save. Even so, the contact is not there, until I restart the program.

OK
SO, I'll be out of the office and I instructed my staff to start filling in the rolodex.

And the first example I did for them I made a big deal;
- click on ADD NEW
- type it all in and
- type "Save"
- confirm it states it was saved to database.

Guess what? it didn't save it!!

I went on to see a patient, my staff tried it from a machine that is hardwired as a thin client, (I was wireless) and hers was saved. So she entered several Dr. to the Rolodex.

Then I tried to show how useful that is.

I tried to compose a letter from the letter writer. I could not figure out how to address the letter to the specialist.

I tried to show how to do a referral, but all it shows on the paper for the patient is the name of the consultant, not contact information.

Whats up?

I don't know. Maybe I am lucky or maybe I am completely nuts for just doing 50 in a row and not losing a one. My biller puts all of her contacts in Rolodex, and I asked her today if she ever had a problem and she didn't.

I experimented tonight using the Rolodex you get when you click on Open Practice Rolodex and the one you get when you are ready to insert a consultant and address into a letter and the provider isn't there. So, you click on Add/Edit Provider at the bottom. This brings up the same Rolodex window, but the window for choosing a provider for the letter is still open.

I found a few things to help, but what I found to be most consistent was the following. In either scenario if I entered the name of the consultant or referring doctor, clicked SAVE, then clicked OK on the Provider's Information Saved to the Database screen, and THEN clicked one of the radio buttons: Consultants Only or Referring Providers Only, it would always show up. I don't know if it was because I performed some type of change just by clicking them or if by sorting them out, it made a difference.

It also seemed to save better when, after clicking on Add New, I tabbed over from the Salutation field rather than clicking directly in the Last Name field.

Just thought these would be good for others to try and experiment with.

I think it only occurs on the 51st entry......just kidding. Bert you really need cable tv or something. Glad to see it does not affect you, I have never had it do this to us also. I thought it did once, but that seemed to occur when I did not hit the add new button.

I have cable Internet home and office, Dish Network to a $25,000 Home theater system.

I don't want them wasting too much time on the Rolodex when they could be putting all that time into the Practive Management System. Oh wait...we have Medware. Oh well.

I agree with Bert, but darn! I want one of those theater systems too!

It is awesome. But, consider it is the only thing I have wanted since coming to Bangor 13 years ago, I don't feel too guilty about it. And, with it turned up loud, you can't hear the pager.

Bert - that sounds like the Fortress of Solitude (or Batcave), but with Dolby!

Yet another reason to make the pilgrimage to Maine the next time we are back in the Northeast.

Indy,

If you do come, please bring your fluke meter. When the burglars broke in and tried to steal the speaker they ripped out the wires, and I am still not sure if I put + in + and - in -. I suppose I could trace it back but that would be too easy.

Another reason to stop by is I feel like we didn't get much time to sit down and talk. Too many things going on at the time.