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Can we PLEASE have the default changed to "Print ALL scripts/page" rather than "print ONE script/page"?

I would greatly appreciate it!

I would like it if we could set our preference on that as well.

Isn't that an easy to change thing in the Admin Options section where you set up your particular state's Rx options??? That is if I am understanding your request correctly....

If it is there, I don't see it. Barbara, I think many of these things would be better if you could use preferences. For instance, the huge paragraph explanation on the Superbill is on by default rather than the other way around.

Just be glad you don't use the Star TPS 800 printer for printing controlled scripts. It's awesome, but you have to change the configuration, so that the format has to be the same even for non-controlled. So, you have to print out a sheet of paper for each script. AND, you can no longer print in one step. You always have to preview. This will probably never get looked at, because so few of us use that option.

Paul,

There are no preferences (other than for state regulations)...I wish it were so easy.

Bert...I am thankful! I've got enough to remember just using the tamper proof paper. It's a spendy way to print lab orders!

Rainy,
I swear there are some states that allow for you to print as many Rx's on a single page as you can fit, or at least as many as four to a page. You should make sure your state will allow such things and then ping or call tech support and ask them if any of the state's the Jon set-up allow for more than one on a page and if so which ones. Jon told us to get the single Rx to a page stuff for practices like ours and Vinny's here in NYS. But we must use separate pages for each Rx here in NY. You could go into the admin section, and keep trying all the various states and their set ups, printing a test Rx as you go and see if any of them fit the bill. Hope this helps a bit.... Best of luck.
Paul
PS, how did your "troubles" work out??? Do you have a lot to be thankful for I hope????

Paul,

I think I may not have been clear. The preferences for my state are fine as far as I am concerned - and really are not the issue here.

When you print your scripts, you can move the radio button to print one or all. My suggestion is to make the "print all/page" (which is 4) the default instead of single scripts so I don't print several pages of singles when one or two pages of "all" would have done nicely.

Hope that's clearer.

Hi folks,

The way Amazing Charts works internally is that it can only do one Rx per page. The reasons are complicated, in that the prescriptions are a form of Visual Basic report, and in order to have the kind of layout we need for a prescription, we have to use a new page per record.

There IS a way it could be made to do 4 per page, by buffering four prescriptions into a single record with 4 fields worth of prescriptions, then creating a report with four Rx's worth of fields on it and printing the page from the combined record set, but my estamate is about 30 hours of programming, possibly longer , to add a minor feature.

Regards,

V.

Barbara,

I feel your pain! Rainy is completely right here. Not that there is a right or wrong among friends.

Amazing Charts has been able to print four scripts since Version 1 or at least since 8/03. When prescription preferences are set up in default mode, Amazing Charts will print one script per page if the top radio button (underneath the right hand column where your scripts are before printing)is selected (default) and will print two, three or four scripts per page if the bottom radio button is selected.

Basically, there are three radio buttons which cover four different scenarios. There is a radio button on the far right which allows you to print to your default printer with one click. There is the top left button which will print one script per page regardless of the number of scripts loaded. Then there is the the bottom left button which will format all the scripts on one page. This has several advantages. It is easier for the patient to carry and keep track of one piece of paper (maybe two if there are more than four scripts being printed), it saves paper and requires only one signature. The nice thing about the print multiple scripts button is that it will print multiple scripts, but it will still print the one script per page if there is only one script loaded (which is why it should be the default). The ONLY time one would want to use the top button (one script per page) would be when they have "written" multiple scripts but wish to have them split up for some reason, i.e you give a script for Tylenol with codeine, but you want the patient to hold onto a script for an antibiotic if they need it.

So, I completely agree with Barbara. The multiple script button SHOULD definitely be the default button. And, I am no programmer, but I would think moving the default selection from single script to multiple scripts would be fairly easy.

@Barbara, I don't use the TPS 800 printer for orders, only for controlled scripts. It's the greatest thing ever, IMHO, as now I can print all scripts. They are all legible, the patients love them because their address and telephone and DOB are already on them, and we make FAR less errors. Besides, I can print out four Concerta scripts in about 30 seconds instead of having to write them out all the time. Plus, the pharmacist usually knows it comes from out office.

Barbara,

The very frustrating thing about using the TPS 800 to print to tamper proof paper is that you have to format the script to the paper. For me, I have found that the state of Maine doesn't seem to care which format which is good, because I would think the formatting is pretty stupid anyway. They already accept the paper and everyone if the office used a different format anyway when they wrote them.

So, there are two issues with printing with that format. First, it is nearly impossible to switch back. The preferences have a mind of their own. And, second, as I have stated to the coders here, it takes way too many steps to switch back and forth. It would be awesome to be able to switch from 8 1/2 x 11 to the 4 x 6 format right from the script writer. So, as it is, I have to print out one script per page anyway and the default printer radio button doesn't even print with one click.

The irony is that the Federal government did me a favor with their new law that even Tylenol has to be written on a tamper proof script unless you call it in or fax it. So now, I pretty much fax EVERYTHING so no issues with paper.

I have a (hopefully) simple modification to request for the prescription writer. This would only involve Florida prescriptions. I receive "bounce backs" from pharmacies on controlled prescriptions printed in the present Florida format used in Amazing Charts, because the statute says:

"893.04(d): Each written prescription prescribed by a practitioner in this state for a controlled substance listed in Schedule II, III, or IV, must include both a written and numerical notation of the quantity on the face of the prescription and a notation of the date, with the abbreviated month written out on the face of the prescription."

The quantity is written out in the prescription writer's New York format, but the "abbreviated month" (i.e., Oct., Nov.) is still written numerically. If possible, please correct the Florida format to be consistent with the state requirement.

Ditto,

This is getting more important because our lovely insurance companies are now refusing to pay the pharmacies for prescriptions that don't comply. Previously, they didn't care. I expect to get a bunch of fax backs on this issue. My nurse is handwriting the long hand date on most prescriptions.

This post is to repeat my request for correction of the Florida prescription format in AC. In 2009, the law was broadened to include all prescriptions, so the number dispensed, number refilled and the date must all be written out both in text and numbers. So now I get a couple calls a week from pharmacies saying that prescriptions printed by Amazing Charts are out of compliance.

I am confused - when I type 20 now AC adds (twenty) automatically. Does it not do this in your format?

Ok - I think it used to do this and now it does not - I am writing AC now to ask about it.

Talked to AC - version 5.1 is working to clean up and make all the different state formats compliant (Washington has some strange ones also) - I talked with them about Florida and he said they are working to make them all do what needs to be done.

I was previously happy to see my prescriptions autocomplete the "sig" after learning my prescribing habits. (ie. I say "Zithromax Zpak", choose tablets, and the sig autocompletes "2 po today, then one po qd x 4 days") Well, at least that's how it used to work. Now, no autocomplete. I must have done something to make it stop doing this. Any suggestions on getting my very handy autocompleting sigs back?

I think it still does it, but I also think it only holds so many in memory - will check with AC programmer.

Thanks!

OK, now I am confused. I thought you couldn't ePrescribe with anything other than a number in the dispense field. So, how does that work it it adds a "twenty" to the "20" or is that after the fact?

@John, this is just one more example of the lawyers and legislators screwing the physicians. I guess our pharmacists are just better up here.

It used to automatically convert to words after you saved it as we can only put 20. It quit working. I know that they hope to have that corrected in 5.1 and meet all the state scrip standards (because God knows that each state has to be different).

Thanks, Steven, for the clarification (and giving me some hope of resolving this).

Bert, I can just picture you doing a version of Garrison Keillor's intro to The News from Lake Wobegon: "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the pharmacists are above average."

LOL. I agree except it would probably be more like "where all pharmacists will accept a patient's cell phone.