Home Forums Discussions General Discussion The Emperor's new clothes

Well, guys, probably a prescription was a poor example, as I just use the e-prescribe function in Version 5, and the workflow usually does not involve me. e-prescribing works well for me, and I was using it for 3 years before going to AC. Yes, Bert, the staff checks and assigns the faxes and takes care of what it can. That just happened to be the simplest example of a form that I had handy in the Fax in-box at the time and I grabbed it as a generic example. So, I tried a form that DOES involve me, and the MA can't handle on her own, a semi-unique checksheet from the state involving disability. Again, 3+ minutes to do electronically (not counting various computer glitches like the screen freezing, etc.), 30 seconds tops to do if a printed sheet is handed to me. Again, my point is physician time, not considering that office time may or may not have been saved because a chart was not pulled and filed. Do you guys try to do EVERYTHING electronically as you imply? Is it not really more efficient to just have the staff print the form, sign it, then let them import it later? Might it not be that attempting to be pure is something that looks a lot better than it spends and I should put my efforts elsewhere?

There is no such thing as a paperless office. In fact, I was told once to walk into an office such as Logician, and it will not be paperless.

Of course, there are times when paper is quicker. When we do PAs for Medicaid medications, my MA prints it, fills it out and stamps it and faxes it, then imports it into File Assistant Pro. Of course, the fax and the scan are at the same time. We also type in all of our office information such as name and address ahead of time so that doesn't need to be filled in.

As for labs, again, there are times when my MA knows I will do a U/A, U/A micro, urine culture along with spot calcium and creatinine, and she writes that message on the Superbill. But, if I am ordering Prolactin, Estradiol, FH, LSH, TSH and FT4, I may have one template for that in the lab section. So, I click on the ICD-9 code at the top, I click on the panel, and I hit print. It prints immediately and I hand it to the patient. I also find that by giving it to them myself and telling them how important it is to do, I have a higher compliance.

Maybe I am misleading. Whatever is fastest on the computer (most things) we do there, whatever is fastest on paper, we do it that way, whatever is fastest by MA or reception, they do. When a patient comes in for ADHD, and they are on Concerta 54 and 18 mg, and we do two months at a time, that is four scripts. Add methylphenidate to it and now you have six. Not only can I print those to the Star Printer, which has tamper-proof paper in about 30 seconds, but it is very accurate. We use Amazing Labels to print out the labels.