Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Microsoft Access

I am in the process of starting a new solo practice and have learned a lot from reading a lot of the posts here. I have been trying the AC and am in trial period. I have had fair experience with v 5.1 I am waiting for integrated PM solution.

I have read that some of you try to manage patient files like /jpgs and PDFs in a separate database so as not to clutter the SQL database in AC. Is it feasible if for the next 1-2 years, as I build practice and have some income, I were to use just MS Excel/MS Access with database of all patient files - progress notes, hospital records, forms etc in a spreadsheet. I would also add a field for MEDS/Past history/BMI/BP etc.

For dictation I would be able to use a non Medical version of Dragon and generate notes in MS Word and then save them as PDFs.

This will require a lot of steps but I am trying to pinch pennies and considering having someone make this simple database in MS Access for me. WOuld this be worthwile or time and money wasted.

This is my first ost so go easy on me. Thanks

My first comment is that this will be a waste of your time, which you could use seeing patients; it would be more efficient to keep paper charts. The reason is, with a database of PDFs & JPEGs, when you eventually move to an EMR, you won't have anything that could be incorporated into a new EMR as "structured data" (which could be searched, edited, sorted, etc). Also, won't have eRx (without using yet another program), which is mandated for the federal insurances within a few years.

Why not go with a simple EMR (hint: Amazing Charts), put in the same or less work, and likely qualify for at least the ePrescribing incentive, and possibly a part of the $42,000 EMR incentive?

if you are skilled with MSaccess, this would certainly be easy to do on a shoestring budget. user alborg did this. If you are planning to pay someone else to develop and maintain the MSAccess database, there wouldn't be good business case for anything over $300 or so. I doubt anyone would do this for that amount but even if they did you would spend more much money ongoing if you aren't doing it yourself.

I did something similar for about three years using a program written in 4D. It worked ok, but took a fair amount of upkeep, and did not have the options of a real EHR. We finally migrated to AC when it became evident that it would take too much effort to make it not so limited.