Home Forums Discussions Problems Health Maintenance for date unknown

So a patient tells me "I had the pneumovax, not sure when".
Do people use the HM tab for this sort of thing?
How do you deal with the date issue?
Similar for, say, colonoscopies ("a few years ago").

Michael J.

Well, for a vaccine we would have logged it when we gave it in the vaccination section. You can then look it up at the bottom of the summary sheet.

We currently would log a colonoscopy under the tracked items section. There doesn't seem to be an appropriate heading in the HM section. But there may be. You may have to make up a "rule."

Oh, for the date issue, on the vaccine you can check a box that it was given elsewhere and it eliminates most of the data requirements. For the colonoscopy, you'll probably have to use an approximate date from asking a ton of questions like "Was it 3 years ago? Was it closer to April or closer to October?"

Thanks.

I think you still have to put in some date for the vaccines, even if you check off given elsewhere, but I suppose you can just choose some reasonable date in the past and maybe add a comment that the date is approximate.

Michael J.

With regard to colonoscopy follow-up, just tell them "if you can't tell me the exact date of your last one, it is time for another".

Before you send out the CMS police, that was just a little GI humor there, folks.

actually Jon, it seems quite reasonable from a common-sense point of view. Like a tetanus shot. Nearly the same conversation.

Jon, My patients all seem to remember when their last colonoscopy was after I describe the prep!