Home Forums improving workflows and efficiency

Hi I am new to AC. I am hoping AC can help me improve my office workflows, such that office staff can begin to take over some of the stuff that traditionally I have done myself.

Examples:
* When I flag a patient as having a memory problem, I would like my medical assistant to automatically administer the Mini Mental Status Exam next office visit.
* When I flag a patient as "Weight loss protocol", my scheduler automatically schedules the patient to meet with my dietician and have quarterly visits.

Could you kindly advise me which facilities in Amazing Charts work for your workflows? Any other best practices for how AC can help with my office efficiency? Many thanks!

There is only so much that will eliminate the need for human judgment, but here are some thoughts:

Question one, Dave... is this your first exposure to electronic charting?

When you see a patient, create a chart reminder, (the yellow sticky note icon) and sent it the nursing inbox to show on a particular date. You can make a template to speed things up. Save it also as a chart addendum and "yellow sticky label" so when the assistant opens the chart the note is prominently displayed. Have the staff then send reminders to themselves to repeat at the next visit (there is not repeat function for the reminders). You could also template an order to send to a staff member to have them make the reminder to show up around the time of the patient's next appointment.

If and when the Health Maintenance function is cleaned up then this may well be the place to do this, but right now it is cumbersome and limited, and I would recommend spending your energies elsewhere while you get the hang of AC.

I am, just as of today, getting one of my medical assistants to start looking ahead to tomorrow's schedule, pulling the charts, and getting stuff together. Hopefully these things will get noticed then as well. But, it still requires a piece of equipment with a heartbeat to accomplish this.

I beleive that you will be able to make a HM rule and have it tied to a diagnosis code so that you will then have a HM recommendation. I've been experimenting with this on V6.

Wayne,

This HM rule capability must be a new addition with V6. I am super excited about this!!! Looking forward to the "official" release.

- Samantha

It is new. We run 5.029 in the office currently, but I have been going through 6.06 for about a week doing the things we typically do and seeing if there is any chagnes. There are many new capabities centered around "Meaningful Use."

Many thanks for your replies! David, your post is quite helpful. Yes I am basically new to EHR. I see the yellow sticky note and will make use of it. For now I am just documenting procedures to be done next time and will train staff to look at the most recent plan as part of their workflow. It would be helpful to embed rules into the Health Maintenance feature, so I could create the rule once and "forget" about it.