Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Ordering Provider

Well, I went years without radiology demanding a certain type of signature. Ordering Provider with my name underneath was not enough.

They won't take electronic signature either. Has to say Digitally signed by...

Can't stamp it either. You have to either hand sign it or put the digitally signed by.

We had this issue with the pharmacies five years ago. It used to say electronic signature under the name, but they would only accept digitally signed by. I just don't see the difference.

So, we just made a new user named FN: Digitally signed by and LN: Bert Adams with the MD at the end and when you make him the ordering provider, it says, "Digitally signed by Bert Adams, MD. He has secretarial rights.

Just wondering what others think. It's funny because the pharmacies would never take the electronic signature. Now, given everything is ePrescribed, the occasional fax without anything under the name slips through.

It reminds me of autograph collectors who sometimes get the signature "certified". This is like claiming your autographed photo MUST be authentic because it is signed "Mickey Mantle. It's really me."
As if saying your rx is digitally signed makes it more reliable.

Bert, would it be ok if we call you "Digitally" for short now?

The absurdity of it all.

Sure, but I prefer Dig.

this came up with us yesterday. Now, i have heard of people scanning in a signature to use to fax things directly. Now there is the idea of putting "digitally signed" on gthe Rx.

What do most of you all do? We'd like be able to directly fax a Rx to a radiology clinic and have them accept it.

I never liked the signature that gets put into AC. Difficult to size. Almost impossible to delete (for me anyway). Still looks a bit like a stamp).

We use one for PDFs.

If digitally signed works, I would go with that. We used to need it for pharmacies. I think they overlook now that we barely fax. Radiology USED to make a big deal of electronic signature, then I talked with them for hours. Our lab couldn't care less if it is on the back of a matchbox cover.

Like Jon says, it is absurd. Why don't these people worry about getting the x-ray read and transcribed and not something silly like electronic vs digitally vs real sig.

We used to put the Digitally signed by for first name and my name for the last on everyone including mine but it looked stupid on letters, etc. And, it seemed to mess up ePrescribe. So, my MA came up with the idea of a patient with nickname of Signature and the Digitally sign thing. Then she just grabs it for all x-rays. Now I need to remember.

The only downfall is once you make the new user with low privileges, if you don't like it (we love it), you can't delete the user, but you can deactivate it, and it will never really bother you.

Trust me, I wanted to put a different name in so it said something very derogatory, but I didn't.

Oh, Bert I may know the differenc on the digitally signed thing.

As I recall, you can actually register for an official digital signature, and you have to use a special code or something (oh yeah, password maybe) to use it. And it writes "digitally signed etc." So there is some presumption that this is really you.

I think I actually signed up and got one, but lost my password.

Thanks Wayne,

You are 100% correct, but the only problem is they have to know that is is simple to make a fake one like I did.

It is funny. It's like Jon said (again). I can see how it is with prescriptions.

But, who is going to suddenly say to themself, "I think I need an UGI with SBF. Dx: Abdominal pain. R/O obstruction. CPT code, etc.

Then somehow get my requisition form (sure they may be able to download AC or whatever but that is a bit much.

Then know how to schedule the appointment with referral information. Again, to be fair, you could just walk in with the CXR.

Figure a way so that the report goes to their house and not to my office given the address and fax information on the form

Pay cash for the study given they never had a referral or the insurance company figures out that it wasn't ordered by the doctor.

Then, even if they were able to get an urgent read, know what to do with it. Are they going to walk into my office with the report and ask what to do even though I know I didn't order it.

IF a patient can do all these things, then they deserve to get the bogus study.

PS Fortunately, the patient who could pull this off would not know how to enter the phrase: Digitally signed by.....

I'm trying to picture how this works, Bert. Our hospital still uses paper requisitions for xrays/labs. I have to physically sign each one. Groan.
Do you have some sort of interface between AC and your hospital which allows you to send orders?

No. We just fax them or the patient takes the requisition with them. Used to be we could just send them the way they are now with

Ordering Doctor
Bert Adams, MD

Now, I have to have either:

1. A real signature
2. Have it say Digitally signed by Bert Adams, MD underneath the Ordering Doctor.