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I just had records from a pt that is transferring into my practice sent by mail and lo and behold they are all AC records. So, is there a better way to get AC records into my chart than just scanning them into imported items as I do when they come from non-AC offices? Can the CCR or PHR or Formal Health Record be sent to me in a format that will populate the chart is some beneficial way so that meds can go into the meds section, problem list into the problem list section etc?

Wow, this certainly should be possible, but I don't know if it is! Do you have tech support from AC? I'd pull up a live chat, and if not possible, they should really work on this!

Yes we need an easy way to share AC records. I have an infection specialist in my town who also runs AC and we want to share a patient. It would be cool if we could do this over the nex or even with a thumb drive. Can anyone help and give me step by step instructions on how to do this?

I believe I would do the following:

See if both offices would be interested in secure e-mail, UPDOX offers a free messaging system which can be installed at both offices.

Use one machine and on main screen - hit FILE - IMPORT/EXPORT-EXPORT CONTINUITY CARE RECORD-EXPORT CCR. Save on desktop.

Use updox to e-mail back and forth, or save to thumbdrive.

On other machine just reverse to import.

I would make a dummy pt. and try this, but should work.

I am going to try this in near future and see if we can accomplish this.

Steven,
That will work for the information in the CCD, but will not send notes or imported items, correct?
(Unless you print, save, and send them separately).

If it is a CCR it should work for Meds, labs, allergies, a visit summary. I am going to try it out.

Feel free to send me a test patient CCR; what would be nice is to be able to send the rest of the chart (which I think is what Bill asked about in the initial post).

On a side but related note, for stage 2 meaningful use, which may be in 2014, the government is proposing that 60% of the time when we transfer a clinical summary to another provider, that it be transferred electronically without using cdroms, thumbdrives, electronic fax, email, etc. And same brand EHRs to EHRs won't count. This is not going to be easy...

I tested it - right now it does not import any more than diagnoses - I talked with an AC programmer and the dilemma is figuring out how to decide what and how to import so that the doctor will be able to look at them. They are working on this.

On a side note he did say it was possible to export all pt charts, but that won't help unless someone was looking to change EMR's.

This remains the biggest part that I don't understand about the entire EHR revolution...

What SHOULD be able to happen is that records from one physician should be able to be seamlessly integrated into the records of the next physician... HPI into the HPI, Physical into physical, meds into meds, labs into labs in the proper chronological order. As it stands, we either get the equivalent of an envelope full of random notes that go in as PDF's, or at best some crippled, anemic little thing like a CCR. Todd, don't you wish that when you got an ID consult from your friend it showed up an another AC encounter in the right place? With labs in the right place, hopefully as HL-7 granular data?

But, instead, with all the rules, meetings and effort that went into this thing, the one thing that the people setting standards failed to do was insist on a common data standard and means of importing and exporting records. The one thing they could have done which really WOULD improve care and reduce waste and duplication, and it wasn't done.

I have a darker view of human nature, and I suspect the reason that there is no common data standard is greed. Users are trapped in a proprietary software product, and face either upgrade costs or the agony of changing of changing software with each product cycle. And there is plenty of money made by writing interfaces between different products. Our legislators, who should be insisting on standards, are bought and sold by the software vendors. Remember when Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman was chosen as HIT advisor to Obama? And Todd Park, AthenaHealth's co-founder and a member of its board of directors, was appointed chief technology officer for the Department of Health and Human Services.

i dont know who you talked to. I recently merged 2 practices to one site and wanted to merge the 2 AC databases it cannot be done according to tech help. can only export and save as imported files on the new charts. If anyone has anyother information please send it my way