Home Forums Discussions Feedback and Recommendations DNKA tracking improvements

We need a better and easier way to track DNKAs.

Currently you can right click on a patient in the schedule and select DNKA, but this does not auto create an addendum (currently the only way to track DNKA's).

What I would like to see is when you right click from the schedule and select DNKA, it would auto create an addendum as well.

Also it would be nice to have an option to set a flag to auto appear if they have missed X number of appointments. This would greatly help us in lower (or at least tracking) the number of DNKA's.

Thanks!

Ben

Also if any one agrees with this please post your approval and suggest this improvement to amazing charts. My theory is the squeaky wheel receives the oil.

You can do this in Amazing Charts by:

Selecting Help --> Recommend Improvements

Thanks so much!

Ben

when a patient late cancels or dnka , my staff sends me a message.
I save this into the messages, and it shows up in the old messages.
Before I save the message ,I look into the old messages for repeat performers and get a gesthalt for how reliable the patient is to come for appointments.

I use the flag system also
I have notices like dnka1, and dnka2, and late cancel 1, and late cancel 2,
I also have a flag to limit apts like apt only 10-11 and 2.30-3.30.
and I have a flag for walk in only.

The status of the walk in status or the limited apt times are adjusted whenever it seems right to do it.

I do not know how much this helps. It does help a little.
Maybe it makes me feel good, because I think I am doing something for this age old problem

I am totally with you Ben. As an administrator, I need to be able to run no show reports in order to trace operational problems that cause increases in DNKA occurrences. Can't do that right now.

The other thing that is quite bizarre is that apparently you are unable to technically "check in" a patient when the arrive >thus alerting the back office that patient has arrived. Presently in our clinic this happens with a stroll from front to back office and verbally telling the MA the pt. has arrived. From a time and motion study standpoint, this is inefficient.

Madilu, have considered implementing a instant messaging system? You can use a LAN messenger instead of a Internet Service so you know it will be used only at work. Take a look at IP Messegner http://ipmsg.org/index.html.en

Sure, we can cobble together yet another app to instant chat. I don't want to do that...leads to other problems.

At the end of the day, (or week), I want to run a "confirmed arrived" pt. report so that I can reconcile with fee tx/charges that went out. If staff could click "arrived" or "confirmed" (whatever the naming convention), I would know more clearly that a patient actually showed up and received services...and not that staff simply "forgot" to remove the pt. who did not arrive from their appt. slot ---and then I go on a wild goose chase to figure out if the patient really came or not. Which, btw, can be tricky if providers are behind on dictation. This should be a no-brainer. It's like EMR 101. (IMO)

Madilu, I suspect that what we do will not be sufficient for all of your needs, but it works for us so I will describe it.

As to notification that a patient has arrived... Do you want a "push" notification that pops up on the providers screen or not? if no (perhaps they find that too disruptive) then have the front desk message the doc in AC ("pt here"). The doc needs to be in the habit of looking for the messages to see if next patient is in. We prefer to see a pop-up message so we use Google chat to send a message; others prefer the messager Sandeep mentioned.

As to no-shows, we have the staff add "Dinka" to the comment screen on the schedule when that occurs. This keeps the pt on the schedule, and while you cannot run a report to find them, it is easy to see who and how many were not there at the end of the day. It is also easy for our biller to look at the day's schedule to know who NOT to bill.

There are a number of IM programs. Personally, we prefer BORG chat, it has more bells and whistles than ipmsg, but everyone has their preferences.

Not sure what you mean by cobble. These (IM programs) are well known programs, easy to use and work well. Or would you want to add more bloatware to AC which may make other areas NOT work as well. That would be cobbling. What you require is not needed by everyone and those who do need it have found a variety of solutions.

AC has been around for 12 years. It is highly rated because it is simple. By adding more features it becomes more complex and sometimes causes other things not to work as well.

Many were not happy about the MU items that have both bogged down the program as well as delayed correction of known issues, yet others (myself included) have been very happy and have received money for the future planning to be certified and jump through the hoops.

Ultimately it is up to the company to make the decision what makes it a better program. I have faith in them, they have not let me down yet and each new version has been better than the last (although there have been issues along the way.)

I guess I am now somewhat reluctant to add any more to this WISH LIST forum. No thinking outside the box allowed? Seems AC is right where they need to be -everyone's needs are met and everyone is happy as a clam. I will crawl back into my cave and lurk.

For the DNKA, we have adapted Jon's method.

We created an appointment type "DNKA". So, when the patient does not show up, the staff simply selects the appointment, clicks on edit appointment, selects the DNKA, and saves it.

Then the name stays on the schedule with DNKA right next to the name (rather than having to look at comments). It also keeps it in the patient's individual appointment list (using the magnifying glass) which makes it very easy to see their sequence of appointments, including the misses.

They also send me a message using a "did not show up for appointment" template which I save to the chart, so it is documented as part of the medical record.

No need to crawl back to your cave...we are happy to hear your ideas.
I would agree that the "wish list" forum is full enough.
Did the information I described above interest you?

No need to lurk. I came down on you somewhat strongly because I viewed your postings as equally harsh. While it is good to put out new ideas, most of your posts seemed unduly negative. Changes are made slowly and methodically. While they can be discussed here, they really need to be sent to AC if you want them taken seriously since this is a USER board, and not always monitored by the company. I apologize if you felt hurt by my responses, but I felt I used the same tone as you had originally used. I do think several of your ideas were good and credible. A couple not so, but hey, I am only one person