Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Add Descriptions to Imported Items

I am new to AC. We are importing our old charts into AC and I wanted to know if there way to add more descriptions to the descriptions provided by AC in drop down list. I appreciate your help

Only if you have UPDOX and use UPDOX to import these

Sunil, thanks. I am not planning to use Updox yet. We are planning to get client-server version and we found way to create descriptions while importing old charts but since it is not being saved in database we have to edit existing descriptions and add ours for every patient - it is annoying but feasible

Updox is wonderful. If you get a chance to set up with them, you can customize all the descriptions.

Directly on AC you can double click on the item and add descriptive info. You can create a new category, but the system does not remember new categories for future pts.

We just labeled our scanned charts just that,(scanned charts) or paper chart. Doesn't terribly matter as long as you are consistent.

Wendell, Thanks. This is exactly what we are doing - editing description(category) for each patient. It would be more convenient if it would be saved so we can use it from drop down list box. We just get AC and need to import charts for few thousand patients. It would save time if we wouldn't need to reenter categories for every patients. Thanks a lot
Liliya

Liliya,

How many categories are you making for your chart imports?

Marty

Marty, I have 21 Categories. Such detailed split will allow me later easily find
necessary information from Pre-AC history

Marty, thanks for advice. We have more than 2000 charts and some of them contain hundred pages. It is much more convenient have it within AC categorized.
We have Client-server version of AC (not cloud based) so I don't understand how updox could help us - may be I need to try it. From video : I understood that this software mostly for sending and receiving faxes but we can do the same thing
using our Fax machine -it allows as to send fax directly from computer and receive it to computer and fax machine without paying monthly fee
and Nuance PDF viewer software allows us to edit PDF's and add signatures, etc

Sent you a PM (private message) - call me!

Liliya,

Users have been using Updox long before the cloud. I don't even use it, but from everything that is said on the board, it is the best piece of software ever created.

I would call Marty if you haven't already.

I also have fax independent of UPDOX but use UPDOX for import as it is a big time saver for staff
Also more categories can be done through UPDOX
Documents can be previewed that makes it easier to name

And, it has a portal, I think.

Hello, Liliya, and welcome to Amazing Charts.
One thing you will learn quickly is that are often multiple ways to accomplish things with this EMR, and you will sometimes get an assortment of suggestions from different users. You will also find that sometimes people will try to talk you out of what you set out to do. This is one of those times...
When we converted our records from paper, we decided to scan a large number of records. We scanned essentially all of the charts from 15 years of practice. Keep in mind that I am a gastroenterologist and so the average chart is different from that of a primary care physician. They tend to be a lot smaller and less diverse in their content. My motivation to do so came partly from the fact that many of my patients might only see me every 3 to 5 years and it was important to have those old records. (Of course my staff felt that my main motivation to scan everything was my obsessive, anal-retentive nature).
My initial intent was to divide the charts into multiple sections, just as you describe. Ultimately, we decided not to. First, this is a very time-consuming effort. Separating, sorting, and labeling all the sections of each chart is very labor-intensive. Secondly, while it is very useful to have this information as a reference, much of it is rarely if ever used. So I would suggest that you reconsider your plan and consider scanning in old records in batch fashion. You might import them all as one document or you might separate a few important items (such as a problem list, lab flowsheet, and most recent EKG) and put them as a second, separate document that can be quickly accessed.

If you decide to go ahead with your plan as you describe it, realize that creating your own 21 subject headings for each chart will be a maddening process. As you have noticed, this must be re-done for each and every patient. Old headings are not remembered by the program.
I agree with Marty that UpDox could be very helpful in your workflow if you decide to go ahead with your plan. We did not have this option because the current version of UpDox was not available when we went paperless, but I believe it could be helpful to you. Parenthetically, UpDox is an extremely valuable program. It is difficult to envision exactly what it does and how it is helpful. Its functions are somewhat diverse. I will try to describe concisely how it would help in your situation. Imagine a chart with 50 pages. The first step would be to scan it into UpDox. You are now sitting at your monitor looking at thumbnails of those 50 pages. You can easily go through and pick which will go into each category. Suppose you select 10 pages that are progress notes. You click on each of those 10 pages and import them into the patient's chart. The beauty is that you can create a category entitled "progress notes" in UpDox, and that will be remembered from patient to patient. You complete that chart and move onto the next one, and you don't need to create a new category for progress notes or any of the other choices you create. Still a painful process, but better (I think) than re-typing "progress notes" to create that category for each of your charts.
Either way, best of luck. Feel free to come back with more questions.

Couldn't have said it better myself Jon

Good Evening, JBS,
Thank You very much for detailed explanation. I will read more about UPDOX and decide. I really appreciate your feedback.

Bert, Thanks for the advice. I will check Updox

See Liliya is a person who reads my signature. You're welcome. But, Jon did most of the heavy lifting.

The other side of the coin is the question of how often you reference the old chart and how much more time would it take if you don't separate sections.

It will certainly take more time to divide up the scanning, but really doesn't take much time to find the relavent material when you know the chart structure without separations.

After about 6-12 months you will find you don't reference the old chart that much, the information is in the new chart.

As to Updox, I have heard great things but don't use it, I defer to Jon's post which indeed seems a useful way to do it.

As Jon said, there are many different ways to accomplish what you want to do. You just have to set your priorities.

This brings up an interesting point and one I thought about before transitioning from paper about 2 years ago, and Liliya I do not know if this is the case for you.

However, I did minimal scanning of old records from the old paper charts into AC, moved all the paper charts into my office from a centralized chart area. I did this for two reasons, one practical the other psychological.

I predicted that what Wendell just stated above, and it has panned out. The paper charts are obsolete now and still available for the occasional referencing and scanning if needed. Scanning the chart in whole is a lot of busy work for naught, in my opinion.

I have not had any regrets doing it this way and would do it again in a heartbeat.

What I did instead was input all of my own data, copied and pasted the past med history, entered meds, social hx and family hx myself. It was time consuming and painful the first 6-9 months, but a good time to reorganize and clean the record up after 18 years of practice.

We did batch scans of the entire chart. These charts were then scanned to a hard drive on the network and shortcuts were placed on all PC's so that we may access the old charts. Any information that was needed can then be dropped and dragged via printing to PDF.

I personally hardly ever reference the old charts.

I can't take credit for this idea, someone on the user board here made the recommendation and it's worked great so far!