Home Forums Discussions Problems Pop-up note doesn't actually Pop-up

On the Demographics tab, there is a field called "Pop-up Note." When populated, it will display a warning (either yellow or red, depending on the level of the alert) when the chart is accessed, or when an appointment is scheduled. However, there is no true pop-up behavior to this warning that requires user acknowledgment.

Am I missing a setting/preference? In my mind, a pop-up should require a hard-stop, requiring a mouseclick-through. Some of our schedulers are missing the warnings, it would be nice to have this option.

It pops up (in the lower left corner) when you click on a chart.

Yes, it is an mostly passive note. There are no clicks or checks. I like it as it is!

If you click on it 2-3 times it will open the demographics page so that you may edit it.

We use it for a variety of things. Balances are put there and updated when billings go out so the front desk can remind people who call they need to pay. Other things that are relevant to the person/chart get put there to be seen without opening the chart, such as patient left the practice and may not return (we do not inactivate them or they could easily get turned on or have a new chart made)

It also turns a shade of lavender when the patient has not been seen in > 12 months.

I think DocMark has a valid point here.
Now that Chris Conrad and his crew are able to take a more pro-active approach to improving AC, this is something that is worth a look.

I would say there are five overlapping "notifications" that should be re-imagined by AC. I am not sure HOW to change them; just that it is worth re-assessing and adjusting them.

These are:
1. the "pop-ups" found in the bottom left of the demo tab - results appear in yellow on the bottom left of the main AC page when the patient's name is selected in the patient list. It appears below the box of info noting the last visit and insurance info. (Wendell... you taught me something; I knew that box was sometimes pink/lavender and sometimes plain; I had no idea it turned after the patient had not been seen for a year).


2. The box accessed via the "summary sheet" tab, using "Alerts and Directives" (or from the file menu when the chart is open). Information there appears in the same box on the main page as the info in #1, just below it. With the right combo of selections, this box can be bright red. (I mention that because it comes closest to Dru's purpose, which is to attract attention of staffers before scheduling a patient or opening their chart).


3. Yellow box accessed in "Most recent encounters" tab. Data appears there and I believe, no where else.

4. Flags - go to "Demographics"... "General info"... "Set flags". You can associate the flag with text and the flag pops up on opening the patient's chart. Text is visible by clicking on the flag.

5. Yellow sticky notes... accessed via the main screen, "Edit"..."Yellow sticky". These are a bizarre form of stickies; I can't really explain how anyone would use them.

All 5 of these are what I would call "primitive" features of AC. By that I mean that they have been there almost from the beginning... and have not really been developed or improved upon. I would also venture to say that most (or all) are minimally utilized... I would bet that most people don't know that most of them exist.

In any case... a true pop-up that opens in your face when you open a patients chart, or pull them up in the patient list, might be useful, as Dru describes. The info in the box that currently appears, serves Wendell's purpose and perhaps is helpful to others.
I would be interested in hearing about how people use these underutilized features, but I would be even more interested in Chris C looking re-imagining them to make them more useful.

This used to pop up. I think Jon decided to change it back to being passive, because it had good and bad connotations. It was good, because it was in your face. It was bad because parents realized that, and they would sometimes read it. And, not everything was meant to be read. I still like it popping up.

Thanks for all the info!

I would think that both passive and active warnings could be employed. Perhaps only the "high alert" red warnings would actually popup and force a mouseclick to close.

This was an important feature for us in our last EMR (Soapware.) It was quite helpful to alert schedulers of billing/insurance issues before the appointment was actually made, so patients weren't blindsided when they showed up.

(Bert: I used to have "private" notes that weren't meant to be read as well, but have gone away from this as patient's now theoretically can have access to everything I write in the EMR. I rely on my nurse to remind of such issues - her memory is like a steel trap.)

DocMark... any other features of Soapware that you miss, or that could conceivably be added to enhance AC?

I'm sure I could come up with a few, but I must say overall AC is a great product and exceeded SW in several areas in terms of efficiency.

I believe the first thing I could recommend is to bake-in electronically prescribed controlled substances into AC's prescription-writer. Soapware's Rx was seamless, controlled subs were prescribed alongside other prescriptions and the two-factor authenticator worked from within the program. I understand this would involve TONS of coding on AC's part, but not having a third-party popup would save considerable time when writing controlled substances.

I have also commented in other threads about improving AC's messaging - it would be nice to have an outlook-style email program integrated, so sent messages could be better tracked.