Home Forums Discussions General Discussion NEW POLL//Has version 11 upgrade helped?

Just read the 11.1 release notes in AC's email just now.
I'm more concerned about this

Height and Weight are now Required Prior to Prescribing Electronically for Patient under 19 years old
The new SCRIPT2017 compliance requires that all electronic prescriptions include the patient’s height and weight. If they are not on record within the patients chart you will be prompted to enter them prior to prescribing a medication. You may cancel and ignore this request; however, the prescription must be printed and cannot be transmitted electronically.

How recent does the height/weight need to be? What about refills?
Not looking forward to this.

Hi Serene,

I just tested this and as long as there is a height and weight in the chart at some point, the system should let you prescribe. I had a demo patient who's last vitals were from February and it let me prescribe medications without getting the "No Vitals" warning.

Unfortunately I cannot test the refills, but I can inquire about that.

Reading this thread is not giving me a lot of confidence in AC for the long run.

Hi Mark,

Appreciate the input and appreciate you visiting this board.

Thanks

Gene

Maybe I am missing something, but how will they know when the vitals were done?

So I did check on the electronic renewals and vitals, and yes the renewals will require the patients have height and weight listed in the chart (probably not what you wanted to hear).

So here is my question for the doctors here (I want to take this time to educate myself), is there a situation where a practice dealing with patients under 19, would not have vitals at all in the chart? I am generally curious, and knowing these situation can help me build training cases for these situations.

Thanks, Mark.
If there's no maximum time limit on how long ago the height and weight are, it shouldn't be a problem.
We get the weight at every visit and height at least once a year.
I guess the only time it might be a problem is if someone is seen for the first time as a virtual visit and an Rx is needed, the height and weight may not be available.
But for us, we don't do telehealth for the first visit.

If I already have the ability to send EPCS and eRxn through Newcrop screens in AC v10.0.2, then why would that not work after 9/1/2021?

Hi ffac

I was doing some research on this height weight thing, and it's for everyone, not just AC. (the new eRx requirement for Sept 1, 2021)

There is a note in the vitals section and you could write estimated weight and height. Save the chart. Then send.

THE THING THAT IS F......K...ED up is this new DEA rule where you can't send controlled substances at a time. Like we send three ADHD scripts with dates of fill at one time. MA would set them up. Now, I have to do every one of them myself.

Medicine just gets worse and worse and worse. It friggin' sucks.

Ok been on the Version 11 for a about 2 months. So far not many problems and some things I like. I do not have a lot of shut downs and would say no more than I had before this version. The overall responsiveness seems faster but every now and then there will be a lag. NO rhyme or reason to why the lag. Sometimes I can be waiting on a lag and be able to start typing in the next box and things roll smoothly other times not. I am on a wireless network going room to room with patients using a laptop.

The prescription writer is definitely the biggest change I have noticed.
1. Height, weight, pt phone number and address are on the top of the prescribing screen, I like this. rest of the screen seems to be the same.

2. If no preferred pharmacy has been indicated (new patients) then a box will come up with pharmacies in the area and you choose one.

3. When you write the prescription it HAS TO HAVE THE UOM. If you leave UOM blank the prescription can not be sent. If you start to type something, a drop down box comes up which is nice BUT you can not just hit enter and move to the next box(refills). You either have to tab key to the next box or click on the next box for the UOM descriptor to be saved. Drop down favorites are saved.

4. pressing prepare script send the prescription to the Pending Medications box. From here you can see the Pharmacies listed for the patient. This is nice but a larger box so that a better descriptor could be seen would be beneficial. You only get a 14 character description of the pharmacy. You can hover over the name or click a magnifying glass icon to see the full description of the pharmacy. This is helpful. If you click the magnifying glass then a list of all the pharmacies for this patient with pharmacy info shown. This is nice. From here you can set the preferred pharmacy (check the box) no longer having to go to the demographics page! You can use this page to change the preferred pharmacy, click for one pharmacy to get all pending meds or go back to each med and send to different pharmacies. Hallelujah! Up to 5 pharmacies can be listed.

5. Once meds are in the Pending medication box, then hitting the prescribe button transfers them into the next window, ready to transmit. This is where Bert is seeing the medications are put into the pt's chart even if not sent to the pharmacy or printed. This is also where you can send a message to start a PA for the med to a staff member, print prescriptions or transmit to the pharmacy. This window shows the prescriber and the prescriber's address as well as a box that sends a test to the patient for "Monitor RX adherence and test supporting information to patient". Some patients like it others don't. If you have to work late then it will text patients late at night as well. There is also a box at the top that if checked will take you back to the prepare script stage after transmitting or printing. The pharmacy is listed but again this is too short as you don't get the address just the store number. The pt info is at the top as well. THE ONE THING I DON'T LIKE IS THAT THE PHARMACY CAN NOT BE CHANGED ON THIS SCREEN. IT WOULD HELP IF YOU COULD CHANGE IT BOTH AT THE PRESCRIBE SCREEN AS WELL AS THE TRANSMIT SCREEN. PATIENTS WILL CHANGE THEIR MINDS. GOING FROM THE TRANSMIT BACK TO THE CHART OR THE "RETURN TO WRITE SCRIPTS" PAGE HAS THE LONGEST DELAY!
WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE PHARMACY AT BOTH WINDOWS, WHICH WOULD SAVE TIME!!!!

7. One other thing is that I have found several meds that are no longer the NDC and need have to "codify" them. They were fine before the update to Version 11 but now have to be changed. These have to be changed before you can escribe and sometimes it is hard to tell that they need to be changed. When the "favorites" is expanded then these may need to "codify" but this process can not be done in the "favorites" drop down box. I have not figured out the easiest way or if there is a way to Fix the favorites. I would think this list would have a way to be edited.

8. Once electronic refills have been sent, the medication will now have a message in the note "Notes to Pharmacist" box that reads Approved electronic refill request sent to New Crop". WHY IS THIS THERE ON EVERY REFILL?????? I delete it the next time I refill if not electronic.

9. WHAT THE HECK TAKES SO LONG TO GET NEW MEDICATIONS IN THE SYSTEM? Example the new weight loss medication Wegovy. Seems like it take this system a couple of months when the reps are telling me others have new meds in the system in just a week or two.

Sorry it is so long but hope it helps, support has still been good for me but the hours are not like they used to be, have to keep trying to catch them on chat but the tech support staff has been spot on with fixing my problems.

Mark,
I hope you read all of my above post as I think it is constructive criticism. In answer to your question, we are family practice, I ask for the staf to height and weight on each pt each time they are in.

One more thing, not related to the Upgrade to 11, WHY is the code for COVID testing not in the CPT databank?

Doing refills this morning also reminded me that the electronic "Pending Refill Requests" has 2 tabs one is "Rx Change". I have tried to change some but can not get this to work. Not sure I am doing something wrong but can not get the changes made on the screen.

Hi Chris,

That feedback was very helpful and I have sent it on to the development team.

I wish when you put XYZ 123mg tablet the UOM would auto populate to tablet, any provide, pharmacist or pharmacy tech can see that, crazy that the government has made this a mandate!

Is there a way to turn off the Advertisements on the login window?
Or like somebody said add movie trailers

There are advertisements on the login window? Can someone post a screenshot of that? You mean where it says "Get home for dinner," it will show a Swanson Pot Pie?

I don't see any ads. Barcafa, are you using the online server? We are are in house.

Hi Josue,

There is no way to turn the login adds off. They should just be a normal banner adds below the login info. I'll talk to dev about adding some movie trailers in there (though is there really anything exciting coming out of Hollywood lately? Besides the new Ghostbusters movie, that is).

Here is the advertisement banner, Bert. This morning, it seems to be broken or maybe its meant to display like this when there are no available ads. (The large white box under the password field)

Chris, how do you not see ads?! Are you on 11.1.2?

Can you show me one when it is there? Just curious.

Josue,

This is random but do you have a dog you play catch with as far as the frisbee goes?

Its still not working but it can be seen on Pg 29 of the release notes. Interestingly, they call it "Professional Medical Reference"

Ha, no but I wish. My dog is good for about a 15 yard trot. But he's gonna be 11yrs this month.

I just remember seeing this guy who was a dog trainer walking through Central Park helping people with their dogs and cats. One of the things that always happened is people would throw the frisbee, the dog would catch it and bring it back but wouldn't give it to the owner. He had a solution for that. It was pretty cool.

I have that large blank space at the login window but I never see anything in it. Our AC is privately hosted.

Monetizing eyeballs. The way of the future.

I'm going to print ads for my magic backyard dirt supplement on every script, work note, FMLA, and insurance form.

We are happy with upgrade but Speed of eRX is very slow and that takes a lot of time if I need to send a few scripts out.

Also see image above for Ad in AC banner!

Our providers are also saying that eRx seems slower.

The Midmark interface has also been a pain. It just stopped working after 3 days and had to get their tech support.

Logging out with CTRL+L causes amazing charts to throw an error, randomly. “Run time error 365 unable to unload within this context.”

Trying to renew prescription kept giving a error. “Unable to transmit.Object reference not set to an instance of an object”. Tech-support said that it was a renewal request from before the upgrade (that we did 6 days ago) and we had to create a new one.

Issues opening imported items when somebody else has a chart open for that patient. It just closes the chart.

I am also unable to make any changes in this part of "Pending Pharmacy Request". This is a new very useful feature to communicate with pharmacies regarding "Alternative meds" if "Prescribed meds" are not covered. Kindly help as nothing on this part is editable. Only option in "Review" window is "Decline" at the very bottom of the prescription.
Thank you

Very slow eRx or EPCS times the NC bullshit and it's a nightmare to do ADHD scripts.

No ads here, just the big white banner. Locally hosted but only on Version 11.1.1. ERX is faster for me. Hate having to got to the other for controlled meds. Qaiser, glad I'm not the only one that can't get the "Rx Change" to do anything worthwhile. I think it will be a good feature when the bugs are worked out.

No diff using 11.1.2 ERx about the same, crashes same or perhaps more; where are the forensic programmers at Harris/AC?

A couple things...Pharma Messaging on the banner page....Not everyone will see these messages, it's based on your taxonomy codes....Pediatricians won't see messages for Cardiologists. Support can turn these off if you really hate them. They're designed not to be intrusive to workflow hence on the login page. Yes we get pennies to help offset costs that would otherwise be passed along to you:-).

The RX change feature was described back in the 10.0 release notes. They are messages from the Pharmacist to you about wanting your approval to change a prescription you submitted. Some of the major pharmacies are just starting to support it so not everyone will see them yet. I'll add them to the 11.2 release notes as a refresher.

I have 11.1.1 and I can not EDIT Pharmacy messages. Are these editable in 11.1.2? I think that would be a great feature to have!!
Speed of eRX is VERY VERY SLOW on my system. Is it just me or 11.1.1 or I need to upgrade to 11.1.2?
Thank you Chris!!

First, I am very concerned about hearing from support as to downloading and installing the latest version. My understanding is that support needs to immediately change some setting or settings so that you can continue to use EPCS.

Ads on the log in screen for software that is paid for? WTH? And AC gets pennies? I see enough ads all day. If I have to look at ads and do not get a price cut, that is BS. But if we complain then they can be turned off... But then AC will charge more for not showing ads. Thanks for the same ole nickel and dime routine. Pay for support, pay for EPCS, pay, pay, pay.... after every time AC is sold to a new company. Just another way to squeeze the existing users. Thanks.

We upgraded with a couple of networking issues, apparently not AC related.

Pretty happy with V11.1.2 so far, and not to be too much of a Pollyanna, will start a thread about minor improvements.

I am not sure why this is different as you can do this on the old scripts, but there is a big point that the total number of days should be the prescribed amount plus refills so that:

Zyrtec 1 po daily
Dispense 30 pills times two refills
Days supply 90.

That is bizarre especially since Medicaid (at least MaineCare here in Maine) requires a 90 day supply. Therefore it would be written:

Zyrtec 1 po daily
Dispense 90 times three refills (covering a year(
Days supply 360

So far can not tell much of a difference 11.1.2 but happy it went smoothly!

One item that has resulted in more clicks is in the Rx renewals. Any way we can Opt out of the "Monitor Rx Adherence"? By default it is selected on all patients. The majority of our patients do not want this feature and has resulted in many calls to office.

Also what is the "Prescription Drug monitoring" feature that is disabled?