Home Forums Discussions Problems Registration forms ahead of appointment???

Is anyone using forms and entering the data prior to the appointment? I am ready to go LIVE next week! :: I have several patients who have filled out my form online and I am trying to figure out how to enter pmh etc ahead of the appointment. Thanks much! Alex

Alexis,
A little piece of advice here. I wouldn't be in such a rush to get new people entered before the arrive. Not sure how long you have been open in small or solo practice, but everyone here will tell you about the high percentage of new patients that "No Show" on you.

Now there are two differing perspectives on this. We don't want to clutter our main database with all these rude people who will eventually mess up our data as AC gets more PM features. A long time ago I proposed if practial having the system create and keep, Temp patients with their own data and chart numbering system. Now you do have a "chart" to put messages and DNKA's to document what your interactions were with these people, just in case they try and pull a fast one on ya. If and when the patient does actually walk thru the door, wouldn't it be nice to simply hit a radio button that will then transfer that temp chart to the actual patient side and assign it the next sequencially correct chart number like it does now.

We have created a false patient as a work around, call New Patient, and we use that as a place holder for these new patient appointments. When that person actually walks thru the door to estblish, then we create them a demographics page and chart, and replace new patient's appointment in the schedule with the actual new patient.

But I really would love my concept because we have had some of our worse legal worries over these idiots who have the ER send us reports, they are on our patient list with their carrier and yet we can not for the life of us, get them to come in and establish. At some point if they don't get their @$$'s in, we call the carrier and have them removed from Nancy's list. We refuse to be "responsible" for someone who can't even bother to come in and have an establishing visit with our doc. Talk about non-compliance, right?

Good Luck,
Paul

I actually enter patients when they call to make appt so that I can enter No Shows, cancellations, etc. This allows me to keep track and then if they miss their first two appt. I can write them a letter and ask them to find someone else. I also would do the same if they do not follow up as told by the ER - it is unfortunate that if the ER sends me something I am already liable.

This is an excellent question.

I always write notes and summarize documentation the day before a new consultation. I was thinking I'd have to fill in the information for the "future" appt. in AC and Forward the chart to me to open on the day of the actual visit.

Can I change the date of service once I've started charting in AC and forwarded the record?

Is there a more elegant work around?

Chuck

You can change the date of service.

You could also create a note containing the patient's data, along with any questions you plan to ask at your first encounter, then SIGN OFF on it. Put "Pre-visit documentation" as the chief complaint, so your staff doesn't get confused.

When they come in for their first visit, pop open a new note. All your signed-off data will be carried forward to the new note. The date of service will automatically be correct.

If they "No Show", just mark that in their yellow Reminder field of the demographics sheet, so it will pop up the next time they want to make an appointment.

Thank you so much! It will be interesting to see the number of no shows etc.

You can look at your patients with no encounters or deactivated and put in new name dob and demographics so as not to "waste" the number. We have not done that much (we have occasionally when we quickly determined a patient was entered twice) but with about 3500 patients there are about 71 deactivated.

We use a separate practice management system. My staff enters their name in that system, but a chart is not made in AC until the patient presents for the visit. We are only open to new patients whom have an "inside" track w/ my office, i.e. close family members of existing patients. So we don't get huge numbers of new patients.

However I have a very strict rule and do not deviate. If a new patient "no shows," they do not get a second chance to see me.

Brian,

Thank you for the very practical tip. This will help me alot.

Chuck

No problem, Chuck!

I'm glad I finally came up with one that worked for you!

How much stuff can we put in those little pop ups. I'd like to do your DNKA thing but I also want to put in the outstanding balance info too? Will it grow as we enter stuff or are we limited to the space as it seems?

Hey Brian,

I also prep charts, one day prior, for follow up visits. I review labs to make sure all I ordered has come into the chart so my staff aren't tracking stuff down while the patient is in the room.

Should I start a patient record today (with today's date) for tomorrow and just change the date? But by signing off, doesn't this go in to the permanent record? Using a prelim visit for the initial visit makes sense but this would clutter up my patient encounter list if I did prelim's for every follow up visit.

This is a stumbling block for me because I'm most efficient doing patient prep work and decision making before the patient comes.

Chuck

Hey, Chuck:

None of this would be a big deal if it wasnt so hard to remember to change the date on a note, and so irreversible!

That said, I think it would depend on what is going into the prep note.

As we discussed, for a prep note prior to an initial visit, where you are entering a large amount of data, I do think it is reasonable to save that note. But I agree with you, that if you did that before every encounter, it would create a lot of clutter.

If you're going to have a similarly large amount of data prior to the next encounter, I don't know what I would do.

However, if I just wanted to create a to-do list prior to the next encounter, or wanted to fill in a little HPI information before the next visit, I would consider creating an email text message and either saving it to their chart, or forwarding the email to myself for review the next day.

If you save that data to their chart, then that saved email will pop open like an alert before their encounter screen appears, to remind you about this data which you have entered. The new note will of course come up with today's date, automatically.

The prep data will be available under the Past Encounters tab, in the form of a saved email, and you can cut'n'paste info to the new encounter note, as needed.

If you're worried about cluttering the Past Encounter tab with old messages, they can be filtered out of the display using the radio buttons on the right.

Adam
Does your staff manually enter the demographic data on the new patient, when they show up prior to the appointment, or, do you import it from your PM program?

Crestondoc:
My staff inputs the demographic data on new patients in a parallel manner (both into AC and my PM system).

I imported this data into AC once when I originally "went live" w/ AC, but I have not been willing to risk messing up my data base w/ multiple data importations.

It's not a big deal for staff to input into both systems.

We do this when the patient shows up for an appointment.