Home Forums Discussions Problems Patients name in referral letter

I have started faxing referral letters in AC and I find I have to type in the patients name. Isn't there a way to have AC insert the patients name in the body of the letter? Thanks, Ron Hines, DPM

The patients name will come up automatically in the "Re:" section, but only there.

It should come up automatically.

Thanks for your reply and that is what I have experienced. That requires and additional entry. Darn!

How does it require an additional entry? It doesn't. Once you check a box, it stays checked. Wayne is correct. Check the box for "Re" in the top left hand part of the screen. Then the name of your patient will come up EVERY time.

I know, but I was talking about in the body of the letter. I wasn't very clear on that. I guess that is not possible?

How would you normally start your letter?

Thanks for referring ______ ..............

Ron, this is very easily fixed by Jon.

We already have the code in place to have wildcard placeholders for the patient's name in the clinic note, just not in the letter writer. See the following post:

http://www.amazingcharts.com/ub/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4478&page=1#Post4478

We just need to add that code to the letter writer, and there have been many people on this Board who have mentioned that in the past.

E-mail Jon. I have already been after him to enhance that portion of the program, because it would be relatively simple and would make a big difference.

Brian,

As the younger generation would say, "You soooo stole my thunder."

Anyway, Ron, copy and past the following below the equal signs into the HPI section of a note, then use ALT Right click to make it a template. Call it "Consult" or something descriptive like that. Then use it, by right clicking in the HPI section and double clicking on the "Consult" template. Then the code below would say:

Thanks for referring Bill Gates, a six year old _______ .....

As Brian says, if this could be put in the letter writer, you would be all set.

============================

Thanks for referring %FNAME %LNAME, a %AGE year old with

Humblest apologies!

Forgiven.

Wait, wasn't that an Academy Award winning movie with Clint Eastwood?

Cool, I'll give that a try. Thanks Bert

Ron

That is a neat trick in the HPI though. Need it in letter writer for sure.

Ron

Yes, Brian and I agree wholeheartedly. The key is getting Jonathan to do it. Email him. Tell him you need this for your practice. Come to the conference in June. Brian and I and many others will be there.

The letter writter also needs to be able to print envelopes and to have the ablility to change th font size. Perhaps it could just export the information to Word and that could all be done in there. What do you think?

Ron

Exporting to word is a nice idea. And then save the letter in word format instead of as an html. Quickbooks has some letter templates that work that way.

Wayne,

You are completely correct about Word. The THING is though therer is no reason for anyone to export to Word. It should simply open in Word. And, that is simple. My program for immunizations prints in Word. All you have to do is allow the document to choose or be told what document to open in.

Think about it. Anytime you open a document on your PC it looks for what native format it should open in. How many times have you clicked on something only to bring up a window asking you to associte it with something. Most of the time we choose Notepad. It will then be associated with Notepad until you change it. Just like songs and videos are assoiated with QuickTime or WMP.

Look in a folder like My Documents and look at hundreds of files saved in Word with their little icon with the Blue W on it. Now uninstall (don't really do this, lol) Word. What would you see now. Yes, the ugly small Wordpad icons. When you open a document that had been saved in Word, it will now open in Wordpad. Until you install Word again.

With VIPER, it's the same thing. When the document opens it looks for a format to open in. We don't have to license Word. We already have it licensed and activated on our computer. Nothing should be saved in HTML. It formats horribly. It should be saved in Word. Plus, then you have more flixibility.

Ron,

You are touching on things that many of us have talked about before. AC has lots of little details it could improve on. But there are also things that are huge and need to be revamped. The letter writer is one of them. But, as my post above talks about, why reinvent the wheel. Word is awesome. Everyone has it, and if they don't they have Open Office or Star Office or whatever which will work fine.

Thanks for the replies. I am getting close. How exactly do I open it in Word?

Ron

Unfortunately, Jon has it set to where it always opens in the native Windows you are seeing. This is something we need to discuss at the conference or other times.

I know that one concern was those who were using Linux. But, I think the program is fine for Windows.

So, how difficult would it be for Jon to have to letterwriter do the letters in Word? Or how expensive (licensing fee to Microsoft maybe?)

If he did that, the envelopes can be printed right there.

There would be no licensing fee. If I email you with a Word document, you can open it in your native Word program all you want. If you don't have Word, you can't.

Now, that would be the only issue. People would have to have Word. But that is where you allow it to open in whatever format you wish and generally in a certain order. Word documents open in Word unless it isn't there. Then they open in Wordpad. But, if you install Word again, it opens in Word. So, there are no licensing issues.

When you open a database like AmazingMeds.com, it opens in Access IF you have Access on your computer. It would not be difficult at all. He would just have to make sure that it could open in the native letter writer of the program as well if Word were not installed.

It would be great if Jon could consider bundling Amazing Charts with something like Open Office - then could integrate a "free" program - would increase their use and allow Amazing Charts to integrate with it for letter writing. Just food for thought.

Steven --

That is a wonderful idea. E-mail Jon with it!

I am not sure what you are proposing. How would one bundle AC and Open Office? Again, the letter writer could open with Open Office, Word Perfect, Star Office, Word or any other word editor now if Jon chose to let it.

Well, maybe "bundle" is not the right word. I think he is just suggesting a development partnership like George was talking about in this thread:

http://www.amazingcharts.com/ub/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=8336#Post8331

The problem with using "Microsoft Word" is not everybody has it, or wants to buy it, but just about everybody needs a better letter writer, envelope addresser, etc. There may be some cheapware guy that could supply just exactly what those people need.

Brian,

Last I checked Open Office was free:

http://www.cdearth.com/openoffice-office-suite.htm

And Star Office was $69.00

http://www.staroffice.com/

I also find it hard to believe that a physician's office would not have Word. Now granted to have it in every room would cost money unless you were smart enough to hold onto Office2000 which is free (and highly illegal -- back to the EULAs again).

Wouldn't you think that WordPad is better than the letter writer. As George continues to say, the best code is free code. The best programs are free programs. Why build a letter writer when Microsoft, Open Office and Star have already done it?

There is really no need to bundle anything with Open Office when it is free.

Open Office is a Linux offering isn't it? I have no idea how to access it.

WordPad is a much better word processor than the Letter Writer, but it doesn't allow envelope addressing.

I have no familiarity with Star Office -- it may be just the thing.

You just type in the URL www.openoffice.com and download it. We use it.

Bert, I think you meant this address:

http://www.openoffice.org/

That openoffice.com looked fishy.

I have Word on several computers, but the truth is I don't want to pay for 12-15 copies and I don't like to have bootleg copies on my network, so I download Open Office on all the computers and that gives me a full office suite on each computer for free. I just thought it would be great if Jon could actually find some way to integrate the letter writer with one of these so we could do more advanced formatting without reinventing the wheel.

It is actually done fairly often - our hospital's dictaphone e-sign system requires Word on the computer just to edit/sign any dictation. Makes you wonder what Microsoft did to get the program require you to purchase their software ...... no monopoly there.

Yes, I meant openoffice.org Sorry.

Steven -

Could you describe more precisely how you want the two programs to integrate? Give me an example.

Steve,

The thing is Jon needs to do nothing. It will open in Open Office if he wants it to.

While the difference between bootleg copies and using copies that are not licensed to a particular computer may be the same, I would have to quibble somewhat. I do not purchase bootleg software or pirated software. Office 2000 was sold prior to activation techniques. That does not mean it is legal to install it on more than one computer.

But, to be honest, I am of the mind that when I purchase something I should be able to use it as I see fit. Many of those I have talked to agree. And, probably others would not. There were days when the purchase of cable would only allow one TV to benefit from it. Under that logic, my monthly payment for Roadrunner would increase with each computer I used it for.

While given the fact that clicking on the EULA did most likely make me agree to only use it on one computer, if I used it anyway that was probably wrong. I guess rationalizing doesn't make it right, but I have more than likely paid Microsoft well over $30,000 in software costs. My best and what I would consider legitimate rationalization is the fact that I find Microsoft's policy of allowing two copies of its OS to be used for one cost if it is used on a workstation and a laptop to be quite ludicrous. I see no difference with that than between my using it on a workstaion at work and a workstation at home.

Luckily for those down the road who do purchase VIPER, it can be used on one or a hundred computers AND it opens in Word, Open Office, Word Perfect, etc. And, I guess an even better example is Jon's gracious policy of allowing all of us to use AC on as many computers as we see fit, a feature that many who argue over the EULA seem to ignore.

It would just be great if the letter writer functioned as a full functioned word processor for formatting, editing, etc. I occasionally want to do a more sophisticated letter with changes in fonts, italics, underlines, etc. It would also be great to print an envelope or insert pictures (logos, etc) and maybe even digitized signatures.

By the way -- what is VIPER ?

Steven,

It's a program Ed and I wrote for immunizations which interfaces with AC. It stands for Vaccine Inventory Program and Electronic Registry. Do you do a lot of immunizations?

Oh, and by the way, thanks for your contribution to this thread. I hope you didn't take my thread above on bootleg software personally.

Bert,

Immunizations are a pain - I currently enter them in AC so I can search for them, but I have to manually enter in a Wasington state website for inventory, etc. Our state provides all the immunizations and we have a registry (controversial on this group I know).

I understand the issue on bootleg software - I personally just like Open Office for my office since I have 13 computers and it is nice to have a full suite available. Microsoft can be onerous and unfortunately software is just very expensive.