I am exploring open-source medical practice management software, and had a look at the OpenEMR demo just now. Looks good! I have two initial questions which perhaps someone can answer quickly:
(1) For appointments, is it somehow possible to set different per-provider defaults for the duration and location? So that clicking the calendar for a particular provider chooses these defaults instantly – 15mins for Dr X but 45 mins for Dr Y, say.
(2) Is it possible to shield the patient database entirely from the WWW, while allowing the schedule to be seen from home, perhaps with the patient names replaced by initials (or some such thing)?
1.Not really, but if the front desk remembers that Dr. Y works in 45 minute blocks, she can use it in the Add Event dialog to do the scheduling. See attachment.
2.The only truly secure connection is offline. Because that is not practical, see Securing OpenEMR.
Set appropriate categories for appointment/visits. It includes default time that front desk can override.
We print personalized appointment report at the start of the day for all users. Perhaps a cron job can email customized version of next day’s schedule at the end of the day. Then you don’t need to expose OpenEMR to outside world - assuming you are not covered by MU.