Clinician in OpenEMR

martakaczorek wrote on Monday, October 21, 2013:

another toughie for me:
of course I know the leading dictionaries’ definitions of the word ‘clinician’,
but I need to make sure - here, is it ANY staff member of a medical facility engaged in patient care - a nurse, a doctor, a lab technician, a midwife - who can access OPenEMR?

I gather than a physician here is a doctor with a degree in medicine

fsgl wrote on Monday, October 21, 2013:

The old connotation of clinician is a physican with a medical doctorate or an osteopathic doctorate degree.

The new connotation includes nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, optometrists, podiatrists, psychologists and chiropractors.

In the United States this is the result of Medicare’s expansion of the term for payment purposes.

Nurses, nurse’s aides, phlebotomists, lab technicians, medical secretaries are not considered clinicians at this writing.

jcahn2 wrote on Monday, October 21, 2013:

Ahoy Marta,
Back in the old days I was a “doctor”, and even a “physician” on my better days. Now I am a “provider”, a title that originated with insurance companies, which I find to be derogatory at best; sort of what you might expect of an automaton. I do my best now to group doctors, nurses, mid-levels, phlebotomists, etc as a “clinicians” - a more respectful terminology - lest the insurance companies forget that we all inject intelligence into the process of patient care.

In OpenEMR, a clinician is one who deals with the clinical needs of the patient and has access to the clinical portion of the record as opposed to the clerical functions of front office and billing staff. Have I “muddied the water?”
Jack Cahn MD
OEMR Board

blankev wrote on Monday, October 21, 2013:

For OpenEMR, we still have providers. This means that everybody who is going to LOGIN is a provider or a USER.

Every Provider has a been allowed only for certain parts of the program. The Super-User can do everything like the admin and pass of the DEMO OpenEMR.

If the Highest level is a nurse using the program you might call that NURSE the Administrator or just a level below that. So going on and the Front desk has the lowest rights to change things in OpenEMR. (Change and input of information)

When you choose a new USER you get the different options. In the Developing Demo you also can enter as a different person with different permissions. If the Nurse is the highest person in rank and responsibility in THAT CLINIC, you should give her the rights of Doctor and change the name in Translation Tables. Since a Nurse does not want to be called Doctor

It is all about hierarchy and responsibilities.