How to import progress notes into OpenEMR

OpenEMR Development
1

ejhaggs wrote on Monday, July 18, 2016:

Is it possible to import progress notes to an existing encounter in OpenEMR using HL7?

The use case is this: a clinician uses an external device to record progress notes during an office visit. The progress note needs to be visable in the encounter record in OpenEMR.

Those notes will be transcribed and can be converted into an HL7 message. I have the lab interface working, so I can import results to an ordered procedure, but I haven’t been able to find a way to import anything else, like notes on a regular office visit.

2

visolveemr wrote on Tuesday, July 19, 2016:

Hello Emily,

Yes, its possible to import notes to OpenEMR encounter. Assuming you are using openemr for parsing hl7 results.
You can use the NTE segment field 3 to send the notes along with lab results, it will be parsed in openemr and linked to procedure order. For reference, see the attachement (notes.png).

Thanks
OpenEMR Customization/Support Team,
ViSolve Inc

3

ejhaggs wrote on Tuesday, July 19, 2016:

Thanks for the response. Is it possible to import notes without linking them to an order? Let’s say a patient comes in for a routine office visit. No procedures are ordered. Is there a way to import the doctor’s notes for that visit?

4

visolveemr wrote on Wednesday, July 20, 2016:

Hello Emily,

Yes, Notes can be directly linked to encounter instead of linking to the order.

Currently openemr doesn’t support encounter wise notes and it needs some customization work.

This can be achieved by mapping notes value to reason column(existing) in form_encounter table or new column can be created to the same.

Notes can be transferred using HL7 in SIU message type, you can use the same NTE segment field 3 or any other custome HL7 segment for notes.

FYI, using openemr ORU HL7 messages only can be parsed. To parse other HL7 messages it requires interface engine like Mirth Connect.

Thanks
OpenEMR Customization/Support Team,
ViSolve Inc