Import patient data

shahdb0323 wrote on Friday, May 02, 2014:

Hi everybody, I am finally ready to import my patient data to openemr. I followed all the instruction I could find on the help page and online. This is the error I get: Invalid column count in CSV input on line 17.

These are the steps I took:
1- exported a sample patient data from openemr as CSV file.
2- imported my patient data as per exported layout.
3- went to OpenEMR and imported the CSV into the patient_data.

4- received the error Invalid column count in CSV input on line 17.

I know I must be doing something wrong. I just can’t figure it out what it is. Any help will be appreciated.

Shah

cmswest wrote on Friday, May 02, 2014:

hi shahdb, are you running 4.1.2 patch 5?

shahdb0323 wrote on Friday, May 02, 2014:

Hi Stephen, yes I’m running 4.1.2 patch 5.

shahdb0323 wrote on Friday, May 02, 2014:

yes, I am running 4.1.2 patch 5.

blankev wrote on Friday, May 02, 2014:

What is exported should be the same as what is imported. It could be some hidden formats. Best thing to do is use a plain text editor for CSV import. Editpad might be the tool. Or OpenOffice spreadsheet for easy manipulation, be sure to include all fields that can be exported during the initial download from one of the Demo versions of the Table. Also export with the first row labels, but remember not to import the first row.

http://www.editpadpro.com/

cmswest wrote on Friday, May 02, 2014:

can you check to see that line 17 doesn’t have an extra character that you used as the field separator?

blankev wrote on Friday, May 02, 2014:

Stephen has a very good point. I did not interpret line 17. Check line 16 17 and 18! In Edit pad you can put line numbers in front of every line.

Careful check if every line has the same amount of field. Some characters during input of the original information might be misinterpreted during the import and export of CSV file. Usually you can change the special characters in something that does not cause line 17 to give a headache.

shahdb0323 wrote on Friday, May 02, 2014:

Thanks for all the help. I will try and will report back.

fsgl wrote on Friday, May 02, 2014:

Two tutorials that may be helpful can be found in the HCPCS -.csv Import section of the Code Types webpage.

To prevent Asthenopia (eyestrain), consider checking line 17 against other lines with Excel (if already installed) or OpenOffice/LibreOffice Calc (open source).

The lines/columns are numbered/lettered when the application is opened, making navigation and analysis easier.

Because there are 83 columns plus that for id in the patient_data table, columns may need to be added. LibreOfice Calc has only 31 columns for starters.

shahdb0323 wrote on Saturday, May 03, 2014:

Hi there, After about an hour playing with it, it finally worked. I used OpenOffice and started from beginning to import my patient list into the sample export layout. I received the error: MySQL said #1062 - Duplicate entry ‘0’ for key ‘pid’, which I fixed it by giving each row an unique id and pid number.
Thank you for all the help.

fsgl wrote on Saturday, May 03, 2014:

Mazel tov on accomplishing this Herculean task.