drroller wrote on Tuesday, March 29, 2005:
Day dreaming about new features is fun isn’t it?
Here is my wish list, brace yourself, I have a powerful imagination.
1.Ability to export a patients record to a text file(or open document format), or PDF for burning to a cd, this record would include the items you selected from a checkbox list such as attached documents, x-ray images ect… Flow- export patient record, click on the items you want exported and accept, the file is created and then pops up in a download box in your browser for saving to a cd, or secure e-mail.
2. Ability to export patient records into a printable format. Flow= export patient record, click on the items you want exported-click accept, printable web page comes up for printing.
3. Contact management- the ability to track all potential patients from all sources. Be it phone in, medical screenings at health fairs, referrals, ect… they will stay in the contact management portion until they become a patient, then they will be converted to a patient, dropped from the contact management, and the demographic data imported to patient demographic data.
4. The ability to set up automated education campaigns- you have a series of educational letters about a certain condition, when a patient is entered you select from the list of education series which one to start the patient on. At a set interval the patient is e-mailed(or snail mailed) per your selection in demographics as preferred contact meathod. This will improve patient care as they will be getting periodic reminders of things they can do to help their condition. The patient feels they are getting great care, with minimal to no effort on the doctor’s part other then maintaining the educational series as new information comes out.
5. Ability to print patient home instructions handouts for a given procedure automatically.(this is linked to the e-mail/mail educational campaign.)
6. A new patient interface page, where patients can take the tablet pc(or reception area kiosk with privacy screen) and fill out their intake forms which includes all of their demographic information, and customized intake information based upon their chief complaint.
7. A Tickler file for each patient where the front desk can enter reminders that show up when they log in. for example, call patient X to remind them to …
8. Patient follow up- When a patient calls in to cancel their appointment and they are going to call back later to schedule, the patient need to be put in a follow up bin to the front desk staff can follow up if they don’t hear back, to ensure continuity of care. - Flow= staff drags the appointment to the follow up bin, a comments box pops up, where they enter comments about the phone call, the date to follow up, then click accept and it goes into the follow up bin. When the patient calls to schedule the comments come up and it is moved out of the follow up bin. Flow= staff clicks on patient to add appointment, follow up bin comments pop up, staff says How did you car repair go? or similar depending on follow up bin comments, and sets the appointment. The patient is removed from follow up bin.: If the patient doesn’t call back, follow up bin reminds staff to follow up with the patient.
9. Pocketpc/outlook sync to add patient lists and appointments to the hand held.
10. Referral tracking, to keep track of what ad campaigns, what doctors are performing best for referrals. Results can be placed on a bar graph.
11. Multiple authorization tracking by number of visits and/or total fees charged. Flow= Staff calls or enters data on manged care site, a number of visits are authorized, patient is seen a certain number of times, then a reminder comes up reminding staff to call for more visits if needed.
12. maintaining and tracking insurance vs. patient responsibility(Sql-Ledger)
13. Export of Quickbooks compatable file for import by accountant(this would make him very happy) My bank does it, as well as my business credit cards
14. Inventory control would be handy, so when we sell an item to a patient or lease equipment we can track it.
15. Asterisk PBX integration(I know Walt has mentioned this at one point) Flow= Staff clicks on patient number, and her extension rings as the server is calling the patient. Each staff member would have to set their default extension on their admin page.
16. Patient appointment reminders When filling out their intake forms, the patient is asked how they prefer to be contacted about appointment reminders. They are presented with two options, e-mail, or phone. E-mail reminders will be automatic sent at the doctor specified amount of time before the appointment(this depends on the type of provider) I would send mine two days before. Or phone reminder, these could be automated asterisk calls where a pre-recorded hello this is Jamie from healthy clinic, calling to remind Festival speaks patients name in female voice(Jamie) about their appointment on festival speaks date and time of appointment. Or alternately could have Festival read the entire reminder script. Or the calls could be made by staff after they get the reminder from the EMR.
17. Patient Care Alert- When a provider/staff pulls up a patient in the EMR if they have a specific allergy or adverse condition to certain treatments a red bar shows across the record stating the alert. Example= a patient with a pacemaker comes in for physio therapy, another provider other then their usual provider sees the patient, and sees the care Alert saying not to use electric therapy over their chest. There are many examples where this is necessary, this is only one of them.
18. Integrated patient photograph on first screen that is pulled up on the patient. Flow= Staff uses a webcam attached to their workstation to take a picture of the patient, which is then attached to their chart. The next person to open their chart sees the patients picture when they first open the chart.
19. Electronic patient check-in- Patient comes to front desk and swipes their patient card with electronic strip, or use thumb print on biometric scanner. This checks them in to the clinic, and puts them on the list of patients to see next. When a room comes available the EMR either pops up asking the staff to take them back, or announces over the intercom, Jamie R. to room 2 please, once the patient enters the room, they swipe their card or thumb prints on the wall, which brings up their record for the provider.
20. Ability to produce letters, mailings, labels from patient demographics. We can do this now, but it involves a non-user friendly database extraction and import into openoffice.org.
21. Task management- Provider and staff members can set tasks for themselves/each other to remind of activities that need to be done.
22. Ability to chart payment by CPT Code- a report that shows what each CPT code is being paid at broken down by insurance company.