Problems /Bugs in the Offsite Portal

arnabnaha wrote on Tuesday, August 28, 2012:

Hi…
I have posted two bugs of the offsite Portal…
1. Approval problem of the appointments due from the portal activity screen of the EMR

LINK: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=3562211&group_id=60081&atid=493001#

2. The editing of demographics in the mydocs portal page is not working. The demographics form is not displaying along with the info of the patient .

LINK: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3562322&group_id=60081&atid=493001

Thanks
Arnab Naha

bradymiller wrote on Wednesday, August 29, 2012:

Hi Arnab,
Just forwarded your post to Z&H. Guessing they will weigh in soon.
-brady
OpenEMR

zhhealthcare wrote on Monday, October 01, 2012:

Hi Arnab/Brady,
The bugs in the patient portal are rectified.  The code ‘require_once("$srcdir/csv_like_join.php");’ threw a fatal error.

We have changed the line 51 of the file ‘openemr\custom\code_types.inc.php’ from ‘require_once("$srcdir/csv_like_join.php");’ to ‘require_once(dirname(__FILE__)."/…/library/csv_like_join.php");’.That fixed the bugs.

We are also bringing in a new feature to the portal wherein you can select from the HTML or Layout based forms to show in the patient portal to enable the patient to input data. The provider can determine which forms to be shown on patient portal side. We have submitted a table alteration.We will be submitting some modifications to the code contained in server_side.php soon.

GitHub path : https://github.com/zhhealthcare/openemr/tree/Bug_fixes

Thanks and Regards,
Teny Korah
ZH Healthcare
www.zhhealthcare.com 

bradymiller wrote on Thursday, October 04, 2012:

Hi Teny,
I only committed the bug fix (left out form stuff until the full feature is ready) to sourceforge and included it in the 4.1.1 patch.
thanks,
-brady
OpenEMR

manxmen wrote on Sunday, October 07, 2012:

Hi Brady,

Thanks everyone for the recent repair to the offsite  portal.

We are experiencing problem with Offsite Patient Portal. http://mydocsportal.com/portal-site/patient_registration.php. In South Africa Medical Insurance uses different terminology like Primary Medical Scheme instead of Primary Medical Insurance, Member Number rather than Policy Number, etc. In server side OpenEMR we use language facilities to change terminology - works great. However, in portal side, the Insurance Headings appear to be hard coded. Other Demographic info is fine as it comes from tables. Any idea how we can overcome this issue especially as it is the patient interface - patients are confused.

We would be very interested to find out about the existing way documents are integrated via the offsite portal and the proposed methodology - “left out form stuff until the full feature is ready”.

Many thanks
Terry

manxmen wrote on Sunday, October 07, 2012:

Hi Brady,

Since gaining access to the offsite portal we are experiencing several major issues:

1: Creating a New Patient

Have selected the appropriate settings to allow demographics, new patients must be approved, etc, then proceeded to create a new patient.

After entering Provider ID, patient is served Patient Regisatration

1.1 After completeing indepth demographic information you are asked to complete Login Details befare submitting.After entering password and confirmation password - System asks to confirm password which is already confirmed.

1.2 Message Data Saved - Says you can start filling the documents - What documents does this refer to.

1.3 But despite the “saved” message - Record does not appear anywhere either waiting approval or as a created patient.

2. Edit Existing Patient
Have selected the appropriate settings to allow demographics, changes to patients must be approved, etc, then proceeded to edit a patient.

2.1 Edit profile demographics  and “save” - FAILS Patient with same SS number and DOB exists
2,2 The error message is hard coded and does not use the field names in the table SS is a USA term, we use ID or Passport number and translate in language facilities.

3. Being unable to create or update a record we then tried to set an appointment for existing patient.
3.1 Portal displays and appointment OK when created server side BUT
3.2 Portal allows you to chose facility, date and time - then when you press “go” nothing seems to happen, The appointment does not appear anywhere.

4. Documents and Forms - there does not appear to be any documentation!

5: Have tried touching base with ZHhealthcare via the portal contact facility - never receive any response and are not sure if that facility or email actually works.

This is a brilliant facility that really adds breadth to the exisiting OpenEMR functionality. Any assistance would be welcome.

Kind regards
Terry

bradymiller wrote on Monday, October 08, 2012:

Hi Terry,

The offsite portal is managed by Z&H Healthcare; they generally respond here, but may help if you contact them directly:
http://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/OpenEMR_Professional_Support#Z.26H_Healthcare_Solutions.2C_LLC.

-brady
OpenEMR

zhhealthcare wrote on Monday, October 08, 2012:

Hi Manxmen and Terry

Please make sure your installations are up to date.  One of the first things you do is to test the patient portal with OpenEMR Demo site.  This will confirm if there is any installation bugs or the patch update issues. 

Once you confirm those issues occurring in the official demo site, it is alright to post your concerns here in this forum and also to email us directly sam@zhservices.com.

We will look at the issue reported and figure our the best way to help out. 

Thanks
Teny

manxmen wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

Thank you Brady and Tenny for your responses.

We have been trying to touch base with ZHservices for some time and have left messages via the Patient Portal Contact-Us page, emails to sam@zhservices.com and also this forum.

We are not naive to systems testing, as your response suggests Tenny, and are only trying to resolve issues with the system to the benefit all using OpenEMR. Your reference to testing using DEMO sites is academic as they do not appear to work.

1: We are unable to locate the source for the portal end of the offsite patient portal, making it difficult to test the source other than view the source of the served webpage which is not appropriate.

2: DEMO Sites

2.1  – please take a look at this web page http://open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/OpenEMR_Version_4.1.1_Demo and note the comment Patient Portal Link For Patient

• https://mydocsportal.com
• THIS PORTAL IS CURRENTLY NOT WORKING, BUT IT SHOULD BE BACK UP SOON

Perhaps the patch including the recent repair to the Offsite Portal system should be applied. Anyone using the “STABLE” is prevented from using the Offsite Portal unless the patch is applied.

2.2 The development DEMO does not work – asking for SOAPS to be enabled.

3 Without the benefit of DEMO sites we are relegated to report problems as we find them on our own site.

3.1 We are using:
• OpenEMR  the latest version of 4.1.1 with patch 6 installed
• Ubuntu 11.10 (GNU/Linux 3.0.0-12-server x86_64)
• PHP Version 5.3.6-13
• MYSQL Server version: 5.1.58

3.2 DOCUMENTS – There exists a facility for patients to complete, sign and submit documents. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any documentation or examples. Please refer to https://sourceforge.net/projects/openemr/forums/forum/202506/topic/5645019?message=12048961

3.3 PATIENT REGISTRATION – with settings to “APPROVE” before adding or updating database.

3.3.1 Simplified Demographics option: Omits Insurance information from demographics. Offsite Portal still serves Insurance information for completion, irrespective of setting,

3.3.2 Save: After completing a record and saving – Portal submits record to server. Portal then serves the newly entered demographics form and allows you to change it. Let’s say you add Middle name then submit it. Portal submits record to server, and then serves a blank demographics form. SERVER SIDE: Two (2) new records are created automatically without any option to approve – PID 1 and PID 2.

3.3.3 Validation: Portal DOES NOT check required fields only those fields selected as “required” in the in the demo demographics. When attempting to edit new record SERVER SIDE, all missing fields are highlighted. Problem being that patient can enter what they want with little or no validation.

3.3.4 List Box with ADD: The option to add fields does not exist. Consequently, patients are unable to add information in these fields.

3.3.5 Hard Coding: SERVER SIDE forms are language driven – BUT the Portal is NOT. Error messages for fields, and more importantly, ALL insurance field names are coded to the default settings.

3.3.6 Activate CCR/CCD Reporting: Omits CCR/CCD Reporting. Offsite Portal still serves CCR/CCD reports irrespective  of setting.

These are a few of the basic problems observed.

Kind regards
Terry

yehster wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

1: We are unable to locate the source for the portal end of the offsite patient portal, making it difficult to test the source other than view the source of the served webpage which is not appropriate.

ZH Healthcare is decidedly bad about sharing source code.

The offsite portal is a “separate” module so I’m not sure if it falls under the purview of the GPL. However it would be nice if they were to share.

zhhealthcare wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

We did touch base, Terry, and I informed you that we are working on the bug.  We submitted the fix to brady and he was going to include it in a patch.   If you need guidance I can do a gotomeeting or teamviewer session with you and clarify any doubts.  If you want I can have a gotomeeting session posted on this forum for anyone interested in the portal.

Brady is the one to fix the message on the Wiki.  I have neither any role nor influence there.

I will send you a document on the PDF portion.  If there was an option to attach a file in this forum I would.

The offsite portal is a private endeavor of ours and we are working on it the best we can.  We provide this service for free for people who wants something different than the onsite portal.  It is not necessarily better than the onsite portal.   We are yet to implement the language translations and other enhancements on it.   If you wish to fund those requirements we will be happy to do those. 

The code is not available for the off site portal but the code for the onsite portal is available to those who want to customize requirements. 
Thanks
Sam

yehster wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

Brady is the one to fix the message on the Wiki. I have neither any role nor influence there.

Brady is not the sole maintainer of the wiki.  He is certainly the most prolific, but access is available upon request.

zhhealthcare wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

Yehster

Anyone with access can change the sign which says the site is down.  I don’t want to get into any of those politics any more.  Been there and been burnt bad.  So we will suffice with submitting the bugfix and hope that helps.

If terry wants he can apply the fix submitted to his local install and make it work.

Sam

manxmen wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

Guys,

We are talking apples and oranges here!

The fix “require_once(dirname(__FILE__).”/…/library/csv_like_join.php" made available last week by ZHservices fixed the problem of access to the portal from SERVER-SIDE. Sam informed us 3 weeks ago that they were sorting that particular issue. But that fix was not applied to the DEMO system.

However, our source and system is up-to-date with the latest fix and patch (4.1.1. (6)) so we can access the portal system, run tests and report what are new problems to us and our user experiences to ZHservices, The new problems appear to be a mixture of bugs and limitations for which we hoped to get clarification. However, ZHservices informed us that we should reproduce the errors on the DEMO system before reporting the problems. The CATCH 22 being that the you can not access the demo system without the “require_once(dirname(__FILE__).”/…/library/csv_like_join.php" fix.

The objective was not to offend ZHservices but assist by reporting problems. If the problems are unknown they can not be fixed!

The Portal is “open use” rather than “open source” making it difficult to assist ZHservices with debugging and enhancements, consequently, we can only report our user experiences. If the portal was open source it would benefit from the extensive development and user base with regards to maintenance and support., rather than reliance on the lone goodwill of ZHservices

Vote of thanks to Sam and his team as the portal is a brilliant addition to OpenEMR and ALL the tincredible contributors of ZHservices and ALL the other developers to the OpenEMR project…

Kind regards
Terry

zhhealthcare wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

Terry
We are not offended one bit.  Well… except when people say we are

decidedly bad about sharing source

We welcome your comments and we will do our best to enhance that portal as much as possible.  We need your comments and suggestions.  The timeline for implementing those will be dictated by our priorities unless someone offers to fund it.  Right now we are working on having the ability to share the html forms and the layout based forms in the portal so that people don’t have to go with adobe designer.  Another priority is video consult via the portal.

Also, quite honestly, we neglected to consider the language option: our mistake.    We hope to fix it. 

But please do not shy away from giving suggestions or constructive criticisms. 

Thanks and regards
Sam

yehster wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

Here is a list of features you have touted to have which DO fall under GPL back in January, which we have yet to see any source code on.

From what we have implemented and are working on we dont see any major database modifications to add the following features:
Line item based CPT
Simple reports
Insurance data-changes
Head of household option
Guarantor Option
multiple primary insurance
Insurance grouping
Specialty forms
Front office receiving payments towards, current, previous or future(prepays) encounters.
All copays will be moved to the ar_activity table moving forward without affecting the previous copays entered in the billing table.
Change the code in the fee sheet for the copay to be posted to the ar_activity table.

http://www.oemr.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=97&start=10

zhhealthcare wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

Kevin
You should really check your facts.  the copays, front office, speciality forms et cetera have all been submitted.  Go back and take some time to check those. Some of the stuff like line item based billig has practical issues when tested.  The point is at least we are making an effort and are contributing stuff. 

And what does GPL have to do with contributions?

What exactly are YOU contributing other than denigrating people who do.  Why would anyone in their right mind contribute and get abused in public. 

yehster wrote on Wednesday, October 10, 2012:

Does the GPL require that source code of modified versions be posted to the public? (#GPLRequireSourcePostedPublic)

    The GPL does not require you to release your modified version, or any part of it. You are free to make modifications and use them privately, without ever releasing them. This applies to organizations (including companies), too; an organization can make a modified version and use it internally without ever releasing it outside the organization.

    But if you release the modified version to the public in some way, the GPL requires you to make the modified source code available to the program’s users, under the GPL.

    Thus, the GPL gives permission to release the modified program in certain ways, and not in other ways; but the decision of whether to release it is up to you.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLRequireSourcePostedPublic

bradymiller wrote on Thursday, October 11, 2012:

Hi,

The OpenEMR open source community is comprised of of a variety of volunteers, developers, vendors and companies with a wide array of plans and motivations (Both ZH Healthcare and Yehster have contributed to OpenEMR and have been open about their plans and motivations). Please be respectful to each other and strive to maintain a high level of professionalism on the forums.

Additionally, the wiki is open for anybody to contribute to.

Thanks,
-Brady
OpenEMR