drbowen wrote on Tuesday, March 04, 2008:
The "pub_id" was intended to keep track of the patient chart number. The pid is the actual computer unique ID number for a given patient. This "pub_id" does not have to be unique and was intended to assist practices transitioning from paper charts to electronic charts. I have tried to keep the pub_id = pid but in practice this is quite difficult.
It seems that the prescription generating code should be using "pub_id" since it reflects the patients "paper chart number".
It would be nice to be able search by either pub_id or pid. It is actually easier to identify the pid than the pub_id but the find function only looks for pud_id.
Sam Bowen, MD