Hello everyone,

It was great to meet alot of you at the conference this past weekend. I have a question and I thought I'd post it here before annoying tech support for the answer.

We have a PM that does not interface with AC (which will hopefully be rectified) however, we're trying to import the patient demographics over. Some of them were successfully imported with the utility, however the insurance information did not come over. Can I use the csv file my current PM has and import that into AC using the importer utility without screwing up all the patient files that are already active and in use? Will the data find the right patient? Or do I need to be doing this with manual data entry?

Please help!

Hello there! Share your name so I can put a face with your codename (if you don't mind)!

The demographics are imported "en masse", so if you try to re-import and include your insurance information, I think you will have a mess, UNLESS you want to risk performing a synchronization of your files.

Using this technique, you would save your current database, then create a NEW database using the new .csv file, then you would attempt to combine them. I would only allow a trained professional to pull something like this. I would not try it with the Amazing Synch tool.

You need to ask how much it would be worth to you.

All that being said, go ahead and call Tech Support and see what they say (and share it with us!).

It always seems like such an insurmountable task, but once you get going, all the charts are finished and you have more and more time to apply to other projects.

Thanks Brian,

And I'm Carolie - One of the many that you sat and helped at the conference. Blond hair, wore a black running jacket pretty much every day. =)

Looks like I'm going to be doing alot of data entry (ugh), so Brian, if you're done with your wrist guards, think I'm next in line for needing them! lol

I remember you, Carolie!

The kind of synchronization you are considering is not impossible, but I would get a trained professional to do it.

The regular Amazing Synch will not do the job, but a programmer who knows relational databases could probably create a Query that would combine the data.

I would try AC technical support and see if Carlos is willing to give it a try. If not, I think there are outside contractors who could help you for a price.

Any of our resident experts want to chime in here?

I'm glad you remember me Brian =) You're a hard man to forget. I'm one of those type people who tries really hard to figure something out and do it on my own before I resort to tech support - lol. I consider anything I can't do a mystery and I don't like to leave mysteries unsolved. Guess that's how I ended up in this roll. My staff are in a PANIC about switching to AC and its hard to pull them back and reassure them that this program is very simple and user friendly and it just requires not looking for it to be as complicated as what we're currently using.
I don't trust my network guy to do the data conversion, there are some things that he's fantastic about, but not this. I'll talk to carlos about it. Thanks!!

Dr. Martin -

That is the key! Its a train of thought that I think people have a hard time grasping. I can restate over and over that this is going to be a long process and we all have to be patient and understand that it will happen a little bit at a time. Charts will get scanned and imported gradually, and as this process occurs, there's going to come a day where suddenly its all done and we'll be wondering what to do with all our free time. (pictures the millions of projects I'll be assigning with glee)

CJ361, so true.
We started with the old charts 3 years ago when we realized that whatever EMR we selected would not use the old chart. Then we went live with AC last year and began culling the least valuable active charts, (only one visit, scan to AC, three thick volumes, scan one and two into the storage system) This has been continuing as staff have the time, and they have more time, because of how AC handles the filing. While I was in Branson we had more people with free time and I was stunned to see a lot more shelves of charts are empty!! We have basically 32 shelves that are 3 feet long and now only 18 of them still have charts, and when those are gone we will be 'chartless' (as opposed to paperless). It was all done in spare time. NO OVERTIME.

Carolie,

My PM program does not interface either. When I first started using AC my staff simply spent any free time re-entering the data into AC. They pulled the charts for the next day and entered those in first. All my old info has now long ago been put in AC and they only have to duplicate entry for new patients. It's a pain but not impossible, especially if they know how to cut and paste.

Leslie

Hi, I'm one of the AC newbies who attended the conf. I was the bearded alaskan with the good looking wife. John & Miriam Nolte.

I have a couple related questions - I am considering using Instant Medical History ( I know Brian you didn't like them but I think I'm going to still give it a shot). They have an interface with my PMR and AC has an interface with IMH so I should be able to import demographics and maybe ins info correct?

The other ? is as follows: I just got a bid to scan 500,000 pages of charts over 3 months for $25K. Because the reason I'm going with a EMR ASAP is I can't keep 3yrs of charts on the shelves and I plan to use the shelve space to start a full in office Rx dispensing, I know I shouldn't import all that stuff into AC but pull over only what I need when I need it. Any thoughts as to where to store the data - on the same server with AC or on a separate computer? Bert, would your file program be helpful?

John

It somewhat depends on your urgency for the space, but see DocMartin's note above.

My staff scanned about 2000 inactive charts over a 3-4 month period without extra time. I got 2 high speed fujitsu scanners off ebay for about $75.00 a piece.

The information can remain on the same server.

Try FAP! Ask Berk who seems to be green around the gills or so say the smiley faces next to our names.....

The key to survival in business is to optimization and efficiency. If the paper chart space can be used to generate additional income (dispensing medications), then it makes cents to not go slowly but get the things scanned and done. If staff have "extra time" to scan thousands of charts, then office efficiency hasn't been achieved.