Patient information management

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We are getting bogged down with the amount of paperwork for Medicare patients. Medical practices send an initial letter requesting us joining a TCA - do you keep that document or have a way of managing the paperwork? This document doesn't contain medical information so Im unsure whether this can be shredded? We keep the referral & care plan in large folders. ANy advice appreciated?

 

I feel your pain.

I use electronic medical records. Could you just scan everything in to the patients file?

 

Thanks Phil. We are scanning some info. Havent gone paperless records yet as havent found a system that can meet our needs.

 

Hi Zac,

If you're looking for an electronic system, you might want to take a look at WriteUpp. In addition to electronic records and documentation, you can also scan and attach any information to the patient's record. The system also offers notes, assessments, billing, tasks, discharging and scheduling.

You can sign up for a free 30-day trial of WriteUpp here, and no debit or credit card is required.

I am one of the developers of WriteUpp, so I would be keen to know if it fits your requirements.

Regards,

Natalie

 

Hi Zac,
Thanks for the tread. Another option is Nookal which is totally paperless and allows you to records all the TCA information along with your notes in one system. I am actually a practitioner and helped develop this. If you register online I would love to show you around the system. It starts from only $55 AUD/month.
Regards
Darren

 

@Natlines and darren r: No doubt you have great products, but the constant thread hijacking is driving me nuts (joel won't be far behind in this thread either i'm sure). Whilst your posts are topical, The OP didn't on this occasion even ask about wanting a particular type of software?

I'll create a new thread topic - let all software spruikers go nuts in there and when people want to ask a question, it won't be be deviating the topic.

 

Zac,

The initial TCA agreement (that comes with fax return) usually contains the patient name and DOB? At least the ones I get do and therefore I would definitely think these need shredding?

Aside from electronic records systems, the one thing you could do to save storage is just scan them as PDF"s (or even JPG) and save them in an encrypted folder somewhere. Surely you have at least one computer? Backing up the drive once on site and a second time portable is probably no less safe than physical storage. But by the time you go to this trouble EMR will probably be quite decent.

If you are not that tech savvy, and that is a deterrent to scanning, (I doubt it given your posting here) keep in mind there are several scanners with software where you can physically "highlight" items on a page and the software detects the colour, and automatically creates keywords in their file. This means you don't even have to "rename" every file which would be tedious and painstaking. Eg. Highlight the patient and GP name on the documents, scan, Acrobat assigns the keywords. Search your PDF's via keywords and find those associated with the GP or patient. I think this is not too difficult to manage?

Additionally, a thing I've resorted to before- a hell of lot faster for many different document materials or itmes that don't scan throgh a doc feeder etc is setting up an SLR on a tripod above my documents, remote shutter release and take a pic of each document. NO document jams but tiring!

 

Thanks Bjorn, great advice. Is there a need to keep the initial document/GP request with patient name/DOB? Do you scan that?

I use PMS which works reasonably well but I have been looking around at the Cloud systems (Nookal, Cliniko etc) which I think have some real benefits but from what I have gleaned, they cannot at the moment manage things like electronic Medicare claiming which is a fairly major thing these days. My current PMS does, so I'll stick with that.

The paperwork for Medicare is getting out of hand for me so finding a better way to manage it is a big thing.

 

Is there any electronic way of GP's sending EPC/TCA info to us rather than via hardcopy?

 

There are secure email programs. problem is you've got to use the same one as the GP practice. And they cost money.

The thing I don't understand is this- I recieve 99% of referrals by Fax. If the GP practice accidently presses one wrong digit on their fax machine, the fax could go to anyone! That's not particularly secure! However, emails generally go to who they are sent. If the email address is wrong, they email bounces, and the sender is notified. I know email can be hacked, of course. But seriously! Who want's to know that you've got type 2 diabetes? Boring.

So, my point is, standard email is safer than faxing. Why not email correspondence?

 

Agreed Phil. I get to work each morning & some mornings there may be 3 or 4 new referrals (2 pages each referral). I sign them, fax them back. I am then sent the TCA which could be 7-8 pages. THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER SYSTEM :craig:

 

Zac,

Argus is reasonably commonly used in my local area - but still not universal. And then you've got to pay for it too. It may be a good option because it is reasonably reliable, but i've not looked into it too much yet.

Phil, I agree entirely. THings go in the mail, don't quite make the letter box and fly down the street..... same sort of thing really. How is email any different.

I'm in the process of trying to organise encrypted PDF's - giving each gp their own unique password.
However - the GP I am trialling it with is struggling to resave the file without encryption once he has got it.

 

Zac, it is ridiculous, but you can see why the paperwork keeps getting more and more though...... SO much rorting, the attempt to stop it is paperwork. Just look what happened to the dental scheme under EPC: Let's do $1500k worth of work, and bill it for $4k!!! And then when Medicare ask to see our treatment records, we refuse, and they don't have a leg to stand on. Great system isn't it (or wasn't it)

 

CDM net is best TCA system around http://precedencehealthcare.com/cdmnet/
Two way communication is very easy as is communication with all members of the care team. Emails let you know when then is new info and u can log on and respond. If any ,edict practices in your area ask you to sign up I suggest you do so.

 

It briefly sounds like you need a system that scans documents locally and then sends copies of those documents to a number of secure online services so that no matter what happens, you have your documents securely available whether you have an internet connection or not.

Do you mind letting me know what your needs are, Zac? There's a lot of software out there that can do probably do this for you. It doesn't even have to be suited around any type of practice management system so there may even be a completely free 3rd party solution for you.

Feel free to send me a message or reply here with what you need and I'll take a look for you.

Cheers
Ryan

 

Hi All.

Interesting topic. In my travels around Australia meeting with different health professionals, I've found there are lots of different systems to get this stuff organise.

The one that seems to have the best reputation is this OPMS (www.intracore.com.au/intracore)

If you'd like to have a chat with a podiatrist who uses this, let me know, I'll connect you.