1.9 Transferring Patient Records

We have been sending chart releases on CD by default for some time now. It is easy to do and saves us a fortune in paper, toner and mailing costs.

1) If the clinic you are sending the chart to is also OSCAR (or CMS3 compliant in ON), then you could presumably use the built-in chart export module. More about this once I have updated to OSCAR 10.06...

2) If the clinic you are sending the chart to is not (yet) running OSCAR, then do what we usually do, and do a PDF formatted chart export:
If you are running Ubuntu you already have all the software you need to do this. If you are running WindowsXP you need to first download and install the following free programs:
a) An open source disk burning program: http://infrarecorder.org/?page_id=5 (don't click on the Google banner add at the top by accident)
b) A "print to PDF" utility: http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp
c) A secure deleting or "shredding" utility: http://fileshredder.org/

COLLECT THE INFORMATION IN PDF FORMAT:
- Open eChart / Encounter Screen for relevant patient
- Click on the little print icon on the bottom right, make sure the "all" radio button is selected, click 'print". This creates an text search-able PDF file of all the information in the text scroll. Save this PDF file to your desktop with file name "John Doe old OSCAR progress notes"
- Click on the DOCUMENTS header to open the Document management system, check all the boxes on the left hand side next to all the documents, click "combine PDFs". This creates a single image PDF file for all the chart attachments. Save to desktop with file name "John Doe old OSCAR chart attachments"
-  Lab Results. In 9.06 there is no facility to open those altogether in one PDF, so you have to do them individually. Alternatively you could select the "grid display" option (hover mouse pointer over the plus sign) and "print-to-PDF" that
- E-forms: If you entered any patient info in eForms, then you need to open each one of those and "print to PDF"
- Flow-sheets; You could print-to-PDF those too to make it pretty, but the information in them is already documented in the text scroll
- Prescriptions: You can open the prescription view, click on "print" at the top, and then "show all" at the bottom of the list, and then "print" button at the top again. Print to PDF. However, if the doctors click "print & submit" every time they prescribe then the info is already in the text scroll. Depends if you want to make it nice

BURN TO DISC:
- In Ubuntu, all you do is stick a blank CD in the drive, drag all the above information into the window that opens automatically and click "burn to CD".
- In Windows you need to use Infra-recorder you installed above. The GUI is VERY easy to use and intuitive.
- Label CD correctly with sharpie marker, stick in addressed CD envelope marked confidential, and stick in the mail

DESTINATION CLINIC will then open the CD and attach all the the PDFs you made to the patient chart in whatever EMR system they are using, or they can just print them out. We get frequent comments from other clinics that they like the fact that they don't have to deal with a stack of paper that has to be scanned and uploaded. We did get one CD returned to us with a comment that "this clinic doesn't use computers" and can we please send it to them on paper...:(...can't please everybody.

DELETE INFO OFF YOUR NETWORK PC: You don't want patient files lying around on your network. Make sure you delete all the patient information off the network computer you burnt the CD with. And then be sure to "shred" the files in your recycle bin. (Ubuntu users can use "BleachBit" or the Nautilus plugin)

Have fun burning CDs.