ChiroPulse365 Chiropractic Software Blog

This highly requested feature is now now ready for your office! (database level 5.11+)

From the patient’s Careplan you can select a careplan entry – for example “3 times weekly starting 11/1/2009 through 11/15/2009” – and quickly schedule multiple appointments for a patient directly to scheduler, while picking the preferred time/dates. This feature is useful for all practice types, from cash-only to personal injury since it allows rapid appointment entry & the quick printing of these appointments for the patient. It nicely integrates the clinical Careplans with the clerical Scheduler & visit posting.

You can block schedule the following Careplan entries: Daily, Daily AM/PM, Weekly. Other intervals can more easily be cloned. Click the careplan entry (ie. 10/01 Weekly entry selected below) then click the “Block Schedule” link to see the block schedule careplan overlay.

block schedule directly using careplan entries!

From the careplan you can see the “block scheduled” appointments and mass-delete them (all except kept appointments) if something has changed! You can also see which careplan entries were block scheduled or are eligible for block-scheduling.

careplan printout for the patient

Shown above is the improved careplan report that now features a list of future appointments for the patient. This can be printed directly from the Careplan editor or Scheduler to reinforce the care your patient will be receiving.

Team Pulse New Features appointment, careplan, preschedule

You might be thinking… did I miss it… what happened to database level 5.08?  No worries, we had several refreshes at database level 5.08 for in-house and on-site testing for our Document Management System (now available)! While our Document system was being tested extensively we made even more changes &  additions so that we were able to jump to  database level 5.09 for public release

Changes in this Refresh:

• Image & Document Management System & Index – ChiroPulse365 now features a fully indexed document file-management system that links any computer file to your patient database. You simply view/find the computer file (document, audio, video, picture, PDF, etc.) then tag it by patient, description, date, & keywords as well as optionally link it to a treating doctor, referring doctor, claim and/or lawyer. This lets you instantly retrieve, view, edit or print the linked file from any computer in your office or network running ChiroPulse365 – including wireless netbooks! For more info, an overview & instructions see our blog entry here: http://chiropulse.com/blog/?p=214
  Image viewer tweaks from pre-release versions (database level 5.08):
  • When launching from CTRL-D from MyOffice (before a patient was selected in Patient Finder), the Document system always recognizes the patient whose files are loaded, otherwise displays a message to “select patient” (CTRL-D from MyOffice)
  • When importing documents, file cleanup is now enabled by default. This moves the file from the temporary location to your PulseSQL/images/200x/xx subfolder. If the file is in use (ie. being read by an external editor/viewer) you will be prompted to close the file then retry. If the file is not closed import will be cancelled to retry later.
  • After importing a file, a placeholder image or text appears so you can visualize that import was successful
  • When tagging, the last used keywords, tags, descriptions, etc. are stored so you can quickly tag similar documents. For example you can now easily add several MRI or x-ray reports from the day or week (that arrived via fax, etc.). Clear button added to wipe clean the tagger window to enter new descriptions, tags, etc.

manage, tag & track files & documents for your patients

• Balance Bill – improved logic & tweaks made when Balance Billing (CTRL-N from Invoice Log) to recreate an ANSI-837 EDI file. This will ensure the subbatch/EDI file is overwritten with the refreshed data.
• Appointment Waiting Notifier – dramatically improved to show the actual patients that are “waiting” names as well as the arrival time which is now recorded when the patient is marked waiting. This will let you see which patients are ready & which ones were on time, late, etc. when deciding who might go next when overlapping appointments.

scheduler waiting notifies you when patients are ready

• Preferred Options – new tab added named “For This PC” which shows all customizations available per individual ChiroPulse365 computer in your office. Most of the Preferred Options are set per office (shared between all users on a network), ChiroPulse365 also allows customization for each actual user’s computer in your office as well!

MyPC tab in Preferred Options to review settings.

• Scheduler – per computer setting choose how co-pays are displayed. You can see the estimated copay dollar value, the * asterisk, or hide copays and see an x instead (to signify they are hidden).

scheduler popup menu choices for setting copay view

• Scheduler Appointment Creation – Prompt which doctor to use when adding an appointment when the selected slot does not match the patient’s default treating doctor. You can quickly select either doctor, without interruption or further slot selection. Soon Global Preferences will be added to allow you customize the prompts & actions.

more prompts when entering patients

• Patient Finder/Tab – ChiroPulse365 now remembers the patient info mode selected (below the claim icon/box) for each computer. For older computers, wireless computers (wireless-N only) or mid-range computers running Windows Vista we recommend using “None” if performance switching between patients is not crisp. Each computer in your office can have it’s own setting.

Patient Finder (CTRL+F to search patient quickly) patient info choices

• Patient Finder/Tab – When new claims are added or deleted (from any of the several ways… claim finder, claim clone, add new patient, claim wizard, etc.) the Patient Finder will always be refreshed to show the actual claims and to select the new or last used claim. This will allow you to always work on the correct claim, without having to “refresh” the page/window.
• Billing Wizard homepage. Buttons enabled for “Bill all unpaid balances” & “Reinvoice unpaid invoices“. Some invoice generation housekeeping was done to allow older/slower computers to handle such large invoicing tasks. For large practices (or with offices who do not “close out” and zero balance with non-collectible or write-offs), these tasks are best done end-of-day or at lunch to allow the computer time to run as the processes can take several minutes.
• TaskManager – correctly launches the Claim Wizard when editing claim data instead of a smaller data window. This is more useful when working with claims.
• ANSII-837 EDI output & customization added per clearinghouse for all insurers. Logic was added to allow future customization for clearinghouses who want non-standard submission for data Loops. Customization field added to Clearinghouse editor where you can input the commands (see link below) and desired text or box removal (for every carrier & claim going to that clearinghouse. Note that similar features were previously made availalbe to customize for individual insurers. This new method allows you to avoid having to edit many PINs & insurance companies to get the correct EDI submission. (ChiroPulse365 @ database level 5.09 or higher).
• Other Scheduler improvements – tweaks & improvements regarding slots & selection
  • You can now “Delete Slot”using right-click popup over the open slot (this will be available when deleting appointments from appt. editor soon!).
  • You can now “Insert Slot” using right-click popup over the open slot
  • New Appointment creation when selecting an existing appointment. Pressing the new appointment button brings up the Patient Finder where you will select the patient them immediately select the slot (or create a new slot). You will then see the appointment editor to save or make any changes to codes, notes, etc.
  • After an appointment is saved you can no longer change the patient assigned to that slot. If you made a mistake simply delete the appointment (and optionally the slot if you want). This eliminates confusion and error when staff changes appointments instead of marking No Show, Cancelled or Rescheduled for those patients. Remember when working with a patient’s appointment you mark kept, cancelled, no-show or when they arrive waiting then treating.
  • When marking an appointment No Show, Cancelled or Rescheduled a replacement slot is inserted (so that the room is available saving time from having to insert a slot)
  • When marking an appointment “rescheduled” there is now better prompts telling what was done (appointment status set as “rescheduled”) and what you need to do next (choose the new time/date for this appointment).
  • “Find future appointments for this patient” added to the right-click popup menu > patient submenu & the top “Open Patients…” menu.

  

Team Pulse New Features, Refresh Refresh

ChiroPulse365 now features a fully indexed document file-management system that links any computer file to your patient database. You simply view/find the computer file (document, audio, video, picture, PDF, etc.) then tag it by patient, description, date, & keywords as well as optionally link it to a treating doctor, referring doctor, claim and/or lawyer. This lets you instantly retrieve, view, edit or print the linked file from any computer in your office or network running ChiroPulse365 – including wireless netbooks!

When working with any patient (for example from  Patient Finder Tab) you will see a list of documents – such as MRI results from 2/2009, blood tests, faxes, word processor files – that were linked to this patient. Thus keeping your patient files totally organized & always at your fingertips!

Here is walk-through for this powerful new feature & tool for your office.

You can use the file viewer to quickly view many types of audio, video & data files directly from ChiroPulse365. In this example you are viewing the PATIENT-DATA folder and the (blurred for privacy) & highlighted PDF file is visible.

The file viewer has two modes or ways to be used. One to Browse & Tag images and the second to View Patient Images (that were already tagged). Use the top button bar to switch between Browse mode & Patient Image mode. In both modes the left panel shows a list of files/documents which can quicky be viewed in the large left space. When a patient is selected in Scheduler or Patient Finder, the document viewer opens to View Patient Images mode so you can quickly see all patient documents.

The picture above shows Browse mode where the left panel has buttons to navigate to a network folder or mapped drive as well as the folder tree view below where you can navigate the selected folder/drive/share.

Don’t let computers confuse you! Think of your computer & it’s data storage area(s) as a large file cabinet. This storage cabinet can have several drawers, which in computer terms are drives. Within each drive (drawers) there can be several folders. Within each folder there are documents (ie. files). A computer document is called a data “file” since it is readable by anyone on the computer. Note that some computer files are programs or hidden as part of Windows. Document files can come in various formats, each identified by a 3 or 4 digit extension. For example .DOC is a word document, whereas .PDF is an acrobat portable document file, whereas .JPG is a graphical image file. All of these are files/documents. Documents can be multiple pages if stored in formats such as Word Processor or better yet Acrobat PDF format. Pictures  are considered one-page documents.

show all file types & external viewer options

Use the folder tree-view and network drive box to first find the folder where the computer file is stored that you want to tag & import. Then simply click the file in the list directly below (blurred for privacy in this example) to immediately view the document. While viewing the file you want to import press the Import Document button. This brings up the Image tagger window so that you can identify the document & link it to a patient, claim, treating doctor & more!

Read more…

Team Pulse New Features document, document management, file, image

Netbooks are an exciting new class of ultra-portable laptops that are small, light, well priced, that run Windows & ChiroPulse365! Yes indeed, Pulse Software now offers ChiroPulse365 products that support these “Netbooks”! We have been testing the Dell Mini-9 (shown above next to a medium coffee) using Wireless-N wifi network connections with great result.

Wireless Use of ChiroPulse365 with Laptops & Netbooks Read more…

Team Pulse New Features Computer, dell mini, hardware, netbook, notes, Scheduler, wifi, wireless

We’re going to try and Blog each ChiroPulse365 Refresh from here on out, to visualize some changes. For a complete list of changes please see the Member Center and/or from MyOffice open the “Recent Additions” printable file!

We are releasing a second Refresh in March because we anticipate our next Refresh will be a significant one with database level jump to allow for our Image & Document Managment System to be introduced.

Changes in this Refresh:

Travelcard startup configuration - new menu added

Travelcard – “Set Travelcard Startup…” new top menu added with keyboard shortcut Alt-T.  This lets you select which note type to view & load when opening Travelcard, for each computer. Previously the “SOAP Note” was automatically viewed, then more recently “ChiroCare”. Now you can decide, per computer what you want to view when Travelcard is opened!

Image/File/Document Viewer – audio/video files now appear in the file list, including .MP3, .WMV, .WMA. .MOV & more

Patient Invoice-1 margins tweaked to better accommodate dot-matrix printers.

Enhanced Scheduler Window

• “Open Patient’s Travelcard…” new top menu added with keyboard shortcut Alt-P. This lets you quickly open TravelCard for the selected patient, with less mouse movement or clicks. This is also featured in the ChiroPulse365 Notes & Scheduler Edition for computers or Netbooks!
• Scheduler window should now always properly open in the Top Upper Left corner of your Windows Desktop. Previously it might have been opened slightly above under certain scenarios.
• “Document Viewer…” new top menu added with keyboard shortcut Alt-D. This lets you quickly open the Document/Image viewer to see all computer files & documents indexed to the selected patient. From there you can quickly read/view, print or externally edit these documents. You can index new documents as well.

New Scheduler top menu items (ChiroPulse365 & Windows 7 beta)

Netbook Visual Mode Enabled – when you login to ChiroPulse365 you can now check “netbook mode” to use ChiroPulse365 on Netbooks with 1024×600 or 1024×576 video screen resolution.

ChiroPulse365 Netbook Visual Mode can be turned on from the login window

end of document

Team Pulse New Features, Refresh file management, netbook, patient invoice 1, Refresh, Scheduler, travelcard

We just launched our web blog (i.e blog) to help us stay in better touch with your office! Let us share some exciting things happening with ChiroPulse365.

1. ChiroPulse365 will soon feature a fully indexed document file-management system that links any computer file to your patient database. You simply view/find the computer file (document, audio, video, picture, PDF, etc.) then tag it by patient, description, date, & keywords as well as optionally link it to a treating doctor, referring doctor, claim and/or lawyer. This lets you instantly retrieve, view, edit or print the linked file from any computer in your office or network running ChiroPulse365 – including wireless netbooks!

When working with any patient (for example from  Patient Finder Tab) you will see a list of documents – such as MRI results from 2/2009, blood tests, faxes, word processor files – that were linked to this patient. Thus keeping your patient files totally organized & always at your fingertips!  – This is in beta testing at select sites since February, 2009. Read more…

Team Pulse New Features, Scheduler document, file management, image, preschedule, Scheduler