[Patient Module] After hours centre accessing records

Submitted by Jimvet on Tue, 04/04/2006 - 08:54

General User's Discussion

One feature that has been on my mental "wish list" for years is the ability for after hours centres to access patient history at the referring practice (but not financials). This would allow better management of after hours cases that have complex histories or medical regimes. It is probably my key concern in referring after hours cases to other centres. Are there any plans for this feature on openvpms ? (Hope this is the appropriate forum).

RE:After hours centre accessing records

Submitted by tony on Tue, 04/04/2006 - 18:42.

Hi Jim, I have moved your post into the Patient module forum as this is the module that manages patient medical records. The system as designed will easily cater for remote access to the patient medical record and sufficient security to only allow readOnly access if required for specific users and restrict access to other practice managemnet system functions i.e financials, schedules etc. I think in time the industry will also develop interfaces that will allow two way transfer of electronic medical records. With an open software system such as OpenVPMS this is more likely to progress faster. Regards Tony

Re: After hours centre accessing records

Submitted by PeterG on Fri, 07/04/2006 - 09:48.

how would this cut with privacy laws fellas? Aren't we supposed to maintain confidential records. It's presumed that when you refer a case that that patient's history will be shared but that's all. We would have to have logins that only allowed access to specific clinical records wouldn't we Jim?

Legal issues

Submitted by Jimvet on Fri, 07/04/2006 - 21:31.

I am glad to have initiated this discussion. I am not being facetious, but the patient welfare is my primary goal (though I can see your point re privacy which didn't occur to me). Having worked in after hours referral centres, I have been frustrated by patchy histories and inadequate detail on previous management which has compromised treatment. I think most owners would appreciate the service, although it would be worth asking them if they would like the remote access feature to be activated or not (if possible).

Re: After hours centre accessing records

Submitted by PeterG on Sat, 08/04/2006 - 20:27.

You're right,perhaps if we had authority to give access, it may be able to be arranged although perhaps you would still go low tech and use hard copy or perhaps have an ability to email straight off the history to the referral clinic. Peter

Re: After hours centre accessing records

Submitted by Matt C on Mon, 10/04/2006 - 00:05.

Hi guys, I don't think this would be a privacy issue. Except in scenario 3. Scenario 1. Unsolicited referral Ie. Client walks in from street without referral. In this context, if the referral clinic has permission from the clinic to directly view histories, then the only requirement is permission from owner. I am sure that could be obtained and documentation of such consent recorded in the medical record. Scenario 2. Referral from clinic Such issues would presumerably be raised prior to referral. Ie. "We are referring you to blah blah. Is it OK that we give full access to your history to the referring clinic?". If they weren't client permission can be obtained as above. Scenario 3. Unsolicted referral checking out a client history without permission. For what ever reason this may occur (checking comments re finances etc) and despite being unlikely, this potential is of concern. I would think it is readily addressed by logging all requests for history from a remote clinic and creating a report that can be reconciled by the primary record holder. Most importantly notifying the user requesting the info that the request is being logged and that client permission is required for legality should be an adequate deterrent for abuse and provide means to address abuse if this did not deter. Matt

email generator form

Submitted by MikeH (not verified) on Sun, 23/04/2006 - 14:21.

Hi guys, I think this issue may be in the 3rd party support's domain, but perhaps a solution is to have a referral generator. This would take the form of a screen which would have to be filled out with certain compulsory fields such as person requesting, person authorising & relationship (sic) to patient, destination vet/practice, staff member filling out the form, method of obtainment of authorisation (ie phone, in person, ...) etc etc Once this data is filled out to requirement, the email could be sent. If litigation becomes ever more frequent, I guess even a sound recording of voice authorisation or even an image of signature signed on a PDA type screen & attached to the email could be considered. Mike H

Simple solutions are often the best

Submitted by Matt C on Sun, 23/04/2006 - 18:41.

I think Mikes idea is a great one. In database speak, a simple query that pulls a set of data according to certain defaults, formats them, then drops it into an email attachment that aoutomatically opens as a new email in the resident email client is easily feasible. There would be no limit to what data could be exchanged. More imprtantly, as all good referral centres will be running OpenVPMS, an import feature at the other end could import the bundled info straight into their VPMS. Lastly, any referral reports could be sent in similiar fashion and imported directly into the clients records (automatically even!). This bypasses all those hairy issues of realtime netowrk permissions and accesss issues. Matt

[Patient Module] After hours centre accessing records

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