April, 2001 Newsletter

WELFORD CHART NOTES

NEWSLETTER

Volume 18, No. 4 April, 2001

APPOINTMENT REMINDER POSTCARDS (User's Manual, pgs. 626-628)

Version 3.9 lets you print reminder letters or postcards from the Appointment Scheduler, to remind patients of their upcoming appointments and thus reduce the number of no-shows in your practice. (Note that this is completely separate from the Recalls function, which sends reminders to patients who are overdue for visits, and the Rule Reminder Scan feature, which can generate reminders to any patients who satisfy the Rule you specify).

Let's arrange to send postcards to patients who have an appointment coming up starting 7 days from now, for a total of 1 week. The first step is to create a sample postcard:

1. Press Write\New Note\Letter.

2. Press <ESC> for no patient, <ESC> for no Template.

3. For the name of the file, type in APPT.RTF. (The file MUST have this name. The Appointment Scheduler looks for this file when it prints letters or postcards).

4. Type in the text of the letter or postcard. Note that you can use a large number of @functions including many specific to appointments, as outlined in the on-screen help and User's Manual, in constructing your letter. Here is a sample:

Now you can actually print the postcards.

1. Press View\Appointments\Report.

2. If you plan to reuse this feature, you should specify a Report Name, and store it when you're done. That way, in the future, you can simply press Load, readjust the dates, and print it again.

3. For Begin Date, enter a day 7 days from now. (A quick way is to press <F3> or Calendar, then press either <down arrow> or the Week >> button, then Ok to advance the date a week).

4. For End Date, enter a day 13 days from now.

5. If you want to send postcards to all of your patients, accept all Providers. However, notice that you can selectively send postcards to only the patients of one or a few Providers.

6. For Completion Status, you should at least check Pending. You may wish to also check No Show and Rescheduled. There is no point checking Canceled and Completed.

7. If you make use of the Scheduler to record when patients have a confirmed appointment, then you can just check Unconfirmed to send postcards only to patients who have not yet confirmed their appointments. However, if you want to also send postcards to patients who have confirmed their appointments, check Confirmed as well.

8. The Include fields have no bearing on this function. They pertain if you plan to print a Report.

9. Press Print\Postcards. Choose your printer and press Ok. (The program prints the postcards on standard 8.5x11 inch 4-to-a-page postcard pages which you can buy at a stationery store).

10. After printing the postcards, turn them over when you are prompted to do so and the program prints the addresses.

MEDCOM AT AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS ANNUAL MEETING

MEDCOM Information Systems will again have a booth at this year's American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine meeting in Atlanta. Come to the booth and meet the folks from MEDCOM and Dr. Welford, and see our newest upcoming features demonstrated.

APRIL QUARTERLY UPDATE RELEASED

This month we are releasing the April, 2001 Quarterly update. The update includes new medications, diagnostic terms, drug interactions, drug dosing information, spelling words, drug-disease Alerts, Web Links, and dozens of new patient education brochures. This update has over 4800 drug interactions with over 1700 references, over 10,200 Alerts, over 9500 Web Links, and over 1100 Brochures, including new or revised Brochures on anal fissure, anorectal fistula, costochondritis, hypomagnesemia, pharyngitis, renal tubular acidosis, ulcerative colitis, atovaquone-proguanil, balsalazide, colesevelam, lidocaine topical, zonisamide, and many others. We have further enhanced the Vocabulary, Alerts, and Interactions for herbs as well.

HOW CAN I GET THE NEW UPDATE?

The April, 2001 Quarterly Update is being sent this month to all users who have purchased the Comprehensive Support Package. If you have not purchased this package, or if your support is about to run out, or if you wish to upgrade to the SQL version, contact MEDCOM Information Systems at 800-424-0258.

NEWS ON UPCOMING VERSIONS

We are continuing to add new features to version 4.0. One new feature, Algorithms, lets you design your own (or import our) algorithms which aid in decision-making for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. Please let us know of any suggestions you have for new features for version 4.0.

SEND US YOUR TIPS

If you have tips, shortcuts, questions, or suggestions for future newsletter topics, please send them to us at:

Welford Medical Computing, Inc.

3779 Hermitage Trail

Rockford, IL 61114

MEDCOM Information Systems, Inc.

2117 Stonington Avenue

Hoffman Estates, IL 60195

http://medcom@emirj.com