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Alerts & Flags vs. Phone Notes

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Last Post by Marketing Committee 8 years ago

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sguillot87

(@sguillot87)

Posts: 2

New Member

Topic starter

We have an issue of using phone notes to basically communicate with other users on patient issues. I am new to Centricity and through playing around on it was wondering if the area this really should be done in is Alerts & Flags. Obviously we don't want these communications in the patient's medical record but we're needing somewhere to be able to follow a particular situation in which several users may be involved. Can anyone help?

Posted : September 9, 2016 7:15 am

serious215

(@serious215)

Posts: 28

Trusted Member

My 2 cents....

If its patient-related and important enough to be documented in the chart, then a phone note is necessary --- however, you can do both -- create the phone note and then attach a flag, 2 steps but keep in mind the importance of keeping the medicolegal chart intact. If not medical/patient-related to health, a simple flag is feasible and will do, IF it the information is ALSO captured in chart.

Thanks!

Posted : September 9, 2016 7:29 am

jfitzmd

(@jfitzmd)

Posts: 419

Reputable Member

Absolutely agree with above. It is critical to document any interaction with the patient in the chart.

Posted : September 9, 2016 7:34 am

jsander

(@jsander)

Posts: 108

Estimable Member

I also recommend keeping documentation on ongoing medical issues, but alerts and flags have their uses. You can convert a flag to a document, too. One caveat about flags - if you reply or forward, they are automatically removed from your own desktop, unless you copy them to yourself.

Posted : September 9, 2016 7:39 am

sguillot87

(@sguillot87)

Posts: 2

New Member

Topic starter

Maybe I should clarify, some of the correspondence is absolutely necessary but other pieces aren't. Let me see if I can give you an example...

User 1: Pt called asking to speak to nurse regarding their medication

User 2: Returned call, N/A

User 1: Pt called back saying they haven't received a call so I tried contacting Stacy myself and she didn't answer so she will have to call the patient back again

Does that make sense?

They're using employee names and just putting more detail than is necessary in our opinion. It seems like it's more of a "showing proof I did my part" situation instead of actually being a necessary comment to put into the note. I think the education on what it means to be the patient's legal medical record hasn't been made clear so I'm trying to find a workaround for that current process and Alerts & Flags were a section I saw that was able to actually be assigned to a particular user. So they would still put the phone note that the patient contacted but then maybe in another function type an alert to the particular user they're trying to reach out to as well?

Posted : September 9, 2016 8:16 am

sborchardt

(@sborchardt)

Posts: 218

Reputable Member

Flags vs. phone notes is an issue in our clinic as well. In your example above we do add that the patient has returned a call to the phone note, but leave out the extras.

Steph

Posted : September 12, 2016 11:05 am

Marketing Committee

(@marketing_committee)

Posts: 358

Reputable Member

Flags can also easily be removed and lost. I guess with that being said so can unsigned documents but the user has to be more intentional about it. I figure documents/phonenotes for anything related to patient care and maybe a flag for background information that doesn't need to be in the chart. I wouldn't rely on flags for patient care.

Maybe I'm off base but wouldn't you want to document you returned the call and the patient was unavailable so if the patient does call back mad there is documentation that a timely call back happened?

Posted : September 16, 2016 4:56 am

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