Medical history

[khdilger]

There is a lot of things we still do on paper and medical history is one of them. How are others utilizing OpenDental for the medical history. Does the Kiosk option allow the information to be inputed into OD by the patient or does the assistant still have to manually transfer the data into OD?

I have not ventured into putting medical history electronically into opendental because it time consuming to take what the patient filled out and fill it into the OpenDental medical history section. I think the solution I may end up doing is simply scanning our paper medical history and putting it in the images section. Anybody do that?

[jsalmon]

I would recommend using the Sheets / Kiosk if you plan on scanning in the history forms in the end. That way you never have to scan anything in and it could obtain the same amount of information from the patient. Medical history forms can import medications, allergies, and problems. All other information would be readily available by simply viewing the sheet in the patient account which would be the equivalent of scanning in the hand written history form in the first place.
http://opendental.com/manual/medicalhistory.html

[Jorgebon]

In my office we have a medical Hx form that we made with the sheets feature. We also have a Medical Hx update form which is very similar to the one that comes with Open Dental. The way we do it is that we bring the form up and I interview the patient while I enter the info into the form. I start out backwards, asking the patient what medications they take. From the meds I can then ask about specific medical conditions. For example, the patient takes Metformin so I then ask about his diabetes. The interview approach works best for me because if I just see a form that the patient filled out I may overlook some things. When we update the medical Hx, the best thing about the sheet form is that I'll have the patient's meds, allergies, and conditions automatically entered and all I have to do is ask if something has changed. All changes made on the sheet form are then updated in Open Dental automatically.
Jorge Bonilla, DMD

[khdilger]

I guess I do not understand the sheets fully because I did not realize that a sheet could update database fields.

[jsalmon]

As of right now, only patient forms and medical history forms can import database information.
http://opendental.com/manual/patientformsimport.html

[MKM]

We created a custom sheet for Health History. We do not have kiosk (which would be great) but instead print the form and have the patient fill it out. I agree that it is time consuming if you have never entered HH information into your database, but trust me, it is worth the inital time to do so. Once it is in there, the sheet populates itself and they only have to sign the bottom. We have patients look at it and sign it every time they come in. It is amazing what we are finding out about people when we ask questions instead of just saying "Has anything changed".
My sheet has a section that lists medications, asks about allergies, asks about medical conditions, asks about surgeries and / or injuries and has them sign or date. We scan the paper into the image module of open dental at the front destk, update the info and my clinical folks take it from there. If there is something that needs questioned ie..they list they are on zetia, but don't put high cholesterol as a condition, my clincical folks ask about it.

At some point, when tablets become less expensive, I will have the sheet on a tablet, hand it to them to update and the sheet will update Open Dental with a mouse click. That is the ideal solution. We have so many patients though, that I would need about four tablets to really accomodate the amount of people checking in at once.

My plan is to put the HH sheets on our website so people can update them ahead of time, but I seriously doubt most people will use this feature. But it would be great if it would.

[spsheffield]

How do you deal with patients that have a problem or allergy that is not listed on your medical history form? When they are updating their medical history, this will not populate automatically on the update form, and the patient would have to enter it in again manually. This is not an issue with medications as long as you enter in every new medication into the database, but it is very frustrating for me with problems and allergies. Also, I find it very cumbersome to add new allergies to the database.

[Jorgebon]

We have a space on our form for "other" allergies and "other" problems. They don't go automatically onto the database, we just do it manually. Our form lists problems and allergies that can be of importance to us, and those do transfer automatically. Rare allergies or problems that are of no consequence to us are just entered to have a more complete medical Hx.
Jorge Bonilla, DMD

[jsalmon]

How do you deal with patients that have a problem or allergy that is not listed on your medical history form? When they are updating their medical history, this will not populate automatically on the update form, and the patient would have to enter it in again manually. This is not an issue with medications as long as you enter in every new medication into the database, but it is very frustrating for me with problems and allergies. Also, I find it very cumbersome to add new allergies to the database.

Feature request #2900 was added to make allergies and problems act like medications. You might be interested in adding your votes to that one.

[raumfamilydentistry]

I realize this is a fairly old chain, but I came across it while researching adding the Kiosk feature. I agree that entering all the possible medications, allergies, and conditions is cumbersome and time consuming. We currently have laminated all of our paper forms, give them to the patient on a clipboard with a vis-a-view wet erase marker, scan into Images once patient has completed, review for Urgent/High Risk items, like Premed or Blood Thinner, and note these on the Chart tab. Doctor/Staff review Images tab prior to seeing the patient. We wipe off the form and reuse. This has saved us a ton of paper and toner, but I still have to have someone prepare the clipboards everyday for what each patient needs updated/completed. A sheet that the patient selects from would be ideal. I love the AutoNotes options where you can define what each question's answer can be - single answer, multiple answers, text box. The one thing I don't like about a Sheet being pre-filled with answers is that the patient tends to not look closely and doesn't report as accurately as when they have to fill it out.

It has been 4 years since I have looked at Sheets/Kiosks. I am unclear about how the Kiosk feature would work, and I have never seen it in practice. Was hoping OD could demo it for me. Ideally, I would like to create a Sheet for our Medical History, Financial Policy, HIPPA Acknowledgement, Patient Information, and Consent forms. I do not want it to preload with much information, maybe just patient name, which I think would protect from HIPPA violations. My prep person would select what forms the patient needs to complete for that visit. The patient would come into the office, sign in so that their Appt Confirmed status changes to Paperwork or Ready and they would be alerted to complete each form on the kiosk. Their completed Sheet would save in Images and update the Medical fields on the Chart tab. Is this flow possible in OD?

[nick]

thank you for this request, I just pledged $50 , can we please get this moving, and what's the eta