Quick questions about the Patient History report in

MEM:

1. How often do you use it? E.g. once a week,

once a month, once a year, never...

Never. I had actually not noticed it until, as a result of your post, I went to look for it. STILL won't use it. The info contained appears to be available on the "Cost Calculator" report ... where I have a GREAT deal more filtering capability.

What do you use it for, typically?

Not applicable.

How much time do you spend on related tracking of

similar information, outside of MEM? (per

month, per week, whatever)

Actual expenditures are addditionally recorded in Quicken. Info not tracked elsewhere.

Briefly*, what are these activities? I.e., what

are the activities similar to Patient History report

on which you spend the most time and attention

outside of MEM?

Not applicable.

db

I have only used it twice so far. I don't particularly like the layout of the report... too much space between entries (although I can accept an argument that double spacing the individual entries makes some sense, when the notes are printed, these, in my opinion, should not be double spaced). Also, the heading takes up nearly a third of the first page, this is a waste of space.

Also, the "print notes" option prints both the medical notes and the billing notes. The purpose of this option was to not have financial info shown... having the billing notes print (you can't pick just medical notes) defeats the purpose of the report.

Thanks, db and beejul...

Bonnie, any thoughts on how much time or attention you spend on similar areas outside of MEM?

(i.e. not just "MEM doesn't do this for me" or even "I wish MEM did this for me", but "I'm already doing this which is similar to what's in MEM's Patient History")

Thanks much,

Bruce

Bonnie, any thoughts on how much time or attention

you spend on similar areas outside of MEM?

(i.e. not just "MEM doesn't do this for me" or even

"I wish MEM did this for me", but "I'm already doing

this which is similar to what's in MEM's Patient

History")

Actually, Quicken Bruce, I haven't had a big need for this (at least not yet). The two times I have used the report were recently when going to see my orthopedic doctor (so I had all the physical therapy sessions and prescription info and dates I saw other doctors). Other than this situation, I haven't personally had a need (thank God) for me or my family. However, I do see this as a good report, especially for anyone seeing multiple doctors for certain conditions or when different medications are involved or what's been tried, etc. I just think the report should not include billing notes. (I used the report for my own use for remembering, I did not give it to the doctor because of the billing notes). I have not had to use other means outside of QMEM to handle this (yet).

I hope these additional comments are helpful. :-)

Bonnie

Bruce,

I should probably add that, besides the filtering issue that I mentioned previously, there's another reason why I don't need this particular report: All of my MEDICAL doctors (i.e., not the dentist or the optometrist), and most of my wife's MDs, are in the same university medical center ... so all the pertinent info is in THEIR computer system. It's a "carrying coals to Newcastle" sort of issue.

db

Bruce,



Patient History section -- I actually forgot about it. First thing, I'd consider changing the name. It's not a patient history unless I can add my own medical notes, scan in letters, documents, etc. What the section represents is the patient's history of events where expenses occurred. It is PART of a person's medical history but certainly not THE history. (does this make sense?)

Most of us usually review our medical history every with any provider. This is not a big deal for the typical individual. But for those w/chronic issues or those who have to fill out school/camp forms it can be a pain in the butt.

We keep copies of our oldest daughter's annual letters from her primary FD specialist at NYU which documents her progress/recommended changes, etc as well. I also maintain a document of her current medications & feeding regimen (she has a g-tube and is primarily fed via enteral formula). Everything is copied and handed to the appropriate individuals (for school/camp - it's in a different format obviously. I just updated her camp booklet last night).

This makes life much easier for all involved. Interns, Residents, RN's, Intensivists, anyone from anywhere can read her history quickly and easily and also know exactly what meds she's on & the appropriate dosages. Then, their questions are more targeted & meaningful rather than asking me what her APGAR scores were 11 years ago.

I'd like to see the ability to scan documents into MEM: we just received "authorization" from the insurance company to cover costs for her Home Health medical supplies (pump bags, formula, tubes, etc). We often have "letters of medical necessity"; therapy progress notes on a regular basis that are sent to insurance. These are all part of managing our expenses.

There really isn't a good place to enter this info unless I create a "visit" when there really wasn't one. I prefer to scan the document and/or have a notes section that link both to the provide & insurer. Not exactly sure how to do this as I Haven't given it much thought.

Medication History: I don't think I'd use this too much either as, again, it simply lists RX expenses (what we ordered & paid for) not necessarily what we used, ability to write notes about the med (did it work, side effects, dosage changes, etc).

In today's world, many MD's are writing rx scripts for higher amts than PTs actually take, so they may use the rx more slowly than would be expected.

We constantly update her med schedule which looks nothing like what this "history" looks like. It would be great to create a Current Medication List for each person that shows the name, form (liquid, pill, capsule, etc), strength, dosage, frequency that can be printed out EASILY and handed to anyone who needs this list (a growing number of requests: pharmacist, MD, RN, school, camp, etc.).

Finally, I know it's been requested before, the ability to download reports to Excel or CSV & to email documents would be a terrific add. I end up trying to copy/past or retyping the disputed info into excel or directly into an email & sending it to my Aetna contact. I haven't submitted anything to our new insurance co. yet - that starts this weekend (ugh).

Barrie

--
bifrap

www.familialdysautonomia.org

www.keshet.org

Barrie,

Thanks for your reply on this. I knew somebody would have way more comments about their needs regarding this situation than I have right now. As more issues arise personally, I can see a future need for some (or all) of what you describe.

Bonnie

Quicken Bruce said:

Hi folks!

Quick questions about the Patient History report in

MEM:

How often do you use it? E.g. once a week,

once a month, once a year, never...

I generally use a Patient History report once or twice a month.

What do you use it for, typically?

I generally use a Patient History report, a Cost Calculator report, or the Find function as a search tool. Scanning or scrolling a report is much more effective than trying to scan or scroll the Expense Log.

How much time do you spend on related tracking of

similar information, outside of MEM? (per

month, per week, whatever)

Virtually none. See below.

Briefly*, what are these activities? I.e., what

are the activities similar to Patient History report

on which you spend the most time and attention

outside of MEM?

I also record expenses in Quicken Financial but not to the same detail. For example, several drugs in a pharmacy Rx payment in Quicken Financial will be the total gross amount with no individual Rx breakdown. That's done in MEM.

The only other outside task is the manual filing of documents. With MEM, I seldom have to refer back to the paper copies once the information in entered in MEM.

Bruce,

There have been some pretty interesting responses to your question. If you're willing to share, I'd be interested in knowing how the MEM folks *perceive* that the Medical History report would be used. Maybe I'm missing an excellent opportunity. :-)

Wayward

Hi Wayward et al, thank you all for your comments.

Good point, I didn't mention how we'd anticipated Patient Histories might used.

The fundamental concept was to take the information people dealt with for expenses, and give them access to the information in a different format (probably printed) for very different purposes, leveraging it to provide medical- and billing-history.

Some specific scenarios we've talked to users about include:

• Taking a medical history (including medical notes) with me when I go to the doctor, especially a new doctor or hospital



• Taking a medication history (including medical notes) with me when I go to the doctor, especially a new doctor or hospital



• Having a print-out of my medical bills and billing notes for an area (e.g. an illness or a doctor) that I can refer to when I'm dealing with a dispute on the phone or in person.

We didn't anticipate people would want to use it for school vaccination records because most schools want to see the original record signed by a doctor.

I personally like the idea of a one-size-fits-all print-out you could take to a doctor for Medical Background, so you wouldn't have to spend 15 minutes (minimum!) filling out a new form by hand... but doctors don't have one size that fits all! Instead, one can print out one's Patient History and use it to help manually fill in the forms.

We missed what Beejul- mentioned in a post above (and apwilhelm and others have noted elsewhere), that the histories would be more useful if people could choose to show medical or billing notes (not necessarily both).

A major goal was to limit the amount of work involved by the user -- in fact, limiting it to work they've already done, elsewhere (when entering expenses). I look at it as a Patient History report lets one "cull" or "harvest", for medical or billing information-sharing purposes, the data one entered to keep track of expenses.

Make sense?

We've heard a lot of great ideas about what could be in this area, but so far, in practice we've found that there may not be that many common needs that many people are willing to put effort into.

But we're still looking at this... which is why I asked.

And I'll still appreciate anything you folks would like to say about this area. :-)

Thanks and regards,

Bruce

Quicken Bruce --

My situation has changed such that I now have multiple doctors that I see regarding a certain condition... the patient history report would be helpful if I could print it without the billing notes...

Also, every new doctor you see wants to know your prior surgeries and procedures. I now keep these in a document so that I could collect all my past history info and then add to it for things happening now. I also keep my medications here, too, since I won't use the Patient History report in its current form.

I don't spend a lot of time on this separate document, but it sure would be nice to put all this history into QMEM as the official medical storage spot and not have to double enter for current stuff happening; also, then to be able to print reports to take to the doctors.

Also, I think someone referred to immunizations. This is also history that ought to have a place within QMEM.

1. How often do you use it? E.g. once a week, once a month, once a year, never...

Not often, but it's nice to have when needed. Maybe 5 or 6 times a year.

2. What do you use it for, typically?

Take to a new provider. Also to refresh my own memory of my health history. I tend to forget. Also can take to an established provider ... they tend to forget also.

3. How much time do you spend on related tracking of similar information, outside of MEM? (per month, per week, whatever)

I spend 2 or 3 times each month posting to an Excel spreadsheet, but typically forget to post.

4. Briefly*, what are these activities?

Doctor and hospital visits, surgeries, ultrasounds, lab work, blood work, CatScans, MRI's, tests such as Treadmill Stress Tests, placement of stents, etc., etc.

I'm a new user of QMEM and won't start using it until 1/1/07. I'm currently setting up practice files and entering dummy transactions which I'll delete the files and create a new file once I'm ready to get started.

I was very happy to find the Patient History feature in QMEM. I am currently using HealthFile and my own Excel file. I double entry everything in each software so that I have a double record of all my health records. I have been doing that for 10 years. I will abandon each of these when I start QMEM on 1/1/07 as it seems to have every feature to serve my purposes ... and double entry no more. :)

The QMEM Patient History is perfect if it had a filtering capability. I like the report for my own information, but it is VERY nice to take along a history whenever going to a new provider or even one that we haven't seen for a while.

An after thought.

If reports could be exported to an Excel file, then they could be edited any way we like.

Someone else's comment about formatting the reports to get more data on printed pages so, the capability to export would allow us to format content as well as font size, etc.

An after thought.

If reports could be exported to an Excel file, then

they could be edited any way we like.

I handle this by printing to a "generic text printer" which dumps the report to an ASCII file, and then import this into Excel. It's a relatively labor intensive process, so I would like to have the export capabilities for version 3, but I just wanted to point out that it is possible now.

Someone else's comment about formatting the reports

to get more data on printed pages so, the capability

to export would allow us to format content as well as

font size, etc.

-Tony

Please give instructions for printing to a "generic text printer".

This is the first solution I've seen for getting MEM data into Excel.

Please give instructions for printing to a "generic

text printer".

This is the first solution I've seen for getting MEM

data into Excel.

Probably because the results are not pretty and require a ton of work before it is usable.

Since it didn't seem directly relevant to this thread, <url=http://www.quickenforums.com/thread.jspa?threadID=500001746&tstart=0&mod=1165795614668>I've posted my response here</url>. Hope it helps.

-Tony

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Edited by apwilhelm at 12/10/2006 4:10 PM

I have another solution to the patient history and that is the use of a PHR program. PHR stands for Personal Health Record. This type of program keeps information about your health. I only use Quicken MEM for traking the expense and reimbursement (Financial) aspects of things. I use my PHR program to track everything else. The program I use is from Records for Living and so far I can recommend it strongly. It has a lot of the capabilities that I see requested in these forums. My opinion is that unforturnately a financial based program is not the place to try and keep track of medical history, nor is a medical history program the place to track expenses. They are two radically different worlds and trying to mix them results in a program that that does neither well.

You seem to be looking at this from the wrong perspective.

Instead of treating medical as another kind of financial expense, Intuit should approach it as another complex data capture/storage/retrieval & display "space" where you can do the same thing you did for taxes & family/small business expense management - create a user-friendly input pathway, multiple input modes, and user-friendly report and form generation. The financial costs (and associated insurance reimbursements or payments) are just one aspect of a medical event (MD appontment, prescription pickup,ER visit, etc.) that involves much more data - which is currently poorly handled with fragmented paper records and often not well organized for retrieval, let alone integrated.

Using Intuit's expertise in user-friendly interface software and database development, you should start a Personal Health Record (PHR) business that could be just as big financially and just as much of a "killer ap" as TurboTax is. (And of course it would feed into Quicken and Turbotax!)