Generating Reminder Notices from PPRNet Patient-level Reports

Patient Records v. 8.x

 

Download Reports and Utilities

1.      Download pputility8.dll and DBGUI8.exe from http://www.musc.edu/PPRNet/mypprnet.htm and copy to ppart directory

a.      Pick the files for version 8.x

b.      Rename the “pputility8.dll” to “pputility.dll” before copying to ppart directory

2.      Click your practice ID# and enter it as username and type your password.  Download the Excel spreadsheet for your practice

3.      Download and install MacroExpress from http://www.macros.com/ (for faster performance in adding patient names, install and run MacroExpress and Excel on your server)

4.      Download the macro to add names to the spreadsheet from http://www.sgfpyork.com/downloads.htm

5.      Download Chart Tickler from http://www.sgfpyork.com/downloads.htm and install on a workstation.

 

Add Patient Names/Account # to Patient Level Reports

1.      Open the spreadsheet in Excel.

2.      The first blank column should be BF.  If not, note which column is the first blank one.

3.      Click the first blank column’s label (“BF” or “BG”, etc.) to select the column, then right-click it and select Format Cells.  Change to “Text.”

4.      Click the A1 cell to highlight it.

5.      Launch MacroExpress and File, Open the macro you downloaded.

6.      Right click on the macro and pick Edit with Script Editor.

7.      Find the 2 lines “Change Directory/Folder P:\”.  Right click, modify command,  and change “P:\” to your path to ppart

8.      Find the 2 lines:  Activate or Launch: “Patient Query” or “DBGui8.exe”.  Right click, modify command, and change “P:\DBGui8.exe” to your path to ppart\DBGui8.exe

9.      If the first blank column in your spreadsheet was NOT “BF”, change 2 lines:  

Example:  1st Blank column is “BK”

Text type: bf1<ENTER>  BECOMES  Text type: bk1<ENTER>

Text type:bf%N1%<ENTER>  BECOMES Text type:bk%N1%<ENTER>

 

10.  Launch DBGUI8.exe from the ppart directory, make sure both Internal and External ID boxes are blank.  Click the cursor on the Internal ID box.

11.  Click the Macro Explorer button, right-click the macro and select Run Macro Now.

12.  When prompted, click Continue.

13.  Macro Express should add columns to your spreadsheet and will start looking up patients in DBGUI.

14.  Let it run to completion and save the spreadsheet.

15.  If you need to stop the macro, press Scroll Lock and Pause together.  To pick up where you left off, note the last row that was completed (eg. “1254”), go to the Script Editor again and change the line N=1 to N=1254, save and run the macro.

Selecting Names from Patient Level Reports

  1. The remaining tasks can be done on the workstation on which you installed Chart Tickler.  Copy the Patient Level Report spreadsheet to the workstation.
  2. If not already done, delete all rows where Lname is blank:
    1. Click on the top left corner cell to left of “A” and above “1” to select the entire spreadsheet
    2. Click Data, Sort
    3. Select Sort by “Lname”
    4. Select “My list has a header row” and OK
    5. Scroll to the bottom of the spreadsheet to find the rows where Lname is blank
    6. Highlight and delete them
    7. Create a new sheet.  Select Insert, Worksheet
  3. Now select patients.  As an example, find all the Diabetics who are not on Aspirin (or other anti-platelet drugs)
  4. Back on the original sheet, click the arrow next to “DM Y/N” (column H) and select Y.
  5. Now click the arrow next to “Anti-platelet Date” (column AO) and select Custom…
  6. Select “Equal to,” and leave the field to the right blank and click OK.  (if you want Diabetics without Aspirin renewed in the last year, then select “is greater than or equal to” and fill in the date from 1 year ago, eg. “7/24/04”)
  7. Excel is now only displaying Diabetics not on anti-platelet drugs.  Note the number of patients filtered in the lower left corner.  You will later compare this number with the count in Chart Tickler.
  8. Click on the top left corner cell to left of “A” and above “1” to select the entire spreadsheet
  9. Click Edit, Copy, then switch to the new sheet, click on cell A1, then Edit, Paste
  10. This new worksheet only contains your selected patients.  Click File, Save.

 

Importing from Excel to Chart Tickler

  1. Launch Chart Tickler
  2. Select File, Import from Excel
  3. Navigate to your Excel (.xls) file, select it and click Open
  4. You will be prompted to enter Column and Row labels from your spreadsheet.  These prompts will default to the last selection(s) made.
  5. When prompted, enter:
    1. Excel Sheet Number (this is the sheet that you created from your patient selection)
    2. Column Letter for Patient Last Name
    3. Column Letter for Patient First Name
    4. Column Letter for Patient Middle Initial
    5. Column Letter for Account Number
    6. Row Number for first patient
  6. The Patient list will fill.  Compare the number of patients with the number from Excel.  If you are missing patients, it is most likely because one or more rows had a blank last name.  Delete those as described above and repeat your patient selection.

 

Using Chart Tickler

  1. Now type in your reminder message and note title and click Make Tickler.
  2. View the file if desired.
  3. Load the file using the Patient Records Text Data Loader.