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CERNER MILLENNIUM Letters & Faxing. This demonstration shows how to create letters, & how to fax them to the recipient, along other pertinent parts of the chart.
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CERNER MILLENNIUMLetters & Faxing This demonstration shows how to create letters, & how to fax them to the recipient, along other pertinent parts of the chart. This has been prepared for Millennium code level 2015.01.15 & MPage 6.0. Subsequent updates may display cosmetic & functional changes. Use the keyboard or mouse to advance.
The Basics Here’s how to create a letter to another provider & attach a document such as a visit note to it.
Let’s say you’d like to send a letter to another provider about a mutual patient. Click the Communicate dropdown arrow & select Provider Letter.
A window appears prompting you to select recipient(s). Start by changing the Search dropdown to Internal, if necessary. This allows you to search for both USA providers & non-USA providers. This database is maintained by USA, & gives you the most up to date list of area providers available. If they’ve ever ordered a study at our facilities or referred at patient to us, you’ll probably find them.
Type a name, then click the search binoculars. The results will appear below, along with the fax number if known. You can add more recipients, but when done, click OK.
As you begin, you’ll notice a Subject line. This doesn’t merely state the subject of the letter; it chooses a “sub-template” of sorts that helps structure your letter, & is the subject line you’ll see on document lists. But most times you’ll want the default of Provider Letter General, which gives you the writer’s & recipient’s addresses, along with the patient’s name & date of birth, giving you the freedom to structure the rest of the letter as you deem fit.
Type your letter. You can preview how it will look by clicking Preview. (The preview may take 10-15 seconds to display.)
Edit further if desired. To add a document from the chart, click Browse Documents.
Browse for & select the desired document. It displays on the right. Note: At this time you can only attach native Cerner EHR documents & have them display in your letter. Scanned PDFs will not display, though this is slated to become available in a future upgrade.
If you want the entire note, click Attach Full Document, then OK.
The letter will now indicate Document attached. If you were to preview it again, you’d see the attached notes beginning on page 2 of the letter. To fax the letter & save it to the chart, click OK. There will be a 5-15 second pause, & this window will close.
Note: Unfortunately, you will not see a confirmation that the fax has been sent, or a notice if it fails. However, all faxes sent throughout the system are sent to a queue that is monitored administratively. Faxes automatically attempt 3 times before they are considered failed. Failed faxes in the queue will be worked daily by staff, who will attempt to re-send or contact the recipient to see if the fax number needs updating. If all else fails, the letter will be printed & mailed.
Letters you’ve created will be saved to the chart’s Documentation List.
Some Attachment Options Here are some other things you can with letter attachments.
If you only want part of the note, highlightthat part & click Attach Text Selection.
The highlighted part is displayed below. You can add more parts if desired.
For documents like visit notes that have defined sections, another approach is to click the Document Sections tab, then check the document sections you want to include. Each section (one at a time) will display below. When done click OK.
The parts you’ve chosen are added below your letter closing. You can continue to edit the letter as desired, rearranging parts, copying & pasting, adjusting font, etc. When done, click OK, & the letter will save to the chart & fax as above.
Some Recipient Search Tips Here are some things to know about recipient searches.
Search by last name. If the first name is known, search by last, first.
If the recipient doesn’t have a fax number in our records, it may only display the physical address. You can use the Other Actions section to send a message to a staff member to print the letter for you.
Type the name of the staff member (or pool) that you want. If you’ve sent things to this person recently, the name will probably appear. If not, click the search binoculars for a more detailed search.
Complete your search & double-click the desired person to move the name to the right. When done, click OK.
Type your letter as before & click OK. This time, instead of faxing, it will be sent to the inbox of your staff member for printing.
If your Internal search fails, you can try changing to External (NPPES) on the search dropdown list.
External (NPPES) returns results from a national database. You’re more likely to find distant providers this way, though you never know just how up to date this information is. So you’re better off trying Internal search first.
If you know the recipient’s fax number, you can enter it manually. Click +Add Freetext Recipient.
Type in the name & fax number, then click OK to compose & fax your letter.
Important: Enter the 10-digit phone number (area code + phone number), whether local or long distance, with NO PUNCTUATION. Also, if a search happens to return a fax number with punctuation, such as hyphens, you’ll need to click into the number & remove them.
Regardless of how you locate recipients, you can click the Star to add them to your favorites list. There is also a Recent Recipient tab that shows the people you’ve used most recently.
Creating Letters After Document Generation It’s common to send a referring provider a letter after you’ve see a patient, & a convenient time to do so is right after you’ve created the encounter document.
Notice that you’re presented an opportunity to create a letter as you’re signing other documentation you’ve created, like a visit note or consultation. In DynDoc it looks like this.
In PowerNote it looks like this. Either way, after you click Sign, you’ll be taken to the recipient search as shown above, then allowed to create your letter. There’s a little gotcha to keep in mind here: It is intuitive to think the note you’ve just created will automatically be attached to your letter, but it isn’t. You’ll need to browse for it & attach it as shown above.
Also keep in mind that you don’t really need to send a printed or faxed letter to another USA provider. Send a message instead. Click the Communicate dropdown arrow, then select Message.
Search for your recipient, modify the subject line if you wish, & create your message. You can attach a document if you like, or just refer to it in your message. You can save it to the chart if desired. When done click Send, & the recipient will receive it immediately in his/her inbox, with no need for faxing, printing, or mailing.
Patient Letters Writing a letter to a patient is very similar, except that you’ll usually mail it instead of fax it.
To send a letter to the patient, click the Communicate dropdown arrow & select Patient Letter.
As before the Subject dropdown will offer you a few basic letter structures. If you see one that is useful to you, select that. But most of the time you’ll probably want the default Patient Letter General.
Type your letter. Preview if desired. In the Action Pane you can choose to Print Now& select a local printer, or search for an assistant to send the document to for printing. When done, click OK. The letter will print or send to assistant, whichever you’ve chosen.
Frequently-Used Letters You’ll probably create a lot of similar letters. There are a few ways to save some time here, but one of the easiest is to use AutoText.
When you find that you’re sending similar communications over & over, create an AutoText to save that. This way, you can type or use Dragon voice transcription to change only the specific details necessary each time you use it. (AutoText creation is covered in another lesson.)
