October 3, 2010

How to Link Procedure Codes to Buttons in Carestream/Kodak PracticeWorks

Tutorial: Now that you have made these fancy notes for all the various dental procedures you do throughout the day, it is time to link them and other associated procedure code to a treatment button.

These buttons are listed above in four general categories: General, Restorative, Pathology, and Other.  We use the “General” group of button for, you guessed it, general or global patient chart maintenance and for cleanings and x-rays. The first button called “Exams” give us a list of all the different types of exam one could do on a patient.  You simply make sure you have the right provider selected, and have the right subcategory checked: “Chart existing”, “Chart completed”, or “Chart proposed” before you click the “Exams” button or you will not get the desired results and will have to use the “Undo Last Entry” button that everyone including me has to use about 10 time a day.

Unfortunately, PW will default to tooth #1 if you do not specify where the exam is being done on.  I would much prefer them to default to the full mouth, but they have done it this way from the beginning and have not acquiesced yet.

Click the “Exams” button under category “General”.

From this box you simply choose the exam most appropriate for the patient you are seeing then click “OK” and the next box automatically pops up.

As you can see there is a list of all of your possible x-rays and right at the top of the list is your “X-ray/Exam” note that we will construct on another Blog.  Check the boxes that are appropriate and write a note.

Now I know what you are thinking right about now.  You are thinking that gees, I don’t see that in my button.  That is why I am going to show you right now how to do just that.

The button you see called “Exams” is actually more than meets the eye.  It is a portal into the inner workings on PW that unfortunately few find or use.  Sure your PW instructor who visited your office probably told you about it, but you had so much to learn in that weekend you just couldn’t retain it all.  Too bad, because this is a very powerful tool and will make your life very easy.

Right click onto the “Exams” button and you get some choices called: “Add button”, “Remove button”, “Define AutoLinks”, and “Properties”.  The Add and Remove button are self-explanatory.  The “Add button” only works when you right click on a blank space for a button and of course the “Remove button” only works on a button.  The other two are what we are interested in and especially the “Define AutoLinks” button.  Click on it now.

This is what my AutoLinks looks like.  These are the CDT codes and a description of what they are listed in a sequence.  The numbers in the sequence column are simple numerical organizing number that can be changed at will to put your more common procedures on top and less on the bottom of the list by just editing them with you cursor.

Remember at the end of the last blog I said now you can write the most complete note ever placed into a dental chart in about 60 seconds?  I also meant and all the procedures and accounting information associated with it, too.  Now let me show you how to get these procedures on the list, but first do some cleaning by selecting and removing any thing that looks funny in your current list, if there is something in there at all.

Press the “Add” button and this box will pop up.

This box has so many cool things in it that I don’t even know them all!  The ones we are going to concentrate on are: “Add form to patient”, “Add note to patient”, “Add procedure to chart”.  Let’s add our first procedure to the chart.  Select “”Add procedure to chart” and press “OK”.

Does this look familiar?  If it doesn’t then you may need to schedule a training session with Kodak!  This is where you place your procedure fees and should have high level password protection to protect from tampering and embezzlement.

Choose the first listed X-ray 00210 Intraoral series w/bitew and press “OK”.

I always pick the “Yes” button which leads me to this next box.

Make sure the “Response is optional” button is checked and press “OK”.

Click “YES” and you have completed the addition of this procedure to you list.  Repeat this same process for all the other possible x-rays you do at you r office during an exam, and for any routinely charged exam procedure you may want to list here for your convenience.

Once you have loaded up this AutoLinks list and have sequenced them in a hierarchy of usage we can move onto the “Properties” of the “Exams” button.  Remember to access it simply right click on the “Exams” button and select “Properties”.

This is actually a very easy box to navigate.  You can change the name of the button, you can select where the exam will be attached, in this case the entire mouth.  It will not ask you for a specific tooth surface if you check the “Not surface related” box.  You can use it in either the “Competed” or ” Proposed” setting, but you normally never place an exam under “Existing”.  You can pick what your button looks like from the icon list, you can add and remove Exams as you wish, and sequence them by editing the “Choice#”.

To add an entry I find it best to scroll down to the next empty spot in the list and place my cursor to blacken the field and enter in a simple description of the exam.  Then move to the Code field on the far right hand side and enter in the CDT code for that particular exam.  Sometimes the “Add primary entry” doesn’t work as well as just adding it yourself.

Now your “Exams” button under the “General” button category is complete (except for writing an “Exam/X-ray” note and AutoLinking it so it too pops up and reminds you to fill it out for each exam/x-ray).