Open Dental Forum

Hiya,

We have an ongoing issue with the Labcases feature in OD and wondered if anyone else has come across this:

Our nurses are creating Labslips, printing them and in some cases there's no record of them in the database, except for a sequential LabCaseNum missing (i.e. LabCaseNum jumps from 252 to 254). I can insert the data back into the db no problems, but I'm trying to identify what the missing link is.

We've made it clear to all staff to hit OK, and not Cancel or the red X, and as we did a training session on this particular subject last week because it's happened before, I believe that the nurses are doing the same procedure for all lab cases, but there is some unidentified factor which is causing the data held in the memory of the terminal to be written to the printer but not to the server. Today we've created 4 labcases and 2 of them vanished into thin air, so 50% failure is understandably worrying.

Any ideas?!
Thanks in advance
Stuart

We could try to duplicate it if we had a little more information. Where are you creating lab cases from? From the button at the top of the Chart module, or from inside an appointment? If from inside an appointment, is it the planned appointment or is it a regular appointment?

Say the Patient's in the chair. We double-click on their scheduled appointment in the Appt Module. This from our SOP:
In the Edit Appointment window, click on the Lab button.
In the Select Lab Case window, click New
In the Edit Lab Case window, select/enter:
*Provider
*Lab
*Labwork prescribed (under Set Due Date)
*any instructions given by the Dentist
*Click on New Slip
In the Fill Sheet window, click on Print/Email
In the Sheet Output window, select 1 paper copy and leave the E-mail to Patient checkbox empty. Click OK.
In Fill Sheet window, click OK
In the Edit Lab Case window, click OK.

We've discussed it again here, permissions were suggested, but if that were the case, then we'd have 100% failure, not 50%. My own personal feeling is that they're doing it too quickly, we've got the refresh rate set to 10 seconds, so it's not impossible that the input is held in memory, sent to the printer, but vaporises before it's sent to the server. I mention this so that you can bear it in mind whilst trying to recreate the situation.

We're using v7.6.22 on XP Pro (as the server) with the offending terminals running Win 7 (perhaps coincidentally) and hardwired into the LAN (not wifi), and three other terminals running XP Pro.

Thanks again!
Stuart

Before we start trying to duplicate it, I do have a question about your SOP. Does that mean that you have already scheduled their next appointment in 2 weeks before you go into that appointment to create the labcase? Or does that mean that you are going into today's current appointment to create the labcase? If so, why? You don't want the labcase attached to the prep appt, but instead to the seat appt.

We are going into today's current appointment and creating the Lab Case as per the Manual: "Lab cases are usually created from within the Appointment Edit window, usually as part of setting up the Planned Appointment, but also possibly from within a regular appointment. ", as we're not too hot on creating Planned Appts yet.

Should this only apply to Planned Appts then? And if our data's getting lost in the Edit Appt window Lab Case bit, could it not also get lost in the Edit Planned Appt window's Lab Case bit?

Thanks!

you should make a planned appt for your seat appt and then create the lab case from there. Then you will schedule the planned appt and everything will be neatly attached already for you.

Lab cases were designed to be attached to the appointment where the lab case is due, not the prep appointment. How about this: why don't you use the LabCase button at the top of the Chart module instead? It won't be attached to an appointment, so I don't know how well the tracking will work, but I suspect that you'll be able to keep track of them better.

OK, we'll try that. Thanks!

Just to chime in here - that was an issue in my office and the problem was solved by assigning the lab case to the insert appointment. Before that, even when pressing the lab case button, it was being attached to the prep appointment. Maybe there is a way to error check this in a future version of Open Dental or only allow lab case to be assigned to an insert appointment?

new employees always seem to attach them to prep appointments...even after you tell them not to..so a check would be nice...

My experience as well. Employees have to be trained and reminded to attach lab Rx to next appt, not to today's appt.

Hmm. Since we always used planned appointments, that issue never came up. I guess a simple check could prevent attaching to today's appt.

jordansparks wrote:Hmm. Since we always used planned appointments, that issue never came up. I guess a simple check could prevent attaching to today's appt.

We hardly ever use the "planned appts". I've tried on several occasions, but it doesn't seem to make sense for us. I guess I'm not that good at planning exactly how many visits a tx plan will take, nor exactly what I will do on each visit.

Planned appointments were only designed to allow you to communicate the very next single appointment to your front desk. Of course you can't tell exactly how many visits treatment will take, so just specify the next one and no more beyond that. I strongly opposed the capability to create multiple planned appointements, but there were a few who insisted on it, so it was added. Someone might have actually paid to have it added. But I still don't like that feature. So tell me, if you don't use planned appointments, how does anyone know what to schedule the patient for?