athenahealth Features That Will Make Your Life Easier: Document Search
Navigating the evolving demands of healthcare technology, organizations often encounter unexpected hurdles in ensuring seamless processes for encounter documentation, order submission, result tracking, and referral management. Information System and EHR Support teams are tasked with resolving these issues but are often given limited tools to research and triage concerns raised through tickets, chats, and emails.
athenahealth’s Document Search Tool is often overlooked during standard training, yet it can enable EHR Support teams to perform more targeted issue research and resolution. This tool can be found in the athenaNet “Patients” menu, under the Documents header. It includes filters such as Document ID, Created Between, Patient ID, Clinical Provider, Document Class, Document Subclass, Document Status, Document Source, Clinical Order Type and Created By (username).
This is the interface you should expect to see when using the Document Search feature in athenaOne.
📑Document ID
Train your staff and providers to always include a Document ID when creating a new issue ticket. athenahealth's Document ID is unique to the clinical order, letter, clinical record, etc. If the ID is provided to the EHR Support Team, they can use athena’s Document Search Tool to go directly to the concern rather than digging through the patient chart to find the correct date, order, or document type.
🩺Clinical Provider
Use the Clinical Provider filter within the Document Search Tool to troubleshoot order submissions or retrieval of documentation from a specific vendor or external facility. The Clinical Provider filter pulls directly from athena’s global clinical provider table, enabling a more structured search. For example, if you suspect a connection issue with a lab interface, use the Document Search Tool to search by that specific lab vendor to identify additional examples of the problem.
🚮Deleted Documents
Deleted documents may not be accessible from a patient chart, but they aren’t gone forever! The Document Search Tool allows you to access a deleted document if the Document ID is known. The Status filter also enables you to search for all documents marked as “deleted”.
🔍Investigation
The Document Search Tool is invaluable for investigating issues when minimal details are provided by the individual reporting the problem. Often, a staff member or provider, fully focused on patient care, cannot recall the exact document type, order type, or patient name related to the issue. Using the Created Between and Created By filters can help narrow down tasks and pinpoint the example.
In a world where time is critical, the ability to find the right document at the right time isn't just a convenience – it's a necessity. As practices continue to adapt to the demands of modern medicine, tools like Document Search play an essential role in ensuring that both providers and patients receive the best possible outcomes.
