Barcodes Setup and Use

Summary

Large clinics often have patients who share a common name like John Smith or Mary Jones. To eliminate errors in patient selection, Net Health has programmed a new feature which is free of charge to clients current on support. Thanks to our barcode feature, locating the correct patient after check-in is now simpler, faster, and ensures accuracy.

When the new option is enabled in the system parameters, Net Health Employee Health and Occupational Medicine prints a barcode of the patient’s System ID on the Encounter Form at check-in. When the patient record needs to be located later in the visit, a barcode wand or stationary bar code reader can be used to enter the ID automatically into the search screen by reading the barcode on the Encounter Form. Net Health Employee Health and Occupational Medicine can also print the barcode on patient invoice remittance stubs. When payment is received, the barcode can be read by bar code reader to immediately find the correct patient for cash application.

If you are using the Net Health Employee Health and Occupational Medicine Whiteboard, you will not need a bar code reader at check-out. When using the Whiteboard you can see the correct patient’s name, and a right click on the name accesses the correct record.
Using Barcodes

Barcode reading is easy. Just go to the [Select Patient] window as you do now, click the cursor in the Patient System ID field, and use the barcode reader to insert the ID number. Once the number appears, proceed as usual.

Three steps are needed to use this new function:

  1. Set the Clinic System Parameter to enable the barcode printing on the Encounter Form.

  2. Set the Billing System Parameter to enable the barcode printing on remittance stub.

  3. Acquire a barcode wand or stationary reader at each workstation where barcodes need to be read.

Barcode readers today are not complicated or expensive -- we’ve seen them as low as $36. A USB model plugs into the USB port on a computer and is ready for immediate use. Barcodes come in a number of formats and most readers work with several formats. Be sure the reader you buy will work with the format known as “Code 3 of 9” or just “Code 39”.