Importing Images in Practice Works

[wenp69]

I have seen suggestions in SoftDent, but need info in PW. 

We are starting the effort to become paperless.  Many of our referring doctors send x-rays, letters, documents in the widely used PDF format.  

How is everyone else working around saving these communications to a patients chart.  

[robertangus]

Wendy,

   Depending on what you are importing into PracticeWorks there are a couple options to choose from.

   1.) If importing an x-ray you want to associate with a specific tooth or see at bottom of screen when charting is launched, you can use the import function within charting by right clicking in the images area at bottom of the screen and selecting import. This will allow you to browse to where you have the image stored and then import it into the chart. We recommend using Jpeg or Tiff format when importing.

   2.) For documents and other scanned images, there are the attachments buttons throughout the program that allow you to directly scan or import already saved items to the patient. This function allows you to name the item, assign categories for easy sorting, and mark selected items for review by your staff. Using the attachments options avoids unnecessary clutter at bottom of charting for items that are not x-rays.

   Currently direct scanning within the attachments area only allows single page scans. If scanning multiple page documents to a pdf format, you would need to scan the item outside of PracticeWorks and save it to then bring into the attachments area.

[wenp69]

Robert, thanks for the suggestions, but those don't find me a workaround to films and reports from specialists that are in a pdf format.  for instance, endo report that has the x-ray built in comes to us as a pdf.  So this needs to be in the imaging software, not the clipboard or chart.  So far I have to stand on my head, if I'm lucky I can do a ctrl prntscrn, paste to paint and crop then save as a jpg.  Does that sound user-friendly?  I am unfortunately the only tech-savvy employee in our office.  Was really hoping that someone else had some super quick shortcuts.

[robertangus]

Wendy,

   I see two options available to this then.

   1.) Make a request to the other office sending the email to send the original image instead of embedding in a PDF

   2.) Open the PDF they send to show the X-ray on the screen and take a screenshot to paste into imaging software to crop and save within imaging or in a photo editing software outside of pworks to save and then import into charting as you've already stated. Unfortunately a PDF (Portable Document Format) is not an image format any imaging software would recognize.

[sonyap]

We just have to print & run them through a scanner as they come in and save them to the patient's charting.  It would be nice to be able to save them directly from the email communications.  Then you have to scroll through them all to find what you need.  That might be something to look at for future development - creating tabs or folders to save to within charting (one for photos, one for specialist follow-ups, etc.).

[carolyn621]

Sonya,

With regards to email communications whether it be from doctors or from patients, this is a suggestion that may save a step or two and on printing costs. Download CUTEPDF WRITER. Rather than printing this will save to the desktop or folder and can be attached to the patient's record or attachment for an email. No more paper to just throw away and it eliminates the scanning step. For images, i.e., photos or xrays, we download to import into the imaging that we use (we use an external application - DEXIS, which was long before Carestream had their imaging software).

Check online for the free version of CUTEPDF Writer. I hope this may help your work flow.

Carolyn Barnett

[sonyap]

Carolyn, when you do this, can you then delete the item out of the desktop folder or will that then delete it from the patient's attachments?

[jeanspears]

We use CUTEPDF writer also - works great!  But you do have to make sure it is also installed on the workstations where it will be viewed otherwise it can't be opened.

[wenp69]

carolyn, does cutepdf save in a format other than a pdf?  if not then it will not work with kodak imaging.  For whatever reason, Carestream and Kodak will not allow the import of a pdf into the imaging software.  So looking for quick and dirty suggestions for converting the pdf into a usable option for Kodak imaging.  I did learn how to attach the documents to the clipboard thanks to a shout out to our original trainer Kathy Patrick.  Now need ways to either get KDI into the modern era, or get pdfs converted quickly and easily.

[carolyn621]

Wendy,

As you can see from the response from the Carestream team there are at least two ways to do things. I don’t have the answer to your question on extracting an image from a pdf document. We don’t have adobe suite although even if we did The image in PDF would not have the qualities of a digital image. I would bet one of the Carestream support staff has your answer. 

When a document is received from a treating specialist that has an image in the document, the document is placed in the attachments. Most of our specialists send images that can be downloaded and imported into the imaging software. We have the ability to utilize KDI although have elected not to use KDI. Because of different X-ray software to go between 2 programs, 1 for X-rays and another for images was timely and the download time was sloooow. For our practice the way we do it is 

I probably wasn’t much help with your problem. 

[Anon]

Carolyn,

You are correct about the image quality after extracting from a PDF. You'd be better off importing the PDF using the Attachments feature. 

Robert is a senior member of the support staff and he's provided some solid suggestions. Ultimately I think having a conversation with Wendy to find a solution is the path forward. Once we find a solution I or a team member will update the thread. 

Thanks again for posting!