title: Description of a computerized health maintenance tracking system for primary care practice.
abstract: This article describes the development of a computerized health maintenance tracking system for primary care practice and its features. Research has shown existing computerized health maintenance tracking systems are unsatisfactory for the average practitioner for these reasons: (1) Data entry is slow or requires duplication of entries for billing purposes; (2) the system is linked to a totally computerized medical record that is expensive and complex to maintain; (3) health maintenance status options are limited to "YES/NO" and do not inform the practitioner of the full range of possible situations; (4) physician reminders are created only for patients with an appointment; (5) patient reminders are not generated on a regular basis regardless of appointment status; (6) it is difficult to change individual and global health maintenance schedules. The system described here downloads demographic and health maintenance data from the practice's billing system. Six health maintenance status options are available: D = done and normal, X = done but abnormal, N = not indicated, R = patient refused, E = done elsewhere, I = abnormal but inactive. A health maintenance status report is created for both the patient and provider once a year, in the month of the patient's birth unless an alternate month has been designated, regardless of the patient's appointment status. Patients are encouraged to make an appointment for overdue health maintenance procedures, unless already scheduled.
authors.affiliation: Tri-County Family Medicine Program, Dansville, New York.
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Frame
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Zimmer
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Werth
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Martens
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D005194:Family Practice; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D006801:Humans; D008331:Management Information Systems / Q000592:standards*; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000592:standards*; D009518:New York; D011314:Preventive Health Services