Future orders

Summary:

You can future date orders in athenaOne by changing the "Send" date at the top.
- This is a great idea for future labs
- This is NOT a great idea for future referrals
- This does not work for prescriptions
See below for the reasons!

Details:

• Labs:
  • Lab orders stay in the LGH queue for 6 months
  • This means most lab orders do not HAVE to be future-dated, - BUT there are good reasons to do so:
  • Imagine you want a HgbA1C in 3 months, and you DO NOT future-date the order:
    • Problem 1:  If the patient misunderstands and goes to the lab tomorrow, the A1C will be drawn tomorrow.
    • Problem 2:  If the patient is sent for an acute CBC next week, the HgbA1C in the queue will also get drawn at that time!
    • In either case, if the patient goes back to the lab at the 3-month mark, there will be nothing in the queue.
  • To solve this, use future dating.  If you want labs in 3 months, date the order 2 months in the future (to allow some leeway).
• Referrals: 
  • Future date a referral when:  you know a patient will be away for a few weeks, and you don't want the referral processed until they are back.
  • DO NOT future date a referral when:  you want a study for next year, like a mammogram or colonoscopy.  The referral will always carry the date you signed it.  Insurance will refuse it if it is too old (6 or 12 months in most cases).
• Medications:
  • There is no option in athenaOne to future date a medication order
  • Entering an "Earliest Fill Date" does NOT prevent the script from going immediately to the pharmacy
• How to future date orders:  Just change the "Send" date at the top, but clicking on the calendar: