What is GuineaROUNDS?
GuineaROUNDS is PalmOS program to manage a physicians census and billing data while making hospital rounds. GuineaROUNDS features the ability to classify patients at different hospitals therefore providing at-a-glance viewing of your patients in a particular facility. GuineaROUNDS also provides a "To Do" list for each patient with a reminder feature which will set off your Palm's alarm at a specified time. In addition, GuineaROUNDS has the capability of beaming data to other GuineaROUNDS users (say, your secretary!). Also, GuineaROUNDS can export the data to Palm DOC files so that these files may be manipulated on your desktop computer. With GuineaROUNDS, making those early morning rounds just got easier!
How do I install GuineaROUNDS?
Easy. Download GuineaROUNDS from OUR SOFTWARE page and simply unzip it. Install the three palm files onto your Palm, and you are ready to go.
Can you walk me through an example of how to use GuineaROUNDS?
Sure! Tap on the GuineaROUNDS (G-Rounds) icon on your launcher and away we go. The first screen we come to has seven buttons. The first button is labeled Cenus / Billing. This is the button that takes us to the data entry portion of the program. But before we tap that button, let me introduce you to the other buttons on the screen. The six other buttons are labeled Beam Census, Beam Billing, Export Census, Export Billing, Delete Census, Delete Billing. If you choose to beam census or billing database, the entire database is beamed to another palm user. If you wish to just beam an individual record you will need to select the beam icon displayed during the data entry portion of the program. The Export Billing and Export Census buttons are handy little features you should know about. If you choose to export either of those databases, GuineaROUNDS will create a Palm DOC file with the data listed within. This is great if you want to load the data into an application on your desktop computer for printing or manipulating. Finally, there are the Delete Census and Delete Billing buttons. These delete the ENTIRE census or billing databases. This prevents you from having to delete each individual record in the data entry portion of the program. So this would be done if you went away on vacation for a month and needed to start fresh when you returned.
Now lets move onto the data entry portion of the program. Go ahead and tap Census/Billing. After being notified about the software being a demo version, we are taken to the main GuineaROUNDS screen which, at this point, simply consists of a large empty table. You should see three buttons at the bottom of the screen labeled New, Billing and Configure. Let's configure GuineaROUNDS so tap the Configure button.
We are now the rather modest configuration screen. We have two options here, Status and Billing Codes. Lets configure the patient status, so tap the Status button. A patient's "status" is essentially a way that we can classify patients so that we can filter the display table on the main screen. Say, for example, that we are rounding at two different hospitals. A patient's "status" lets us select to view only patients at a particular hospital. So let's add two hospitals and a discharge status. Tap in the status text box and write "MGH" (for "My General Hospital"). Next tap Add New Status and write "YGH" (for "Your General Hospital"). Finally tap Add New Status once more and write "D/C." So now we have two general hospitals and a D/C status configured. Go ahead and hit the Back button.
We're back at the configuration screen again. Let's go ahead and look at the billing codes, even though we won't use them until later. So Tap Billing codes. This brings us to the billing codes configuration screen. Rather than writing 99222 over and over again, you can setup the billing codes you use most often. GuineaROUNDS comes with a few codes preprogrammed, but you can add, change, or delete them as you need to. Go ahead and tap Back and then tap Done.
You should now be back at the main GuineaROUNDS screen. Let's go ahead and add two new patients. Tap the New button. You will now be on the Patient View screen where we enter some brief patient data. Enter the patient's last name as "Smith", first name as "John", medical record number as "123456", room number as "302", admitted date as today, and finally enter the diagnosis and insurance of your choice. Now when you tap the status pull down menu, you'll notice that you have the options you entered at the configuration menu. Let's go ahead and put John at MGH, so tap the MGH option from the pull-down menu.
Before I introduce you to the other buttons on the bottom of the Patient View screen, let's enter one more patient. Tap the Done button and you'll find yourself back at the main GuineaROUNDS screen. You'll notice that Mr. Smith is now listed in the table, along with his medical record number, room number, and diagnosis. Tap New and let's enter one more patient.
This time, enter data for Jane Doe, but let's put her at YGH instead of MGH. So when you tap the Status pull-down menu from the bottom of the screen, select YGH. Before we leave the Patient View screen, I want to briefly mention the other buttons at the bottom of the screen. The Con button is simply a notepad for you to record data on consults, should you desire to do so. The Billing button will take you to the billing screen (which we'll go to next). The To Do button takes you to a "To Do" screen that is specific for this patient. You can opt to set a reminder so that your Palm will remind you to do something (e.g., call family members). The Notes button is a miscellaneous notepad for you to enter any additional data you wish. The Del button will simply delete the current record. And finally, the arrows will navigate you through the various patients in your database. Go ahead and tap Done.
Once more, we are back at the main screen. Notice at the top of the screen where it says "Status." Go ahead and use that pull-down menu and select MGH. When you do so, you'll notice that only John Smith is listed now. Likewise, if you use the Status pull-down and select YGH, you'll notice only Jane Doe is listed. Using the status pull-down allows you quick at-a-glance viewing of patients in a particular hospital (or any other status you choose to assign to them).
Now we need to take a look at the billing screen. At the billing screen, you will see a large empty table with two buttons at the bottom of the screen labeled New and Done. Go ahead and tap New and we'll enter new billing information.
On the next billing screen, we have a pull-down menu for patient name. When you activate the pull-down menu, it will pull in the names from your census data so that you do not need to re-write the name again. The visit date defaults to whatever the current date is, but that can be changed by tapping the text field. Under diagnosis, you have a box you can check if the diagnosis remains unchanged (the default value). If the diagnosis is different, you can write the diagnosis in the text box next to it. Next is the Code pull-down menu. Here you will find the diagnosis codes I alluded to earlier. Finally, you have the notes section where you can enter any miscellaneous data you wish. Go ahead and enter some miscellaneous data for Smith and then tap Done when you are finished.
You are now back at the Billing View screen. You'll notice that Smith, the visit date, and the visit code are listed in the table. At the top of the screen you have a pull-down menu labeled "Patient." This allows you to view only the billing data for a particular patient.
That's about it. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of how to use GuineaROUNDS.
Is there a desktop conduit available for GuineaROUNDS? And, what is the best way to use the exported Palm DOC file?
No, there is no desktop conduit available for GuineaROUNDS. Developing a desktop conduit would increase the cost of GuineaROUNDS substantially. As a result, we have chosen to instead have all of the GuineaROUNDS data exported into a standardized format, the Palm DOC format.
Perhaps the quickest and easiest way to utilized the exported DOC file is through a program like pDOCS (a third party program, not affiliated with GuineaSOFT). pDOCs allows you to import DOC files into Microsoft Word. You can then print or manipulate the data in any way you wish. Please note that the data is exported in a CSV format (comma separated values) so that this data can be easily loaded into Microsoft Excel or Access. You can download pDOCs by visiting their website at: http://www.thinkchile.com/alorca/pDocs/
Don't forget to sync your Palm with your PC prior to trying to load manipulate data on your PC. You will find the exported DOC file in PC's Palm directory (most likely in the backup directory).
Can I run Palm Hacks while using GuineaROUNDS?
You can try. But if GuineaROUNDS begins acting odd, turn your hacks off and try again (this applies to any and all software, not just the GuineaSOFT line of products).
How do I register?
Visit our REGISTRATION page for more information!
If I register, will I lose all the data I've entered already?
No.
