CottageMed™ EHR Files

RELEASE NOTES:						December 15, 2010

Installing CottageMed rarely produces an 'error' message which we have found is not a true error - please read on...

Because CottageMed installs on any computer anywhere, you may have to train CottageMed to learn where certain folders or files are on your own computer.  These files are stored safely in your copy of the CottageMed folder, but the full path from the root of your hard drive to the files themselves will depend on where you put the CottageMed folder on your computer's hard drive.  

These 'error' messages are normal and temporary messages which appear when you self install the software by yourself.  They generally stop after you have fully trained your software by using it after installation.  

Your patient data is safe.  These messages do not involve the core program code, and they are not dangerous to your data in any way.  

We trust the software fully and use it in our own medical clinic every day without any error or data loss.

From The Team  :)


Email us for help at

info@cottagemed.org

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Quick Start Guide


Quick Start Guide
	What is Cottage Med?
	The advantages of Cottage Med	
	System Requirements
	How to get the software
	How to install the software
	How to get help
		Free online support
		Free training videos
		Paid support and training
	Starting CottageMed
	The CottageMed Interface	
	Quick Tour:  Patient Visit
		Sign-in
		Vitals
		Physician Visit
		Xray Report
		Prescription
		Superbill
		Finalizing Notes
	Closing Cottage Med


What is Cottage Med?

Cottage Med software is a free, open source, medical practice management, electronic medical records (EMR) / electronic health records (EHR), prescribing and billing application.

Cottage Med was developed in 1999.  It is a mature application with users
all over the world.  Development continues with new features being added
and contributed every year.

Cottage Med is built on the FileMaker platform.  FileMaker is a database platform similar in many ways to Microsoft Access, but with ease-of-use and security features that make it particularly well suited to the needs of a medical practice.  FileMaker runs on Windows and Mac OS.  Licenses are inexpensive, approximately $200 per machine.  Multi-license packages are available as well as volume and academic licenses.

The advantages of Cottage Med

Here are some of the advantages of Cottage Med over other EMR/EHR suites:


# Used by doctors in the U.S. and developing nations

    * Quick Training by our team - proven 1 hour for office staff and 2 hours for doctors and nurses

    * Appointment Scheduling is easy and flexible at home and office
    * Patient Registration with 2 quick and simple screens
    * Paper Billing with option to convert to electronic claims
    * Basic Accounting functions built in
    * Patient Tracking and recall in a near infinite number of ways
    * Full and Flexible Access to all data fields
    * Strong and Flexible Reporting
    * Powerful Search functions on any and all fields
    * Integrates with other applications of your choice
    * ASP option
    * Wireless and PDA support
    * All Hardware supported from 1997 to 2004 using Filemaker v. 5/6; hardware from 2004 to present runs better with Filemaker v. 7-10+
    * Prescription Writing fully automated
    * Epidemiology data mining extensively supported
    * Scalable to many separate offices and 120 simultaneous users
    * Flexible note writing - you can enter information any way you want or need
    * Handwritten notes supported
    * Dictation of notes directly into chart with Dragon© Naturally Speaking
    * Clinical Photographs placed in each note when needed
    * Video, Radiology, and Echocardiography studies in common formats can be stored and viewed directly in CottageMed with QuickTime translators included 


It avoids the difficulty of object-oriented code, so it is easy for a lay person to understand


How to get help


Free online support

The Cottage Med Help forum is hosted at SourceForge, 
https://sourceforge.net/projects/cottagemed/forums  .

An extensive archive is available at Topica, 
http://lists.topica.com/lists/CottageMed/  .


Free training videos

Videos are available at 
http://homepage.mac.com/caringincommunity/FileSharing1.html  .


Paid support and training

Training consists of one hour for front office personnel, and up to two hours for clinicians.  Contact us at 413-625-6240.	

Every practice is different.  Cottage Med has custom screens for opthalmology, psychiatric and osteopathic practices, and these examples are included with Cottage Med.  You may make customizations yourself, or contract with Care in Community, Inc or any other service provider of your choice to make the changes for you.

Minimum Requirements

Cottage Med is available as a single-user demo version, bundled with FileMaker Pro 5.0, or as a multi-user production version.  

The production version requires that FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Server be obtained (a free 30 day trial is available) and installed separately.  FileMaker Pro supports up to five concurrent users.  FileMaker Server supports more than five concurrent users.

Demo version for Mac OS

The Mac OS demo is an older but very functional single-user version of Cottage Med, including FileMaker Pro 5.0.  It will work with Mac OS 10.2 and newer.

Demo version for Windows

The Windows demo is a working single-user version of Cottage Med, including FileMaker Pro 5.0.  It will work with Windows 2000 and newer.

Full version

Cottage Med requires that a version of FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Server be installed.  Any Mac OS or Windows computer running FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Server 7+ can run Cottage Med. 

Cottage Med 2.6+ will run with FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Server 7 through 11+.  FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Server 8.0 or newer is strongly recommended, as the security features are much improved.


How to get FileMaker Pro

FileMaker Pro is available directly from the vendor at www.filemaker.com.  The current version may be downloaded for a free 30-day trial.  

How to get Cottage Med

Cottage Med is available for download at http://www.cottagemed.org .  A CD version is also available for a small fee. 

Cottage Med is hosted at SourceForge and may be downloaded at  http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/cottagemed .

How to install the software

First, verify that a version of FileMaker Pro is installed.

Next, use Winzip or a similar utility, extract the files to a folder on the hard drive.

Last, navigate to the file Cottage_Med.fp7.  Right click on this file and choose Create Shortcut.  The shortcut will be created in the same directory folder.  Move the shortcut to your desktop.


Starting CottageMed

Double-click on the shortcut.  This will load FileMaker and start the Cottage Med application.

When Cottage Med is ready, the copyright screen is displayed, and the backup reminder appears.  Click OK and then click Continue...

From the Start screen, click on the Start button at the top.  

[start screen]

The CottageMed Interface

After you click on the Start button, your screen should look like this:



Tip
You can change the display size by clicking the larger/smaller symbols at the bottom left of the FileMaker screen.  

Caution
Be sure you are working in Browse mode.  Click on the mode dropdown list and change the mode to Browse if needed.

	
Quick Tour:  Patient Visit

The following is a quick tour using a demo patient visit.

Today, your sample patient Sunny Day has a routine follow-up appointment with you, Dr Joy, regarding her asthma.


Sign-in
Ms Day arrives in the office a few minutes late.  Sarah, the receptionist, greets Ms Day and brings up Ms Day's patient record to verify her information.

To do this, Sarah makes use of FileMaker Find mode.  This powerful feature allows any FileMaker fields on any screens (or layout, as it's called in FileMaker) to be used in any combination to search the database.  

To find Ms Day's patient record, Sarah clicks on the Patient Info tab, and clicks the Find button in the left margin.  Note that this changes the mode signal at the top right of the screen, and blanks all the fields.  Now Sarah clicks once in the Last Name field and types Day, and presses the enter key. 

Sarah confirms the reason for Ms Day's visit today and verifies Ms Day's contact information.  She clicks on the Accounts tab and verifies her insurance information.  Sarah asks Ms Day for her co-pay, swipes her credit card, enters the amount and then asks Ms Day to have a seat in the waiting room.


Vitals

Laptop in hand, Nurse Jane calls Ms Day.  On the way to the examination room, she stops to take Ms Day's height and weight.  In the examination room, she turns to her laptop, finds Ms Day's patient record, and clicks on the Notes tab.  She records Ms Day's height and weight.  She takes Ms Day's blood pressure and pulse and enters those values as well. 

Next, Nurse Jane reviews Ms Day's medications and makes changes as needed.  She leaves the room with her laptop to greet the next patient. 


Physician Visit

You, as Dr Joy, are in your office finishing notes for the previous patient.  You find Ms Day's patient record, note her current prescriptions, and then click on the Notes tab to view her vital signs and reasons for her visit today.

You enter the examination room with your own laptop and begin the patient interview.  Typing or dictating during the visit, your progress notes are completed before your patient leaves the room.


Prescription

You decide to renew Ms Day's prescription for albuterol as it is still working well for her.  To do this, you click on the Notes tab, then on the Rx Pad at the bottom center of the screen.

After you begin typing CottageMed automatically enters the prescription for you from a list of favorites which it has learned from your patterns of care.  You click the little yellow box to the right and then click the red print button in the Rx pad to automatically complete every checkmarked medication.

You click on the Patient Info tab, and enter a request for a 6-month follow-up appointment.


Superbill

You say goodbye to Ms Day and return to your office, where you click on the Accounts tab to complete todayÕs billing information.  It takes a few seconds.

By the time Ms Day has walked back to the reception desk, Dr. Joy has pulled her prescriptions and superbill which are already waiting on the printer.  Prescriptions are given to the patient and billing slips are later sent to the billing service of your choice. 

Sarah checks for a follow-up appointment request on the Patient Info tab and sees that a 6-month follow-up is needed.  She makes the appointment and wishes Sarah a good day.

You are ready for your next patient.


Closing Cottage Med

When you are finished, close the CottageMed window to close the database.  FileMaker will write any remaining changes to disk and safely close the application.  

Make sure you make reliable backups of your patient records every night and every week.  

We hope you enjoyed your tour.