Notes About Electronic Transfer of Investigations

  • Files matching the import criteria are removed after import even if they are not PIT or HL7 format. For this reason it is best to use a separate pathology folder for receiving your result files and not to use common system file types for your result files.
  • The computer which is performing the transfer of results from the lab (that is fitted with modem and running the communications software), does NOT have to be the Clinical server. It can be any MedicalDirector Clinical workstation which is sharing a common database. This is because the result files are imported into the holding file which resides on the Clinical server not the holding file on the local drive. The download folder must have sharing and security settings that allow all users full control of the files.
  • If you have provided a scheduled dialler or desktop icon which transfers result files externally to Clinical, then the user would select the 'Check Investigations' item from the Tools menu instead of 'Import Investigations'. The difference here is that Clinical does not run any command line options or checks for communications software. It will import result files and prompt to check results. In this case it may be appropriate to initially transfer the result files to a shared directory (on Clinical Server). In this way any MedicalDirector Clinical user on the network could actually import and check results based on the search path set on each workstation.
  • The Holding file is a managed resource. It is the practitioner's responsibility to regularly check off results as they come in. Properly managed, the Holding file should only ever hold recent results and should never be allowed to grow too large that is 100's of results.
  • The Processing folder should not be used to store downloaded results, or for other purposes. This folder will be emptied after each processing.