Technical Information
Overview
For the IT professional
A: It is a tool for clinical coders to help them work better and quicker, allowing the facility to generate bills more quickly and save money.
A: Charts are sent from your document management system/s to a PLATOCODE server which codes the chart and returns the results. The results are stored until the coder is ready to review them. The coder then validates the results on her PC.
A: Yes.
Q: Is there a diagram of the PLATOCODE CAC process available?
A: Yes.
Retrieving Documents
Q: What documents do you need?
A: CAc delivers most benefit if most or all documentation for a case is electronic. This is easiest to achieve for Outpatient Radiology Reports and Ambulatory Surgery op notes. If H&P records or other material (histology, labs, discharge summaries) are available, we need those too.
Q: What format do the documents need to be in?
A: HL7, text, RTF or any human-readable text format is fine. Many facilities already have data engines to share information; the PLATOCODE system can make use of that output.
Q: Does the HL7 or document transfer need any special fields?
A: Age and gender make a difference to coding. Occasionally length of stay makes a difference too. A unique document id is needed. An episode number is needed so that the engine can code charts with more than one record. Most HL7 already contains these fields.
Q: Can I send PDFs or scanned documents?
A: Text can be extracted from PDFs if documents are sent in that format. OCR can be applied against scanned documents, but that needs to be done before the case is submitted to the PLATOCODE system. We would need to discuss this with you.
Q: How do I get the documents to the PLATOCODE server?
A: The PLATOCODE server is offsite, maintained by the PLATOCODE company. It receives encrypted charts and returns encrypted results. The usual transfer mechanism is SSL via HTTPS port 443. We supply you with a PLATOCODE "FileCoder" application that automatically encrypts and sends your charts to the PLATOCODE server and stores the results.
The PLATOCODE FileCoder
Q: What exactly is the FileCoder?
A: It is a small 32-bit Windows application that receives cases from your facility, sends them to the PLATOCODE server, and stores the results. It also compiles useful statistics for HIM Directors and others.
Q: Where does the FileCoder run?
A: It runs at your facility, configured as a service or scheduled application on a Windows PC or Application server. It is a small 32-bit application that does not need its own server, though generally its machine is called the "FileCoder Server" to distinguish it from the coder PC.
The FileCoder Server
Q: What versions of Windows will the FileCoder run on?
A: The system can run on any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Version since Windows 95. We would recommend Windows XP or later for client OS and Windows Server 2003 or later for Server OS.
Q: What machine specification is needed for the FileCoder Server?
Usually the FileCoder is installed onto the same machine as the PLATOCODE Results Database. However, if this is not the case then the hard ware requirements of this machine are as follows:
Processor: Intel PIII 866MHz (minimum)/Intel P4 2.0GHz (recommended).
RAM: 1GB (minimum)/2GB (recommended).
Hard Disk: 200MB (minimum)/1GB (recommended). SCSI/RAID is not required.
OS: Windows 2000 Server (minimum) or Windows 2003 Server (recommended) and above.
Network: 100MB/s.
Server Virtualisation: Supported.
Q: Does FileCoder run all the time?
A: The FileCoder can be scheduled to run as often as appropriate. Or it can run as a service in which case it runs all the time. The main benefit of running as a service is that results can be available within moments, 24/7. This may not be necessary at your facility. We would discuss and agree a mechanism with you during implementation.
Q: Will FileCoder affect other applications on the same machine?
A: FileCoder uses minimal resource. Its memory use is unlikely to exceed 32Mb. Its workload is minimal, essentially encrypting and sending cases to the PLATOCODE server and waiting for the result. It is unlikely to affect other applications on an appropriately sized Application server.
Q: How does the FileCoder send documents to the PLATOCODE server?
A: It submits them as HTTPS messages. The message is additionally encrypted using Blowfish 448 or AES. Results are encrypted and returned as a standard HTTPS response. FileCoder stores the encrypted results until a coder is ready to review them.
A: No. Please contact us for a technical document about FileCoder's failsafe features.
Q: Some applications can freeze a machine while they wait for an internet response. Does FileCoder?
A: No. The FileCoder uses minimal resource while waiting for an internet response. The keyboard and other applications remain responsive.
A: FileCoder connects using Port 443 which is the standard HTTPS port. If outgoing port 443 is not already open on your firewall you would need to open an outgoing port 443 from the FileCoder Server's IP or to the external PLATOCODE server's IP.
Q: Where does the FileCoder store the results?
A: In a Results Database at your facility.
The Results Database
Q: What gets stored in the Results Database?
A: Document identifiers and the encrypted stream from the PLATOCODE server are stored in the Results database. The database also optionally stores information for management reporting.
Q: Does it need its own database server?
A: No. We recommend using an existing Database Server at your facility.
Q: What sort of database is it?
A: The FileCoder can use SQL Server 6.0 or later, Oracle, MySQL or local flat files.
Q: What data volumes are generated?
The amount of space that is required on your Results Database is dependent on several factors:
The volume of cases that will be coded by the PLATOCODE CAC system.
The types of cases (radiology, outpatient surgery etc) that will be coded by the PLATOCODE CAC system.
If you want to store detailed information on coder statistics for reporting purposes.
A simple rule is that a radiology case requires 8KB storage per case and that an outpatient surgery case requires 16KB storage per case. If your facility codes 25000 radiology cases and 12000 outpatient surgery cases per year then the storage requirements for one year's worth of data is:
25,000 * 8KB + 12,000 * 16KB = 392,000KB ~ 382MB per year
If you choose to store detailed information on coder statistics for reporting purposes then this number effectively doubles to 764MB per year.
Q: What are the HIPAA implications of the Results database?
A: The database is maintained by you at your facility using your standard database protection measures. Patient Health Information (PHI) in the database is encrypted, meaning it is not accessible except via the PLATOCODE system. The PLATOCODE system decrypts and presents the information to the coder when she starts coding a case, at which time the patient's records are already available to the coder in your other systems. Clearly the Results Database is not a designated dataset. These characteristics minimize your HIPAA documentation requirements.
Q: How does the coder review the results?
A: We supply a PLATOCODE Viewer application that the coder can use to access results.
The PLATOCODE Viewer
Q: What is the PLATOCODE Viewer?
A: The PLATOCODE Viewer is a 32-bit application/dll used by coders to validate the Results and return them to your other systems for billing.
A: It can be installed on the Coder's PC, run from a Server, or run using Citrix or Terminal Services.
A: We supply an auto installer, though this may require Administrator privileges to run on Vista or locked-down PCs. If run from a server or via Terminal Services you may not need to do anything else. We would discuss and agree a mechanism with you during implementation.
Q: What are the minimum PC specifications for the PLATOCODE Viewer?
Processor: Minimum that the host OS supports.RAM: Minimum that the host OS supports.Hard Disk: 20MBOS: Windows 95 and above.Network: 100MB/s.Q: How does the Viewer access the Results Database?
A: It uses the standard ODBC driver for the database you select. Usually this is already available on the coder's PC.
Q: Do I need an ODBC DSN on each machine?
A: No. The system uses connection strings.
Q: Where is the connection string stored?
A: It's encrypted (a reply you'll hear often when speaking with PLATOCODE technical people!) and stored in a location you choose. We supply a configuration exe to allow you to maintain the connection string.
Q: How does the Viewer interact with other systems?
A: We supply "plugins" for the system to work with prevalent Abstractor and Encoder tools.
Q: What happens if the Viewer can't access the Results Database? Can the coder still work?
A: Yes. Please contact us for a technical document about the PLATOCODE Viewer's failsafe features, including the ability to identify and report unresponsive other applications.
