This document is designed for Bluechip and Clinical users, and describes how linking works, how to establish and configure a link between Bluechip and Clinical, and how to transfer patient records from Bluechip to Clinical.

Configuring Bluechip to Link with Clinical

After both programs have been installed, you will need to link Bluechip to Clinical. Perform the following steps on the server machine (or your stand-alone machine, as the case may be).

1.      On the server, in Bluechip, select Setup > Practice > Links > Medical Director. The Medical Director Setup window appears.

 

2.      Tick the Link Bluechip to Medical Director check box.

3.      Tick the Start MD when Bluechip Starts check box if you want Clinical to start when Bluechip Starts.

4.      Tick the Read MD TRANSFER.OUT Patient Updates check box to have Bluechip read MD Transfer.out patient updates.

It is advised not to make patient demographic changes via Clinical, but rather via Bluechip. Changing patient demographics from Clinical will cause loss of Patient Phone Number and Email Address in Bluechip. This path is to be used for the transfer of MD Billing information from Clinical to Bluechip only.

Point the Transfer.out location to the Bluedata directory. This path is the same as the patients.in path.

 

5.      Dump all patient details to Clinical allows you to dump all patient details to Clinical. You will only use this function if you have new installation of Clinical to get all the patients from Bluechip to Clinical.

Configuring the Link File Processor

You will need to do this whether you’ve installed Clinical as new or you don’t see LFP running on the server

1.      Ensure both Bluechip and Clinical are closed.

2.      Locate and run the Maintenance suite. There is usually an icon on your desktop for this.

3.      In the Database Tasks panel, select Clinical.

4.      Double-click the Link File Processor icon.

 

5.      You may be prompted that some options have to be enabled in Clinical in order to allow it to link to Bluechip. Click to continue.

 

6.      If the Link Options window is not already displayed, you will need to right-click the LFP icon    in the system tray, and select ‘LFP Service Manager’.

7.      The Link File Processor Service Manager appears. Click

8.      You will be prompted to select the appropriate username and configuration you wish to use and enter your password.

9.      The Link File Processor Service Options window appears. Set the following options:

o      Check the ‘Read Link File from this computer’” box.

o      Check the ‘Load LFP Service Manager on Startup?’ box.

o      Use the Browse button to set the Link File Path to the folder set in the Bluechip configuration you set earlier. Note you must choose a local path, as network paths are not supported.

o      Do not tick the ‘Delete link file after reading’ box

o      Link File Size Limit = 3000 KB.

10.   Select the Database tab. Set the following options:

o      Ensure the Database is set to MD Live Data

o      Check the ‘Linked to Billing Package’ box

o      Link File Format = GENERIC ASCII V3

o      None of the settings are mandatory. If in doubt, do not tick any of these boxes.

 

11.   Click to confirm. You will receive a prompt the options have been saved and the options restarted.

12. Click the Hide button to minimise the Link File Processor Service Manager to the system tray.

13. Exit from MedicalDirector Maintenance.

Configuring Clinical to Link with Bluechip

You will need to do this whether you’ve installed Clinical as new, or you are experiencing trouble linking with BlueChip.

1.      Log into Clinical.

2.      Select Tools > Options.

3.      Select the Links tab.

o      Tick the Link to billing package box.

o      Tick the Link to Other Billing Package box.

 

4.      Click  The Advanced Link Options window appears.

5.      Specify the ‘Path for output files’:

o      Server/Standalone: The same path as the Bluechip TRANSFER.OUT path configuration you set earlier.

o      Workstation: \\Server\\Bluedata\BCPractice (where Server is the name of your server computer, and BCPractice is the name of your Bluechip database).

 

6.      Click

7.      Click again to save these changes and exit from the Options window. You will be prompted to exit and restart Clinical. You must do so.

 

How Linking Works from Bluechip to Clinical

New patients added to the Bluechip database, or changes to existing patients in Bluechip are passed to Clinical via the Patients.in file, which is read and processed by the Link File Processor.

 

MD Billing - Clinical to Bluechip (MBS items)

When an MBS item number is specified in the patient’s Progress Notes, and the patient’s record is closed, then the patient’s name and the item number are transferred to Bluechip via the Visits.out file.

In Bluechip when you create a new invoice for the patient, the MBS item appears at the top of the New Invoice window.

The MBS item information also appears in the MD Billing window, in Practice Explorer.