Audit Log Most Common Practices

EZDERM Audit Log in its most basic term is a record that shows who has accessed the EZDERM system, when it was accessed, and what operations were performed. 

 

Each audit log usually provides answers to the following questions:

• WHEN - Date & Time when a certain event took place
• WHO - Patient or User - this is a unique value. Please make sure to provide each user in your office with separate credentials and access to EZDERM. We strongly advise against sharing devices and/or the same credentials (username and password) within the office
• WHAT - Action(s) took place: Access, Add, Edit, Delete, etc.
• WHERE - On which application the event took place: EHR, PMS, SADIO WEB, EZCHECKIN
• WHY - for practice to find out and the reason why the audit log is used

User Audit Log is available for any user role that is marked as Admin in the settings and for Biller roles marked as Biller Admin in the account settings. If you are a Lite user of the Audit Log you are only able to access the information back 7 days. If you would like the ability to record and have the capability to pull audit logs up to one year back, please click here to fill out the form, or please reach our techsupport@ezderm.com and sign up for an Audit Log Premium. 

Now that you know that you have access to at least the Lite version of the audit log, how do you plan on using it? Below you will find the most common practices and questions regarding the Audit Log and its different audit types. We hope you find them useful in your office. 

 

A patient is missing in our system. Who deleted the patient?

One of the many amazing things about the audit log is that it can pull all the patients in the system, even the ones that have been deleted or marked as inactive. If you are looking for a specific patient please enter the patient's information in the bottom right corner of the Patient(s) audit type. You can search by the patient's first name, last name, date of birth, medical record number, phone number, or a combination of such. 

For example, you can find a patient Michael Barnett by typing in the patient's first name and area code number as displayed below.

 

 

Detecting unauthorized access to charts on weekends or after hours.

If you would like to identify if someone has accessed a chart during closed hours and on weekends, use the patient(s) audit type with the Access action filter. Make sure to select the correct date and time that will reflect the closed office hours or days in your office. An example of the selection is provided below.

 

 

Changes or errors with patient demographic information

Rarely you will have a situation where a patient's information was changed accidentally. Either the office has provided the EZDERM check-in kiosk to the wrong patient or a staff member has overwritten the patient information using the browser autofill function. Whatever the case may be, you will be able to identify this change by selecting the Patient(s) audit type and selecting the Edit action from the dropdown. The system will show the change in the following format: Old Information >>> New Information. (see image below)

 

Someone deleted the patient's appointment. Can you help us find out who rescheduled the patient's appointment? 

To answer these questions, you will need to use the audit type with the Appointment(s) selection. If you know which patient is this audit concerning select the patient name by searching in the bottom right corner. If you would like to know if someone edited the appointment select the edit action. Remember that if you do not select any action, the system will display all actions, in this case, Add, Edit, and Delete.

 

 

The patient is stating they have received two email appointment reminders?

EZDERM will send a patient email appointment reminder as soon as the appointment is created on the schedule. EZDERM will also send an email appointment reminder immediately if the appointment is changed or altered. if the patient is claiming they have received two emails with different appointment times, there is a chance that a staff member moved the appointment accidentally. The Appointment(s) audit type with the Edit Action will help the office find out who moved the appointment as shown in an example below.

 

How to find out who changed the status of the patient?

To find out who changed the status on the patient, use the same Appointment(s) audit type, but now select the Edit action and select the patient'ss name. Hover over the blue Edit button as shown in the image below and you will be able to see the action or change that took place. In this scenario, the patient's status was changed back from Ready for Staff back to Arrived.

Who deleted or changed the value of an item? 

If you would like to know who added, edited, or deleted an item for a specific patient, please select the Patient Item(s) audit type and select the desired patient as shown in the image below. 

 

If the user makes any changes to an item, hovering over the Edit screen you will see the Edit amount, Edt Grand Total, and the number of units. This audit type is useful if you are meticulous about tracking inventory within EZDERM.

 

A missing document. Who deleted a document for a patient? 

If you would like to find out if and who deleted any patient document you can select Document(s) audit type and choose the Delete Action item as depicted below.

 

 

The result(s) will display the name(s) of the document(s) that was/were deleted as shown in the example below.

 

 

How to find out if someone was accessing your reports?

To find out if someone has accessed a specific or all of your reports within the practice, select the Report(s) audit type. You can pull an audit log for a specific user(s) for all the reports or choose a specific report for all the users. (see image below)

 

 

What medication did I submit Electronically today? Who prescribed the medication for this patient?

To find out all the medications that were prescribed electronically within the EZDERM EHR system, please select the eRx(s) audit type. You can easily pull an audit log that will tell you which user prescribed a medication for a specific patient.

 

 

You can also easily pull a list of medications that were electronically prescribed for a specific day.

 

 

We cannot locate a biopsy requisition for a biopsy we have performed?

To find out if a biopsy has been canceled please select the Order(s) audit type. This audit type will show you all types of orders that were placed and canceled. Pathology, laboratory, or radiology orders. 

For example to find out if a biopsy order was canceled, please use the selection shown in the image below.

 

Hovering over the three dots "..." at the end of the order name will display the full name of the order log in a pop-up window. (see image below)

 

How to find out who completed a ToDo?

Whether you want to find out which user completed a To-Do(s) for a specific patient please use the selection below.

 

 

You can also find out if someone made changes to a To-Do(s) message(s) if someone reassigned a To-Do(s) and similar actions.

We hope you find these audit log suggestions useful. Remember to create detailed policies and procedures in your office and educate your staff on changes to these procedures. Sometimes policy and good intentions might not be enough, therefore knowing how to use the audit log can be a crucial part of your workflow.