Gotta Love the FAA

tmyers

tmyers

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Tim Myers
Venting here!!!!!

Medxpress all filled out and saved on 3/1/13 with a visit scheduled to the AME on 3/15. Said visit cancelled because the FAA is working on their website. So it is rescheduled for 3/29. The saved form should still be there so still no real problem. Today log in to verify everything and submit it. It is all gone. When I open the form it is empty. Call their help desk and they have no record of a saved form from 3/1 in their files. They are going to look a little deeper to see if they can find it but I am not very hopeful.

Not a huge deal except for typing all the medical visits back in, at 56 I have a lot more of those than I used to. ( No comments from the MI peanut gallery aka Ed )

Enough of the venting, now for the question.

I typed in every visit originally. For example, I had knee Sx in December so I entered every Dr and lab visit, probably 10 or 12 in all. I have read from some that I didn't need to do that since they were all for the knee Sx I would only need one entry. Truth or fiction?

Advice here Bruce, if I don't need to do all that typing I would rather not.
 
If your info does reappear, try printing out a hard copy to bring with you just in case the AME is not able to pull it up that day.
 
I actually did print a hard copy but when it printed it truncates the medical visits so you don't see them all.

Update, FAA IT folks called and it's lost so I get to retype the medical stuff. The guy also told me the medical portion is limited to 20 entrys.
 
I too had a LONG laundry list of dr visits for my last med-express experience. At that time, the site provided a check box stating that you would provide a hard-copy addendum for the AME to submit with the med-express form.
I just checked the box and stated on the med-express to refer to the addendum.

Neither the AME nor OKC had any problem with it, so you might consider that route.
 
Sounds like a good idea as I keep track of all my Dr visits on a word document. I had the fainted hope that I could just type them into the FAA site and eliminate the word document. No way I am trusting that again.

Thanks for the idea.
 
Having the word doc is a good idea. That way you just keep updating it medical to medical. No need to remember what happened back in 2008 or whenever. :)
 
Word or excel document to track visits makes sense. Makes it simple to copy/paste into the form.

For recording doctor visits, at first I thought I needed to do one line per visit, even if it was for same condition.

Then Bruce and others corrected me that if you're seeing the same doc for the same thing on different dates, just use one line for the doctor and address, then in the explanation box, just put date of visit and what you did on that date. Sorta like

Dr. Quackenbush; 123 Main, Anytown; 1/2/13, Labs and exam for condition A; 1/21/13, follow up visit to discuss lab/exam results and treatment for condition A; 2/10/13, Follow up visit to discuss treatment progression; 3/10/13, follow up visit to review treatment progress.​
 
This is what it says in the destructions!!

"Multiple visits to one healthcare provider for the same condition may be aggregated to one line"

The form is a bit limited with the data boxes as follows:

Date, Name, Number/Street, City, State, Zip, Country, Type professional, and Reason

I think you can type about as much as you need to in the reason box but I don't know of you can input a bracket for a range of dates. I will be working on it tonight and will let you know how it turns out.
 
If one would simply quit making visits, then one would have nothing to remember nor record.
 
Tim, your Doc probably downloaded it in preparation for the migration of the file. If he did, it would be gone, and in his inbox. I did this at noon, March 14 to prevent data loss.

You can always create a hotmail addy and do it again.
Multiple files failed reindexing. I have 10-12 in process at any moment and I have about a dozen emails from OKC folks asking for all of the identifiers on those files- They are OBVIOUSLY trying to find them.

The server conversion was done, all the tabs and links are in different places on the OKC end, and no instruction was given. "okay, it's all here, go to work".

So first ask you doc if his office downloaded it. If he did, make the correctons with him while the exam is going on. If not, you DID keep your PDF copy, didn't you...... and you can create a new one, from the old, by registering at MedXpress with a different email. The system does permit that.
 
I've lost info and had to re-do it both times I've used the system. And why can't I see the history??? Wouldn't you love to see how much $$$ the FAA has paid to develop and maintain that POS????
 
CT4ME said:
I've lost info and had to re-do it both times I've used the system. And why can't I see the history??? Wouldn't you love to see how much $$$ the FAA has paid to develop and maintain that POS????
Click to expand...

These computer programs are purchased under government contracting. Yes, they are POS from day 1 and never work quite right. The developer also contracts to maintain the system, hence another reason they will never work right.

While I was at the FAA I had to maintain about 30 passwords and user names to all of the programs we used and they all had to be changed every 90 days. None of the programs talked to one or another requiring lots of duplication. Most often when a program was "upgraded" meant weeks of downtime and bugs to be worked out. I can remember on several occasions writing line after line of information only to have it lost. From what I've heard this is not isolated to the FAA but other agencies as well.
 
Thanks for the response Bruce. I came home and re-input everything. I combined the visits for the same illness, so it wasn't that bad to redo. I had not submitted it on 3/1 so would he have had access to it if not submitted. It really wasn't that bad to re input once I got my word document in my hands.

Wish me luck, last time I saw my PCP I had a White Coat BP reading with the nurse (no shes isn't that good looking). Ten minutes later with my Dr it was fine, never had that before.
 
RotorAndWing said:
These computer programs are purchased under government contracting. Yes, they are POS from day 1 and never work quite right. The developer also contracts to maintain the system, hence another reason they will never work right.

While I was at the FAA I had to maintain about 30 passwords and user names to all of the programs we used and they all had to be changed every 90 days. None of the programs talked to one or another requiring lots of duplication. Most often when a program was "upgraded" meant weeks of downtime and bugs to be worked out. I can remember on several occasions writing line after line of information only to have it lost. From what I've heard this is not isolated to the FAA but other agencies as well.
Click to expand...
This may not make your head spin, but it should. For you and I have both seen this.

OMB withdrew all tech support to a center in Washington. Warren Silberman managed to reclassify one of the individuals so she was able to remain at site. The same guys who do VAH systems (veteran's hospitals, and when the IP phones go down it's like the Bellvue hospital in 1910) now do FAA. Civil Aeromedical had no choice, as there was no longer anyone on site to do maintainence, troubleshooting, tech support, etc, to move the data to an external contract server with contracted support, and tech support from a remote site. Think how well that's going to work.....:hairraise: . It's not like anybody at OKC wished for this.

It's just been chaos. Think about this from an administrative point of view: The designee in the field has more information about the airman than you at the home office do. For the first time I am hearing in conversation, those five and four letter words that cannot be shared. Those aboard the ship are doing the best they can without being able to access the engine room and engineering suite. Sigh.

As my now quite senile father used to say: "OBSERVE! What little wisdom is used in governance ....".

Now today (3/29) I understand that the contractor for the migration refused to bid on the annual support contract. So starting tomorrow, there is no tech support for the agency side. Whadda CF. Any tech support will be from the outside.....from guys who are looking at the specs and going...."I wonder how they did this....".
 
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