Preference Settings

A complete guide to all of the preference settings AngelTrack has to offer

AngelTrack has many adjustable aspects to better your experience using the system and ensure that it will always be compliant with your organizations policies.


Preferences

Timeclock

These settings control the behavior of AngelTrack's built-in timeclock. To learn more about the timeclock, read the Timeclock Guide.

Pay period

Specify when the workweek begins -- say, Sunday at midnight. This allows AngelTrack's timeclock to show you which employees are nearing or in overtime.

Check the "Allow clockout while still in a shift?" box if you allow your employees to clockout and leave without notifying Dispatch that they are out of service. If the box is left unchecked, then employees are not permitted to clockout until Dispatch has ended their Shift.

On-call employees

Tick this checkbox if you allow employees to go home and be "on call". They will then be allowed to freely switch themselves from on-call to on-duty to off-duty.

☑ Automatically switch on-call to on-duty when a dispatch is assigned

Tick this checkbox if you would like AngelTrack to automatically convert employees who are on-call to on-duty when a dispatch is assigned to them. When that event occurs, their timecard will then look like this:

Timeclock.OnCallSwitch-2

☑ Allow switching from on-duty to on-call when reports are overdue

When this checkbox is ticked, crew members are permitted to switch themselves from on-duty to on-call even when they have unfinished/uncorrected reports that are overdue. Enable this setting when you use the on-call system for tracking mid-shift breaks.

☑ Allow clockout while still in a shift

When this checkbox is ticked, crew members are permitted to clock out and go home without calling their dispatcher to report an end of shift. Your dispatchers will have to decide on their own when to end the on-duty shifts.

Punctuality limits

These limits are used to generate the punctuality status report shown to all crew members on their home page. Set the limits to reflect company policy concerning the maximum permitted tardies and absences within a time period. The limits, along with the employee's current standing, are displayed like this on the Crew home page:

PunctualityStatus

AngelTrack is simply a record-keeping system for these limits, to ensure that both the employee and employer know their status. You can use the Employee Punctuality Report under HR home to monitor all employees' tardy and absence rates.

Report completion settings

These settings control what AngelTrack's PCR requires before permitting the crew to submit their reports and then clock out.

Denying clockout for unfinished reports

The report completion settings allow you to specify which reports -- if any -- are allowed to remain unfinished when a crew member clocks out. AngelTrack will not permit a crew member to clockout when he or she has unfinished and/or uncorrected reports that are older than the limit you set.

Supervisors may wish to have a longer grace period due to their other responsibilities.

Enroute mileage

If you charge for mileage driven to a telemedicine or on-scene labs call, check the appropriate box. Crews will then be prompted to enter their odometer readings: the starting odometer reading is recorded when the crew goes enroute, and the ending odometer reading when the crew arrives on-scene.

Note that this is the mileage driven to the origin of the call, rather than to the destination.

Other checkboxes

The many checkboxes under "Report Completion" determine whether the attending is permitted to send a report onward to QA when certain data is missing. When one of these checkboxes is checked, AngelTrack's PCR calls out the missing data in bright red, so the attending will understand what is being demanded.

The PCR's built-in requirements for patient demographic data are:

Call type Patient datafields required Billing datafields required
All dispatches First name
Last name
[No requirements]
☑ Billable, and
☑ Bill insurance*
Date of birth
Social security number**
Gender
Weight
Primary insurance type
Primary insurance ID number
Primary insurance provider name***
Primary insured relation to patient
Secondary insurance type
Secondary insurance ID number
Secondary insurance name***
Secondary insured relation to patient
☑ Billable, and
☑ Bill patient
Date of birth
Social security number**
Mailing address
[No requirements]

*Check the ☑ Require all of the demographic data needed to bill insurance box to always gather demographic data for insurance billing on all stretcher calls, regardless of billing arrangements.
**This requirement can be turned off by unchecking ☑ The patient's Social Security Number must be recorded for all insured calls.
***This requirement applies only if the insurance type is not Medicare or Medicaid.

PCS completion mode

There are three different PCS completion modes, in order to match AngelTrack's behavior to your company policy. Read the PCS Requirements guide to learn more about them. Selecting either ☑ Required or ☑ Always will prevent the attending from sending his report onward to QA if a needed PCS form is missing.

Dispatch

Services offered

Tick the checkbox next to each service that your company offers; untick those you do not. Only the ticked services will be shown to dispatchers and billers, all others will be hidden.

The wheelchair service level cannot be disabled, because it is the fallback service level used when stretcher crews do not perform sufficient procedures or sufficient PCR bookkeeping to justify billing for stretcher services.

The gurney service level is intended for use in those few states which recognize "non-medical stretcher transport" as a valid service. For all other states, you can use gurney service as a "deluxe" wheelchair service level that has distinct prices and (perhaps) distinct vehicles. For example you could use it for special bariatric or Hoyer wheelchair service. Gurney service in AngelTrack behaves just like wheelchair, with the same PCR requirements, so it will be seamless to your crews. Read the Gurney Service Guide to learn how to implement the gurney service level.

Defaults

Specify the dispatch settings that will be preset when a dispatcher clicks the Add.large-2 button to book a new call.

Leg time warnings

You can adjust the numbers of minutes at which the dispatch board turns red to indicate an abnormally long delay, like this 10-minute delay:

LegTimesWarning

Unattended mode

If you allow unattended dispatch mode, then your dispatchers will have the option (on the dispatch board) to enable it during those times when nobody will be manning the dispatch board. When enabled, crews are permitted to set and change their destinations, and to close their own calls, without notifying a dispatcher. To learn more, read the Unattended Dispatch Guide.

Next dispatch ID

AngelTrack numbers its runs sequentially, starting at 1. If you are transitioning from another CAD system and wish to continue your current sequence of run IDs, AngelTrack's run IDs can pick up where the old system left off. Contact the folks at AngelTrack Technical Support using the link provided, and they will be happy to adjust your starting run ID.

Caveat! These run IDs must increase over time, as new records are added to the system; their issued ID numbers cannot ever decrease. Therefore, if you set a starting run ID of (say) 100000, and then some dispatch records are created as 100000, 100001, 100002, and so forth, you cannot thereafter switch back to smaller ID numbers like 1000, 1001, 1002, and so forth.

This is relevant for EMS operations who want their run IDs to reflect the current year. For example, in the year 2018 you may want all of your run IDs to begin with "18", as in 1800001, 1800002, 1800003, and so on. That is perfectly acceptable, and you will have no problems. You can even change ID numbers monthly, for example in March 2018 you could have run IDs 180300000, 180300001, 180300002, etc. However, what you cannot do is put the month number in front of the year number, like 031800001, 03180002, 03180003.

Crew assignments

Normally, AngelTrack shows all crews their upcoming assigned dispatches. They can review the list on their Crew Home page, which is accessible to them whenever they do not have an active dispatch assigned. If you wish to prevent your crews from seeing the list, untick the ☑ Crew members can see their upcoming assigned calls on their Crew Home page. Lieutenants and Captains are unaffected by this setting, because they already have the authority to view the entire dispatch board.

Likewise, AngelTrack shows all crews their recent run reports for several days after they are finished and sent to QA. The number of days is configurable, allowing you to determine how many days' worth of prior finished reports they can review. (Crew members can always view and modify run reports that are not yet finished, no matter how old.)

You can also globally disable AngelTrack's dispatch notification emails, which AngelTrack would normally send to all relevant crew members who have configured their messaging address to receive them.

QA review

Set the percent of applicable reports that are subject to QA review:

Setting Effect
100% All reports pass through QA review, unless excluded by the ☑ Skip setting below.
10% to 90% The specified percentage of reports are randomly selected for QA review; all others are sent straight to  Billing office  without review. Dispatches excluded by the ☑ Skip setting below also go straight to  Billing office .
0% QA review is disabled, completed reports go straight to  Billing office .

☑ Emergent and ALS+ reports are always selected for review

This checkbox is available when your QA rate is less than 100%. Tick the checkbox to force all emergent calls, all ALS calls, and all MICU calls to go through QA review... even if they otherwise might've been allowed to skip.

☑ Skip QA review if there was no patient care and if signatures and mileage are in order

Tick this checkbox if you wish to allow wheelchair runs and other no-patient-care services to skip QA, provided their signatures and mileages are in order. Mileage is considered 'in order' if it is no more than double the normal mileage for the route. There is typically very little for QA to review on such transports, so it saves time to just skip it.

Crew certificates

These settings control how AngelTrack calculates the effective service level of a crew. States vary on what certificate is required for the second crew member onboard; for example, some states require a BLS shift to have two BLS crew members; others require just one BLS crew member plus a driver.

There are separate settings for the BLS crew requirement and the ALS crew requirement. Intermediate crews (BLS-I and ALS-I) use the rule configured for BLS crews.

CPR certificate requirements

Tick or untick the checkboxes to reflect Health Department regulations in your state and city. If a box is checked (i.e. if a CPR certificate is required), then AngelTrack will require a shift's crew members to have up-to-date CPR certificates in order to qualify as their patch level. For example, a shift with a single crew member who has a "Wheelchair Transport" certificate will NOT qualify for "Wheelchair Transport" dispatches unless the crew member also has an active CPR certificate.

Note that a dispatcher can always override AngelTrack, and assign a dispatch to an unqualified crew.

Billing

Tick the ☑ Medicare requires prior authorization for non-emergent transport checkbox if you are in a state where your MAC has implemented prior authorization requirements for Medicare non-emergent transports.

Tick the ☑ Medicaid requires prior authorization for non-emergent transport checkbox if you are in a state where the Medicaid carrier demands a PCS-like certification form for covered non-emergent transports. AngelTrack has an electronic "McPAN" form based on the South Carolina DHEC form, which may also be acceptable in your state.

Tick the ☑ Car transports are presumed to be insurable if you want AngelTrack to automatically tick the ☑ Bill insurance checkbox when a dispatcher is booking a new car service call. Naturally the dispatcher can manually tick or untick the box at any time; this setting only controls whether AngelTrack will do so automatically.

Likewise for the ☑ Wheelchair transports are presumed to be insurable checkbox.

Likewise for the ☑ Gurney transports are presumed to be insurable checkbox.

Likewise for the ☑ Labs visits are presumed to be insurable checkbox.

Likewise for the ☑ Telemedicine visits are presumed to be insurable checkbox.

"Stale receivables" is the time interval for a dispatch to be regarded as "stale". Dispatches that are  Awaiting payment  and have no payment activity for this many days are reported in the Stale Receivables Queue.

Automatically write off will find all receivables that have not seen any payment activity (payment events or committed invoices) in the specified number of months, and automatically advance them to  Finished , pricing them at retail if they are marked ☑ Billable and not yet priced. This includes dispatches still in QA review, if they have languished there for more months than specified in this setting.

Untick the ☑ Include the screen-only red background in generated CMS-1500 forms box if your PDF reader and/or printer driver fails to omit the red background from AngelTrack's CMS-1500 form during printing.

The "Patient documents" setting controls the number of days that patient documents persist, appearing in all run reports of their respective patients. This setting applies only to the following document types:

  • Face sheet
  • Medication list
  • Past medical history (PMHx)
  • Physical / Progress
  • Advanced directive without DNR
  • Insurance card
To learn more about patient document handling, refer to the Documents guide.

Trauma Registry

If AngelTrack is uploading your run reports to your state trauma registry, or is at least generating the bulk NEMSIS XML run reports for you to manually upload, then you have some options.

The document inclusion setting determines which documents are included in the NEMSIS XML data package. Most state trauma registries are not interested in receiving any document attachments; others want just the electronic signatures and directly attached documents, such as ECG strips.

Tick the ☑ Send report on submission to QA if your state's trauma registry requires immediate upload of run reports as soon as the crews complete them, without waiting for QA review and corrections.

To learn more about trauma registry uploads, refer to the State Trauma Registry Upload Guide.

Customer Portal

You may allow or prohibit your customers (nursing homes, hospitals, individual patients at home) from using the Customer Portal to request future transportation.

If you allow it, then you may also provide an email address to receive copies of all customer requests. This email address is optional, because customer requests are positively stored by AngelTrack, appearing to dispatchers in the Requests for Transport queue in Dispatch Home. To specify multiple email addresses, list them separated by semicolons.

To learn more about online booking and customer requests for transport, read the Customer Portal Requests for Transport Guide.

Miscellaneous

Specify a number of hours in the "Usual shift length" box so that the Shift Begin page have the correct shift length already configured.

Specify a number of days in the "Passwords expire" box in order to force employees to occasionally change their passwords.