PCC 8.3 Release

In February of 2018, PCC will release version 8.3 of our electronic charting and practice management software to all PCC users.

The PCC 8.3 release includes form letters in PCC EHR, diagnosis searching improvements, multi-location support in the PCC EHR Appointment Book, and immunization barcode support for the Lot Manager.

Watch a Video: Want to watch a video summary of everything in this release? CLICK HERE

Implementation: The new features in PCC 8.3 require configuration and user-specific software training. Read about the features below and then review the PCC 8.3 Migration Considerations article.

Read below to learn more, and contact PCC Support for information about these new features or about any PCC product or service.

Generate Form Letters in PCC EHR

The new chart-wide Forms component gives you access to all Partner patient forms from within PCC EHR.

When you click “Generate”, a pop-up appears prompting for any required information.

Next, PCC EHR opens the Document Viewer, where you can review the form, optionally attach it to a visit or order, indicate whether or not it will appear in the patient portal, and print it.

By default, PCC EHR will save forms to the “Forms” document category in the patient’s chart. You can change this default on the Assigned Categories tab in the Documents Administration tool.

What Forms Are Included?: As part of your PCC 8.3 update, all of your practice’s Partner patient forms are migrated to PCC EHR. If you want to add or remove forms in PCC EHR, work with your PCC Client Advocate.

You can add the Forms component to any chart note protocol. You can select which forms will appear by default for “one click” generating on each chart note. The Forms component will always display the drop-down menu giving you access to all forms.

Generate Immunization School Forms in PCC EHR

Click “Print” at the top of a patient’s Immunization record to generate your practice’s customizable school form.



If your office has multiple school form formats, you can select the one you want before printing.



If you don’t see the school form you expect, get in touch with your PCC Client Advocate. They can help you customize and configure your school form(s) so they are available and print correctly from PCC EHR.

Powerful and Intelligent Diagnosis Searching

When you search for diagnoses, PCC EHR now searches independently of the order of your terms, and will allow searches of partial words.

This improved search capability has also been implemented in other search boxes in PCC EHR, including lab order selection, allergy list, family history, patient lists, and more.

Multi-Location Practices Can Schedule With the Appointment Book

The PCC EHR Appointment Book’s user-friendly, powerful workflow features are now available to practices that need to schedule among multiple locations. Schedulers can view, create, and cancel appointments at any location.

Use the Location drop-down field in combination with the Provider drop-down to see a provider’s availability across all of your practice’s locations.


For a quick scan across all of your providers at all of your locations, use the Day view in conjunction with the Location selection.


Does Your Practice Use Care Centers?: If your practice uses care centers, then each scheduler will only be able to schedule within the location(s) connected to the care center they are assigned to.

Configure Provider Hours by Location

Use the Provider Regular Hours tab within the Provider Hours tool to set each provider’s default availability by location.


You can choose a location for each block of time the provider works, so they could be scheduled at multiple locations over the course of the day.

Providers at Care Centers: If your practice uses care centers, the Location selections for each provider will be restricted to location(s) connected to the care center each provider is assigned to.

If your practice hasn’t looked at the Appointment Book in a while, the PCC 8.3 edition includes a multi-provider Day view, onscreen indicators of all scheduling activity, appointment grid scaling, and custom visit lengths of any five-minute increment. You can save time and see your whole schedule in a clear, graphical layout right in PCC EHR. Learn more.

Use Barcode Scanning to Manage Your Vaccine Inventory

You can use a barcode scanner to manage your vaccine inventory in PCC EHR.

To enter a new lot, simply open the Lot Manager, click the “Scan” button, and scan the barcode.


Always Ready: The Lot Manager is always listening for input from a barcode scanner; you can scan without clicking the “Scan” button, saving a step in your workflow.


If the lot scanned is a new lot, the Add Lot window will open and auto-fill all the information it retrieves from the barcode.

You can manually make any adjustments, enter a funding source and the quantity, and then click “Save” to add the lot.

If the lot already exists, you will see a list of matching lots at your location. Select the appropriate lot, or click “Add New Lot” if you want to create a new lot.

If a new lot is expired, PCC EHR will give you a warning, and you can not add it automatically. If you wish, you can still enter the new lot manually.

Additionally, if a barcode is damaged or otherwise unreadable, you will see a “The Barcode Could Not Be Read” error. You can still enter the lot manually in the Lot Manager.

Primary vs. Secondary Packaging: Barcodes can be found on both primary packaging (e.g. the vials that contain the vaccine) and secondary packaging (e.g. the box that contains the vials). The information contained in each is the same, and you can scan either one.

Use the Square Barcode, Not the Lines: Vaccine manufacturers use 2D barcodes on packaging to store information. The 2D barcode will be a square-shaped collection of smaller squares (as opposed to a 1D barcode which is a series of vertical lines, like you would expect to see on food packaging at the grocery store). QR codes that you might scan with your phone are an everyday example of a 2D barcode.

Which Scanner Should I Use? How Do I Get Started?: To how to get started with barcode scanning for immunization inventory management, read the PCC 8.3 Migration Considerations article.

pocketPCC Now Includes All Tasks and Patient Documents

In PCC 8.3, pocketPCC adds follow-up tasks, unsolicited lab results, and full access to all documents and their tasks in the patient chart.

Work on Document Tasks in pocketPCC

Now you can complete document tasks outside of the office, right from pocketPCC. Documents will show up on the Messaging queue in pocketPCC if they have associated tasks.

When you open any task from the Messaging queue, it opens in “Editing” mode, and you can complete the task, add notes, or add another task.


Document tasks include a “Download Document” button, which allows you to view the document right on your mobile device.

View All Patient Documents in pocketPCC

You can now see all of your patient’s documents when accessing their chart through pocketPCC, including documents that are not attached to a specific visit.

There is a new Documents section in pocketPCC that will show all document categories and how many documents are in each category.

When you want to review a patient’s documents, click on the chart menu and select “Documents”.


You can see all of the documents in the patient’s chart, organized by category. As with PCC EHR, category names only show if there are documents in that category.

When you click on a category, you will see information for each document within that category, including the number of pages in the document, what visit it is attached to (if applicable), if it has been made available in the patient portal, and if it is waiting on a provider’s signature.

You can open a document by clicking the “Download Document” button.

Documents in pocketPCC are read-only. If tasks exist for a document, they will be accessible from the Messaging queue. You can also access documents from the Visit History section of the chart.

pocketPCC Visit History Includes Full Protocols for Follow-up Tasks and Unsolicited Lab Results in pocketPCC

You can now see follow-up tasks, unattached documents, and unsolicited lab results in the Visit History section of pocketPCC.

Follow-up tasks already appeared in pocketPCC’s Messaging Queue, but not all information from the protocols was displayed. Now pocketPCC includes protocols for E-lab Results Follow-Up, Orders Follow-Up and Unsolicited Results.

Limitations to Chart Notes in pocketPCC: As of PCC 8.3, pocketPCC can display most standard charting components and encounter types. Some specialized components, such as medication reconciliation, growth charts, amendment requests, and some immunization details such as forecasting, VFC, and diseases, can not yet appear. When you need to guarantee a complete, detailed review of a patient’s chart, you should refer to PCC EHR.

Use Report Categories to Find the Report You Need More Easily

The Report Library in PCC 8.3 organizes your reports into categories, making it easy to find exactly the report you need. Reports can appear in more than one category, and you can put your own custom reports into categories for easy reference.


When you create custom reports, you can choose which categories the report will appear in.


All Reports: The category “All Reports” includes all reports in the Report Library. Reports are added to this category automatically.

Powerful New Reports Mean Better Clinical and Practice Management Decisions

PCC 8.3 includes new, customizable reports that will enable you to gather and share information about your practice with specialists, reporting entities, and insurance companies.

  • You can use new reports showing Patient Sex Breakdown, Patient Ethnicity Breakdown, Patient Race Breakdown, and Patient Primary Preferred Language Breakdown to help meet vulnerable patient population requirements found in PCMH. These can all be found in the PCMH category of the Report Library.
  • The Care Plans by Date report finds and lists all patients with care plans at your practice.
  • Use the Patient Diagnoses by Date report to generate, print, and share trends in patient care.

Dynamic Date Tools Make Report Customization Easier

When you need to restrict a report to a date range, the customization options are now clearer and easier to use, and the report will calculate date ranges dynamically.

The new drop-down field gives you quick access to the following pre-defined dynamic ranges:

  • Today
  • Yesterday
  • Last 7 Days
  • Last 30 Days
  • Last 60 Days
  • Last 90 Days
  • Last 365 Days
  • Last 3 Years
  • Last Calendar Week
  • Last Calendar Month
  • Last Calendar Quarter
  • Last Calendar Year
  • Week to Date
  • Month to Date
  • Quarter to Date
  • Year to Date
  • All Dates

Saving Date Ranges: When you save a custom report, you can also save the date range. Any of the dynamic date ranges are saved as a rolling date. For example, a report saved with “Year to Date” will always show you Year to Date by default when you run the report. Manually-entered date ranges will save as static values.

Compare Your Practice’s Data with the Latest HPV Guidelines and Flu Vaccines

Does your practice achieve the current recommended HPV administration guidelines? Do you give the latest flu vaccines and code them with the newest CVX and procedure codes? You can now use your Practice Vitals Dashboard to compare your HPV and Flu Vaccine rates with the latest, up-to-date standards and codes for these treatments.

Flu Vaccine CVX and Procedure Code Updates

Your Practice Dashboards now measure Flu vaccine performance based on your CVX codes (such as 185 and 186) and your practice’s flu procedure codes (such as 90682 and 90756).

Support for New HPV Guidelines

PCC’s Dashboard now has two separate HPV measures to reflect the latest CDC recommendations: Immunization Rates – HPV (Patients 13 Years), and Immunization Rates – HPV (Patients 13-17 Years).

The 13 year measure reflects all patients who have received the recommended 2 doses by age 13 (with at least 5 months between doses). The 13-17 year measure reflects those patients as well as patients older than 13 who have received their recommended HPV vaccination series.

This data is collected monthly and reflects data as of the last collection date.

My Clinical Pulse: Your practice’s Clinical Pulse score is only affected by the 13 year measure. Either measure can be used for PCMH, and so both appear under PCMH 6A.1.

Improved Contacts and Addresses in Direct Secure Messaging

You can now store Direct Addresses in the Professional Contact Manager in PCC EHR.

You can search for a Direct Address, or just enter it.

When you send a Summary of Care Record via Direct Secure Messaging, Professional Contacts with Direct Addresses are now included in the results, and appear at the top of the results. They are identified as a “PCC EHR Professional Contact.”


Review PDFs in Direct Secure Messages Before Importing to a Patient’s Chart

You can now view and save PDFs attached to Direct Secure Messages (DSM).

When you open a Direct Secure Message, you will see a message screen showing you the message itself, along with any attachments.

Use the tabs across the top of this window to view attached PDFs and C-CDAs, or use the “View” buttons. You can also save each attachment individually to your workstation from this window.

Once you attach a DSM to a patient, you can view and save attachments from within the patient’s chart.

Connect Your User Accounts and Select Location For Better Features in PCC EHR

After your PCC 8.3 update, PCC EHR may ask each person at your practice up to two questions: At which practice location are they working? and What is their Practice Management (Partner) login?



If your PCC system already knows about your default location and/or Practice Management account, it will not ask you when you log in. As you select your work location, you can indicate whether PCC EHR should ask you every time you log in, or if it can use your selection as your default.

You can review and update your Practice Management and default location settings at any time in the My Account tool.


PCC EHR is becoming the new home for your practice’s billing, scheduling, and clinical operations, with upcoming features for patient checkin, payments, and new Appointment Book functionality. In PCC releases later in 2018, PCC EHR will use location and Practice Management account user information to provide you with new services and the custom options you need to serve your patients quickly.

In PCC 8.3, selecting your working location and Practice Management login has the following benefits:

  • 'Create Visit' Knows Your Location: When you create a visit in a patient’s chart, PCC EHR will know your location and set it for you.

  • Immunization Forms By Location: If your practice uses custom Immunization School Forms, PCC EHR will select the correct one for your location.

  • Appointment Book Location: If your practice has multiple locations and uses the Appointment Book, PCC EHR will automatically select your login location as your default scheduling location.

  • Correct Location Information on Form Letters: If your practice has multiple locations, when a user generates a form, PCC EHR can automatically include the correct practice location, phone numbers, and other information. Contact your Client Advocate to learn how to make custom, per-location form letters for your practice.

  • Who Generated that Form Letter?: If your practice uses form letters that automatically add a note in billing history when they are generated for the family, PCC EHR and Partner will be able to track which staff member generated the letter. Contact your Client Advocate for help creating a logged form letter.

  • Immunization Lot Manager Will Select Your Location For You: When you are adding or adjusting inventory in the Lot Manager, PCC EHR will use your working location as the default location. (You can change it if you are adjusting lot inventory for a different location.)

What If PCC EHR Users Do Not Have a Practice Management Login?: If some of your staff do not have a Practice Management account login, you can create new Partner accounts for them. Users are also allowed to skip the Practice Management question, and if they skip it five times PCC EHR will stop asking. Contact your PCC Client Advocate for help with user account management.

Can I Set This Up For My Staff?: You can use the User Administration tool to associate each user at your practice with a Practice Management account and/or an office location. For more information on reviewing and managing user accounts for the PCC 8.3 release, read the PCC 8.3 Migration Considerations article.

Updates to PCC eRx During the PCC 8.2-8.3 Release Cycle

In 2017, PCC introduced an all-new PCC eRx. Since that release, PCC has rolled out dozens of updates and improvements suggested by pediatric practices around the country.

The PCC 8.3 release does not officially include updates to PCC eRx, as those updates arrive on your system independently of PCC 8.3. Some of those recent updates include:

  • Optionally Display Indications on Printed Prescriptions: Your practice can now optionally configure indications to print on paper prescriptions. Contact your PCC Client Advocate to activate this feature.

  • Clearer Labelling for Weight-Based Dosing: As part of a mid-release patch, PCC improved the wording in the Prescriptions section of the chart when a prescriber selects a weight-based dosing statement.

  • Support for new EPCS and Opiate Requirements in Ohio: In December, PCC and FDB updated PCC eRx to help Ohio practices comply with new requirements. For more information, read Meet Ohio Prescription Verification and Indication Requirements in PCC eRx.

  • When a Pharmacy Closes: When a patient’s preferred pharmacy became inactive, PCC eRx would display an error message, “PCC eRx is Unavailable: API Error Code 4020”. This prevented access to eRx for that patient. Now you will be able to access PCC eRx even when a patient’s preferred pharmacy no longer exists.

And More: The above is just a sample of recent eRx improvements. To learn about all the ongoing updates to PCC eRx, including recent medication adjustments and squashed bugs, read: PCC eRx Update Log

Learn More about PCC eRx: For more information about PCC eRx, visit PCC’s library of PCC eRx training videos and documentation. We add new eRx videos and materials every month.

New and Updated Interfaces Available in PCC 8.3

With each release, PCC’s Interoperability team expands and updates PCC’s direct connections, partnerships, and integrations with insurance payers, immunization registries, and more. Here are the clinical and financial interoperability updates for PCC 8.3:

  • New and Updated Immunization Interfaces: As part of the PCC 8.3 release, PCC updated our immunization registry interfaces for Wyoming (WyIr), Nevada (WebIZ), Florida (FLShots), Pennsylvania (PASIIS), Delaware (DHIN/DelVAX), and Philadelphia (KIDS Plus IIS).

  • New Clinical Interfaces in PCC EHR: PCC developed new clinical data interfaces with Regional West Medical Center, Boyce and Bynum Pathology Laboratories, and MultiCare Connected Care.

  • New Insurance Eligibility and Financial Interfaces: PCC added or updated interfaces with Premera Blue Cross, New Hampshire Medicaid, Missouri Medicaid, Trillium East Carolina, Wellcare, Connecticut Medicaid, Oklahoma Medicaid, Presence Health Partners.

If your practice would like to take advantage of these connections, or you have another interface need, contact your PCC Client Advocate.

Other Feature Improvements and Bug Fixes in PCC 8.3

In addition to the features described above, PCC 8.3 includes these smaller improvements and squashed bugs.

  • Create Clinical Alerts Based on Account Status Flags: When you configure your practice’s Clinical Alerts, you can now use the “Account Flag” Demographic criteria option. That means your practice can set up pop-up reminders in PCC EHR based on billing issues or other criteria you track with an account flag.

  • Faster Chart Save Times: PCC 8.3 includes behind-the-scenes improvements to make charts save faster.

  • Faster Chart Opening for Care Plan Practices: Large practices that use PCC EHR’s Care Plan feature will see faster chart opening times in PCC 8.3.

  • Lab Configuration is Easier with Lab Name Search: When you configure labs in the Lab Configuration tool, you can now search for labs by name.

  • E-Lab Import is Easier with Provider Name: As you import an electronic lab to a patient’s chart, you can now see the provider for each visit, helping you more quickly confirm that the results match the labs ordered for a particular visit.

  • 'My Account' User Settings Moved to the File Menu: When individual users need to change their password or other personal account settings, they can now click on the File menu and select “My Account”.

  • Latest RVU and GPCI Values: PCC’s reports can now reference the 2018 RVU and GPCI values. You can use your Practice Vitals Dashboard and Partner SRS reports to compare your pricing against RVU values and calculate the charge difference based on your procedure volume.

  • Dashboard Infrastructure Improved: The underlying web tools used to host your Practice Vitals Dashboard have been updated. If someone at your practice accesses the Dashboard from an external Web browser and uses bookmarks, they may need to visit dashboard.pcc.com, log in, and create a new bookmark.

  • Printing Problems Resolved: The PCC 8.3 update overhauls PCC EHR’s printing and addresses issues and concerns reported by PCC practices. For example, we’ve eliminated wasted extra pages that appeared with some print jobs and improved Growth Chart printing.

  • Password-Protected PDFs: To use a password-protected PDF, you can now save it to your desktop to enter the password. A password-protected PDF will no longer cause PCC EHR to crash.

  • Signing Charts Error: Under certain circumstances, especially after signing multiple charts in a row, PCC EHR could close. This no longer occurs.

  • Task Note Attribution: Under certain workflows, the user and time of a task note did not appear in the Visit History. PCC 8.3 addresses this issue and makes all task note attribution visible in the patient’s history.

  • Filtering By Flags in Reports: Under certain circumstances, filtering by a patient flag in the Report Library did not exclude all patients with that flag. PCC 8.3 fixes this issue.

  • Immunization Funding Source List: The PCC Report Library and pocketPCC now reference the most recent and up-to-date funding source list for immunizations.

  • 'Show More Documents' in Patient Portal: For certain families, the “Show More Documents” function in the patient portal was not working. PCC applied a mid-release fix to this issue to practices that experienced it.

  • 'History of Medications' in Summary of Care: For certain patients with old prescription information, a Summary of Care report would not display their medication history. PCC 8.3 fixes this issue.

  • Last modified: October 27, 2020