August 2000 Newsletter

WELFORD CHART NOTES

NEWSLETTER

Volume 17, No. 8 August, 2000

USE CONTRACTIONS TO SPEED DATA ENTRY

One useful feature you may have overlooked is the fact that you can use Contractions in almost any text entry box inside the program, not just in the Writer. For example, you can define Contractions to mean tests in the Lab Book and Orders, medications in the Prescription Log and Medication Editor, Reasons for Appointments or Referrals, words in Lab Book textual results, text in Expanders, drug names or directions in Prescriptions, the Title, Description, and Source of Web Links, demographics in the Name Editor, and Messages in the Datebook.

For example, suppose there are a few towns a cities near you that account for most of the patients you enter into the Name Editor. You can make up 2-letter Contractions for each of these cities, then type in these Contractions when you use the Name Editor. Suppose one of the towns near you is called "New Coventryshire":

1. Press Libraries\Contractions\ Edit. (User's Manual, pg. 107)

2. For Type in the Contraction you wish to insert/delete/change, enter "nc".

3. For Meaning, enter "New Coventryshire".

4. Press Ok.

5. Now, press Name\Edit. (User's Manual, pgs. 245-250)

6. Enter a new patient's name.

7. When you reach the Name Editor, go to the City field. Note that this field will have the default city already in it, if you have specified a default city in System\Name Options\City. Suppose the patient lives in New Coventryshire, not the default city. Erase the default city, and type in "nc ". (The space after it tells the program to substitute the Contraction for its meaning).

8. The program replaces your "nc" with "New Coventryshire". You can define a Contraction for each town near you, and save yourself a lot of time.

USER-DEFINED PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS ITEMS AS TESTS

Suppose you want to remember to do a prostate examination on each man over the age of 50 on a yearly basis. How can you use Welford Chart Notes to accomplish this?

The answer is to define the physical diagnosis maneuver as a user-defined Test, and then create a Rule Reminder that incorporates that test. You can also use Lab Book Parsing to update the Lab Book when you mention you performed it inside your note. For example:

1. Press View\Lab Book. Enter any patient name. Press Utility\Vocabulary to edit your Lab Book Vocabulary. (User's Manual, pgs. 193-195)

2. Enter PROSTATE EXAM as the name of the test. For Numeric, select No. Add any Synonyms you might wish to use, like PROSTATE EXAMINATION or PROSTATIC EXAM. Press Ok to store your term. Press Cancel to return to the Main Menu.

3. Press Libraries\Rules\Edit\Add to edit a Rule Reminder. (User's Manual, pgs. 391-402)

4. For Rule, enter "male and age >=50 and last Prostate Exam > 1 year ago". Press Yes when asked if the rule has been interpreted correctly.

5. For Reminder, enter "do a prostate exam".

6. For Explanation, enter "men aged 50 and older should have a yearly prostate exam".

7. Enter any Exceptions and References you wish to use, then press Ok to store it.

8. Now, when you enter a patient's chart who is a male aged 50 or older who has not had a prostate exam recorded in the Lab Book in the past year (who is not an Exception), this Rule Reminder will appear. Note also that if you use the phrase "Prostate exam" (or one of its synonyms) inside a note in the Writer, and you have enabled Lab Book Parsing (by checking System\Parser\Parse Lab Book (User's Manual, pgs. 310-312)), the Parser will pick up your statement about the exam and store this in the Lab Book. This will then keep the Rule Reminder from appearing again for another year on this patient.

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Welford Medical Computing, Inc.

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Rockford, IL 61114

MEDCOM Information Systems, Inc.

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Hoffman Estates, IL 60195

http://medcom19@idt.net