1. Press Write\New Note\Note. Enter a patient name who has some previous medications recorded.

2. Inside the Writer, suppose you want to see the last time this patient was on a medication and what the dose was. Simply type @Last followed by the name of the medication. You can use either the generic or the brand name of the drug. For example, to see the most recent dose of digoxin, type "@Lastdigoxin" or "@LastLanoxin". If the drug name is more than one word, like "ferrous sulfate", use an underscore instead of a space, like "@LastFerrous_sulfate". The program will provide you with the date and the dosing instruction that the patient is currently on, or, if no longer on the drug, the date and dosing instruction the patient was last on. This can be quicker than opening the Medication Editor and looking for the drug that way.

3. Now suppose you want to examine every time the patient was on a drug, or the entire chronological dosing history of the drug. Of course, you could use <Alt-M>edication\Utility\History, but suppose you want this text inside your note. Simply type "@All" followed by the name of the drug. Again, use an underscore in place of a space. For example, to see each time the patient had a tetanus toxoid, type "@AllTetanus_toxoid" into the Writer.

4. Suppose you want to see when the patient last had a physical. You can see this from the Visiter Writer Auto-Open Window, but an even quicker way is to type "@LastPhysical" into the Writer. If you want to see a list of all of the physicals the patient has ever had, type "@AllPhysicals" instead.

5. Suppose you want to see a list of all of the tests you have ordered but have not yet been scheduled. or have results reported. You could use View\Orders\Utility\Redisplay and set Special Restrictions to Ordered but not notified, but a faster way is to simply type "@OrdersNotYetScheduled" into the Writer. Note that if you would like this information automatically included in a patient's note, simply put this @function into the Template you plan on using for the note.

6. Suppose you want a list of all of the prescriptions for this patient for today. Type in "@RxLogToday". (You could see the same list using View\Prescription Log\Redisplay, set Begin Date and End Date to today, and set Name to the name of the patient, but using @RxLogToday is much quicker). You might want to embed this in your custom-designed Visit Summary to let the patient see a list of which prescriptions were written or authorized today.

7. Suppose you want your @functions to include a heading followed by a colon preceding the actual value of the @function. To do this, simply append a plus sign (+) to the end of the @function name. For example, if you type "@birthdate+", and the patient's birthdate is 5-12-1937, it will be replaced by "BIRTHDATE: 5-12-1937". The label is capitalized but not boldface (unless the text at the cursor is already boldface). The advantage here is that if there are no data for the @function, the label doesn't appear in the note. For example, if patient never had a mammogram, "@LastMammogram+" is replaced with nothing, whereas "Last Mammogram: @LastMammogram" will end up saying "Last Mammogram: ", which in some cases you might not want to appear.

8. When using the @AllLab and @LabSince functions, the program ordinarily skips a line between the date of the test and the text of the result when the test has a textual meaning (such as an X-ray result, EKG result, pathology result, etc.). If you don't want to have it skip this line, and instead put the date followed by the result all on the same line, add _NOSKIP to the end of the name of the @function. For example, to see all of the chest X-rays that the patient has had without skipping lines, type "@AllCXR_NOSKIP". The result will look something like this:

1-23-2000 cardiomegaly with increased vascular markings

4-17-2000 cardiomegaly but resolution of increased vascular markings

8-13-2000 cardiomegaly with new left lower lobe infiltrate

If you were to type "@AllCXR" without the "_NOSKIP" ending, it would look like this:

1-23-2000

cardiomegaly with increased vascular markings

4-17-2000

cardiomegaly but resolution of increased vascular markings

8-13-2000

Let's see how to make a Contraction to make this much quicker (assuming you have already created a Wordlist named "MURMUR"):

1. Press Libraries\Contractions\Edit.

2. For the name of the Contraction, let's call it "mw" (for "murmur wordlist").

3. For the Meaning, type in "@TListMurmur". Press Ok.

Now, inside the Writer, let's use it:

1. Type "mw" followed by a space, period, or comma.

2. The Murmur Wordlist automatically opens. Use it to choose some text. The text now appears in your note.

See how typing "mw" is much faster?

You can use this feature for Expander and @function names that are long. For example, you could define "pmh" to stand for "@PastHistory", and thus type just 3 letters instead of 12.

Welford Medical Computing, Inc.

3779 Hermitage Trail

Rockford, IL 61114

or

MEDCOM Information Systems, Inc.

2117 Stonington Avenue

Hoffman Estates, IL 60195

http://medcom19@idt.net