WELFORD CHART NOTES
NEWSLETTER
Volume 20, No. 6 June, 2002
USING THE ENHANCED GENERIC REPORT GENERATOR (User's Manual, pgs. 644-648)
The Generic Report Generator since version 4.0 has a number of very powerful enhancements which allow you to find out even more about your practice. Let's explore some of these.
Suppose you want to find out which diabetic patients of Dr. McFadden's have either never had a glycohemoglobin, or last had one more than 4 months ago, so that you can target these patients to come in for a glycohemoglobin test. You are also curious as to what each patient's last glycohemoglobin level was and what medications each one is taking.
1. Press Reports\Generator.
2. For Title, enter something meaningful to you, like GLYCOHEMOGLOBIN REPORT.
3. Enter a Description to remind you of the report's purpose.
3. For Providers, check only Beverly McFadden.
4. Leave Name as ANY, age Range as 0-255, Sex as Any, and Visits blank.
5. For the Condition, enter "never had glycohemoglobin or last glycohemoglobin > 4 months ago". The Condition field allows you great flexibility in narrowing down which patients you are seeking. You can use all of the terminology recognized by the Rule Reminder Editor, since it uses the same "engine". This includes statements about allergies, medications, diagnoses, tests, visits, Past History, Family History, and Social History Expanders, and Name Editor Activity.
6. When you <Tab> or click off the Condition field, you will be asked to verify the interpretation of your condition. Press Yes.
7. Click on the Terms to Search For page. Enter NIDDM as your first Term, searching By List\Current, combined with an OR with IDDM as the second term, also searching By List\Current. Make sure you choose OR; if you choose AND, you will only get patients who have both NIDDM and IDDM, which would probably be no one. (Note that you could also have combined these in the Condition on the first page, as "(has NIDDM or has IDDM) and (never had glycohemoglobin or last glycohemoglobin > 4 months ago)" and skipped the Terms to Search For page altogether. However, the program can find things on the Terms to Search For page faster than it can analyze a Condition, so it is better to use this page when it is applicable).
8. Click on the What to Include in Report page. Check Name.
9. In the Other window, type "@LastGlycohemoglobin; @Medications". (Note that you could also have clicked on the @Functions button, chosen "Last", then filled in GLYCOHEMOGLOBIN as the name of the test and pressed Ok. Notice that you can choose any @function to insert into the Other window, and you can insert as many of them as you want to see. This again gives you great flexibility in what the report can show you.)
10. Press Run to run your report and see which patients match.
11. Pick Screen Only and press Ok.
12. Click your mouse and drag the column separator between GLYCOHEMOGLOBIN and MEDICATIONS to widen the column to see the dates and results of the most recent glycohemoglobins. Note that the average and standard deviation of these are automatically calculated and displayed at the bottom of this column. (This happens for any column with a numeric value).
13. Click your mouse and drag the column separator at the end of MEDICATIONS to widen it and see more of it.
14. Suppose you then want to find patients on the list who are taking Glucophage. Type GLUCOPHAGE into the window to the right of the Find button and press Find. Note that the highlight bar jumps to LITTLE JOHN's line, where Glucophage appears. If you press Find again, the highlight bar doesn't move, because he is also the last one on the list taking Glucophage; but if there were another matching name, the bar would jump to the next matching name on the list.
NEWS ON UPCOMING VERSIONS We are hard at work putting the finishing touches on version 4.2. It has over 35 new User's Manual pages full of exciting features. For example, you will be able to keep track of where patients are located within your facility. Medication Test Reminders warn you if a patient is overdue for a test based on the medications he is taking, such as needing a liver test and cholesterol level periodically in patients on statins.SEND US YOUR TIPS
If you have tips, shortcuts, questions, or suggestions for future newsletter topics, please send them to us at:Welford Medical Computing, Inc.
3779 Hermitage Trail
Rockford, IL 61114
or
MEDCOM Information Systems, Inc.
2117 Stonington Avenue
Hoffman Estates, IL 60195
http://medcom@emirj.com