WELFORD CHART NOTES
NEWSLETTER
Volume 24, No. 6 June, 2004
copyright 2004, Welford Medical Computing, Inc. All rights reserved
AUTOMATIC NORMAL RANGES IN THE LAB BOOK (User's Manual, pgs. 817-821)
Version 4.5 of Welford Chart Notes lets you set normal ranges for each numeric test in the Lab Book. You can also specify ranges for panic levels and other automatic ranges. Ranges can vary by age and sex when appropriate. Although it takes some work at the beginning to enter these normal ranges, it saves you a lot of time after that because then each normal range is filled in automatically and the Abnormal Flag is automatically determined as well. (Of course, you still can override these settings manually on an individual result if necessary. For example, you might get sent a result from another lab which has a different normal range from your usual lab).Let's set up a normal range for hemoglobin. There are two ways to do this: through the Range Batch Editor (if you are editing a lot of tests at once), or through the Lab Book Vocabulary (if you want to just edit a single test).
1. Press View\Lab Book. Enter any patient name, then press Utility\Range Batch Editor.
2. Make sure Unassigned is checked (assuming you have not yet specified a normal range for HEMOGLOBIN).
3. Select HEMOGLOBIN on the list of Tests.
4. The Range Batch Editor automatically shows the first normal range for any given test, but you can set up as many additional normal ranges as you want for other age/sex combinations. For example, with HEMOGLOBIN, we will want a different normal range for males vs. females. (If you treat children, you can also set up different normal ranges for different age groups).
5. For Sex, specify Male.
6. For Age, specify 18 to 255 (or 120 if you want).
7. For Normal, specify a Low of 14.00, a High of 18.00.
8. You can also specify what you want to consider Moderately Abnormal; in this case a Low of 10.00 and a High of 20.00.
9. You can also specify a Panic range. In this case, enter a Low of 6.00 and a High of 22.00.
10. You can also specify an Implausible
range. These are results that are so unlikely to be correct that you either want to forbid
them from being entered altogether, or permit them but only after a warning. (To control
this, press the Options button, and check or uncheck Forbid implausible results).
In this case, enter a Low of 3.00 and a High of 25.00.
11. If you were only entering this one range, you could simply press Ok now. But since you want to edit another range for HEMOGLOBIN for women, press Edit instead.
12. Now, press Add to add a
second normal range for HEMOGLOBIN.
13. For Sex, select Female.
14. For Age, specify 18 to 255.
15. For Normal, specify 12 to 16.
16. For Moderately Abnormal, specify 10 to 18.
17. For Panic, specify a Low of 5 and a High of 22.
18. For Implausible, specify a Low of 2 and a High of 25.
19. Press Ok to store this range and Ok to quit adding more Ranges for this test.
20. Note that you can run through the list of Unassigned tests to assign ranges for each one, which is easier than doing it through the Test Name Editor.
Let's see how to access the normal range for HEMOGLOBIN through the Test Name Editor:
1. Press View\Lab Book. Enter any patient's name. Press Utility\Vocabulary.
2. Enter HEMOGLOBIN as the name of the test.
3. Press the Range button.
4. From here, you can choose either the Male or Female range and press Edit to view its details.
COLOR UP YOUR APPOINTMENT BOOK (User's Manual, pg. 804)
Let's suppose you have an Appointment Procedure Type called OFFICE VISIT, and you want it to appear with an aqua background with navy blue lettering:
1. Press View\Appointments.
2. Press Edit\Procedure Types.
3. For Procedure, enter OFFICE VISIT.
4. Click on the Color button and select Foreground.
5. Click on the navy blue
color swatch in the Basic colors list. If you are daring, you can mix your own
colors instead. In that case, click on any of the Custom colors squares, then click
Define Custom Colors, then click on the color you want to use (or adjust the Hue,
Sat, Lum, Red, Green, and Blue values manually) and press Add to Custom
Colors.
6. Press Ok to accept the navy blue color. Note that the Color button now has the word "Color" written in navy blue.
7. Now, click on the Color button and select Background.
8. Choose the aqua square in the grid of Basic colors and press Ok.
9. Note that the Color button now has an aqua background.
10. Press Ok to store this revised OFFICE VISIT Procedure Type.
11. Now, whenever you schedule a patient for an OFFICE VISIT, the patient's name will be displayed in navy blue on an aqua background.
NEWS ABOUT VERSION 4.6 We are putting the finishing touches on version 4.6. It has many new features, along with a number of "under-the-hood" enhancements to increase program speed.SEND US YOUR TIPS
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or
MEDCOM Information Systems, Inc.
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http://medcom@emirj.com