WELFORD CHART NOTES
NEWSLETTER
Volume 17, No. 10 October, 2000
copyright 2000, Welford Medical Computing, Inc. All rights reserved
QUICK WAYS TO ENTER MEDICATIONS IN THE PRESCRIPTION LOG (User's Manual, pgs. 318-320)
Welford Chart Notes makes it quick and easy to enter medications in a patient's Prescription Log. You may not realize how many different ways you can achieve this. You should choose the method that is easiest for you:
1. Auto-Lookup:
When you enter at least 2 characters into the Drug field, a list appears of all of
the medications in the Vocabulary System that begin with these characters. Typing more
characters shortens the list. To pick one of the choices on the list, double-click it. The
program automatically capitalizes brand names but keeps generic names lowercase.
Auto-Lookup will not work if you are prescribing a medication that is not yet in the
Vocabulary System.
2. Drop-down list: After you specify a Patient Name,
if you click the little drop-down arrow to the right of the Drug field, a list
appears of all of the patient's currently active drugs. To pick one of them, simply
double-click it with your mouse.
3. Contraction: You can define Contractions for any medications you wish. This may be the quickest way to enter medications you use frequently. For example, you can have "gp" stand for "Glucophage". Simply define them using Libraries\Contractions\Edit. This method is mainly helpful for medications you use frequently, since it is not practical to remember Contractions for huge numbers of medications that you use rarely. Remember to type a space after the Contraction to trigger it to be replaced by its Meaning.
4. Type it in directly: If you are a quick typist, and the name of the medication isn't too long, you may well prefer this method. This is the only method available if the medication has never been listed before in the program's Vocabulary System, in which case the Vocabulary Editor will automatically open and let you enter the medication into the Vocabulary. However, you are permitted to make entries into the Prescription Log without entering the terms into the Vocabulary System. Keep in mind that if you do so, you will not be able to search for these terms by meaning, since their meaning is undefined. Therefore, we recommend that you always define any undefined medication in the Vocabulary System before storing it in the Prescription Log.
There are also a number of ways of entering the Instruction in the Prescription Log:
1. Automatic lookup: If you enter a
patient name and the name of a medication in the Drug field, the program
automatically looks up the current Instruction for that patient and that drug as listed in
the Medication Editor.
2. Drop-down list:
After you specify a Patient Name, if you click the little drop-down arrow to the
right of the Instruction field, a list appears of the five most recently used
instructions for this drug (for any patient). This list is handy if the instruction you
wish to use is different from the one the patient most recently was on, and if the drug
only comes in a limited number of dosages.
3. Contraction: You can define a Contraction for any instruction or portion of an instruction you wish. This is particularly helpful if the medication has a lengthy instruction. For example, you might use "tww" to mean "Take with 8 ounces of water on an empty stomach."
4. Type in directly: This is necessary if the above other three methods don't apply. For example, if you are typing an instruction for a brand new drug, that the patient has not been on in the past, and no other patient has been on before, then use this method.
These techniques are available in many other places in Welford Chart Notes, such as in the Medication Editor and the Prescription Writer. By creating Contractions for the medications you use most often, you can save lots of time in recording this information. Remember, you can even make a Contraction for a medication, its instruction, and its warning information, such as "fmx" could mean "Fosamax 10 mg po qam. Take on an empty stomach with 8 ounces of water. Do not lie down or eat for 30 minutes". If you type this Contraction into the Writer, you can use the Parser to automatically update the Medication Editor and generate a Prescription, which also automatically gets stored in the Prescription Log, all from typing just 3 letters.
OCTOBER QUARTERLY UPDATE RELEASED This month we are releasing the October, 2000 Quarterly update. The update includes new medications, diagnostic terms, drug interactions, drug dosing information, spelling words, drug-disease Alerts, Web Links, and dozens of new and revised patient education brochures. This update has over 4500 drug interactions with over 1600 references, over 10,000 Alerts, over 9400 Web Links, and over 1000 Brochures, including Brochures on acanthosis nigricans, bullous pemphigoid, chronic obstructive lung disease, granuloma annulare, irritable bowel syndrome, impotence, post-polio syndrome, pulmonary hypertension, pyoderma gangrenosum, rheumatoid arthritis, alosetron, beta blockers, bexarotene, cevimeline, dofetilide, doxepin, eflornithine, entacapone, epirubicin, eprosartan, estrogens, glyburide-metformin, isotretinoin, metformin, narcotics, oxcarbazepine, quinupristin-dalfopristin, sirolimus, temozolomide, zanamivir, and many others. HOW CAN I GET THE QUARTERLY UPDATE? The October, 2000 Quarterly Update is being sent this month to all users who have purchased the Comprehensive Support Package. If you have not purchased this package, or if your support is about to run out, contact MEDCOM Information Systems at 800-424-0258.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://medcom19@idt.net