WELFORD CHART NOTES
NEWSLETTER
Volume 21, No. 4 October, 2002
copyright 2002, Welford Medical Computing, Inc. All rights reserved
AUTOMATIC MEDICATION TEST REMINDERS (User's Manual, pgs. 744-746)
WELFORD CHART NOTES NEWSLETTER Volume 21, No. 4 October, 2002 copyright 2002, Welford Medical Computing, Inc. All rights reserved AUTOMATIC MEDICATION TEST REMINDERS (User's Manual, pgs.
744-746)
In last month's newsletter, we saw how to look up which tests a patient is due for and how to look up the reminders for a particular medication. But suppose you want to be notified automatically whenever a patient is due for tests, based on the medications he or she is taking. There are a number of places in the program that can do this for you.
A. Each time the Writer opens: You can arrange to have a Writer Auto-Open window which lists all of the tests that the patient is currently due for. To do this:
1. Press System\Writer Options\Auto Open Options. (Note: if you have checked View\In-Box\Options\Simple Screen Setup, the Writer Auto Open Options button is disabled. You are only permitted to control Writer Auto Open Options if you are NOT using the Simple Screen Setup, so you must uncheck Simple Screen Setup first). You can accomplish the same thing by checking Libraries\Medication Test Reminders\Options\Show Medication Test Reminders as Writer opens.
2. Check Test Reminders and press Ok.
You may wish to resize or reposition the Test Reminders Auto-Open Window (or some other Auto Open windows around it) once the Writer opens, using your mouse. The program remembers the size and position of each Auto Open Window each time you change it.
To view the detailed information about the tests that the patient is due for, simply click on any of the tests in the Test Reminder Auto Open Window. You will see all of the tests listed along with the medications that triggered these tests being due. This window is the same one we discussed last month in SEEING IF THE PATIENT IS DUE FOR TESTS.
B. Each time a Prescription is written: each time you write a prescription, the program can warn you if the patient is due for tests related to the drug you are prescribing. To activate this, check Libraries\Medication Test Reminders\Options\Show Medication Test Reminders in Prescription Writer.
C. Each time you enter a medication in the Prescription Log: each time you record a refill in the Prescription Log, the program can warn you if the patient is due for tests related to the drug you are entering. To activate this, check Libraries\Medication Test Reminders\Options\Show Medication Test Reminders in Prescription Log.
EDITING A PROGRAM MEDICATION TEST REMINDER (User's Manual, pgs. 739-44) You can change the parameters of a Program Medication Test reminder to better match the way you practice medicine. (You can also choose to skip seeing certain Program Medication Test Reminders, and can write your own Medication Test Reminders not based on any reminder that comes with the program).Let's revise the Program Medication Test Reminder for Allopurinol to remind us to get a uric acid level every 180 days instead of every 90 days, and we want to do this for the first year instead of the first 3 months:
1. Press Libraries\Medication Test Reminders.
2. Click the Show Program button to see the list of Program Medication Test Reminders.
3. In the Reminders: box, start to type in ALLO. The list scrolls to ALLOPURINOL.
5. Tab to the Interval box and type in 180.
6. Press the Change button. Note that the Tests list now has 180 days in the Interval column instead of 90 days.
7. Change the value in the To: box to 12 months.
8. Press Ok to store this revised reminder.
Note that what you have now done is to create a User-Written Medication Test Reminder with the settings you have recorded. However, the Program Medication Test Reminder (using 90 days for 3 months) still exists. You can confirm this by clicking on the Show User and Show Program buttons and looking up ALLOPURINOL in each list.
But you don't want to keep seeing the Program reminder; you only want to see the one you wrote yourself. (In some instances you might want to see both of them, which is why the Program reminder isn't automatically deleted). There are two ways of handling this:
1. Press Options and under When there are Program and User reminders for the same drug/test combination, select either Show only the User-written reminder (to always suppress the Program reminder) or Show whichever one is more recent (if the Program reminder later is revised and you want that revised version to supersede the one you wrote). Remember that choosing these options affects all of the reminders in the system, not just the one about allopurinol. --- or ---
2. With the list set to Show Program, again edit the ALLOPURINOL - URIC ACID Reminder. This time, simply press the Skip button. This adds this Program Reminder to the list of Skipped Program Reminders. (To confirm that this has happened, press the Show Skipped button and see that it is now listed here). The program skips showing you any Program Reminders that are listed in the Show Skipped list. Note that you can later remove a reminder from the Skipped list by pressing the Unskip button if you have a change of heart.
OCTOBER QUARTERLY UPDATE RELEASED
This month we are releasing the October, 2002 Quarterly update. The update includes new medications, diagnostic terms, drug interactions, drug dosing information, spelling words, drug-disease Alerts, Web Links, algorithms, medication test reminders, and dozens of new patient education brochures. This update has over 5600 drug interactions with over 2000 references, 10,700 Alerts, over 9600 Web Links, and 1200 Brochures, including new or revised Brochures on acute mountain sickness, carpal tunnel syndrome, Crohn's disease, giant cell arteritis, hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, irritable bowel syndrome, Pick's disease, polymyalgia rheumatica, pseudoxanthoma elasticum, Sjogren's syndrome, sleep apnea, snake bite, Sturge-Weber syndrome, tick paralysis, West Nile virus, anisindione, bosentan, dexmethylphenidate, ertapenem, frovatriptan, fulvestrant, isotretinoin, lovastatin-niacin, pimecrolimus, ribavirin, tegaserod and many others. 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
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http://medcom@emirj.com