WELFORD CHART NOTES

NEWSLETTER

Volume 17, No. 9 September, 2000

copyright 2000, Welford Medical Computing, Inc. All rights reserved

CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATION GRIDS (User's Manual, pgs. 621-622)

Keeping track of when your pediatric patients have received their immunizations has become easier using the new CHILDIMM.TLF Template Library file, along with the new @functions that report the date and age when these have been given. Let's see how to implement this feature, and how to modify it to your own needs.

Let's first import the CHILDIMM.TLF Template:

1. Press Links\Template Transfer\Import.

2. For the name of the file, pick CHILDIMM.TLF (not CHILDIMM.RDF, which is a Rule Database File for the Rule Reminder System).

3. In the Import Templates window, press Pick to place a marker in front of Child Vaccines. Then press Ok.

4. (If you have previously already installed this file, you will be warned that you already have this Template and you can simply Abort the Import, or Overwrite the old Template with the imported one).

Now that the Template has been imported, let's take a look at it in the Template Editor:

1. Press Libraries\Templates.

2. Pick Child Vaccines to edit it by double-clicking it or by highlighting it and pressing Edit.

3. Keep its properties the same by pressing Ok.

4. To see the entire grid, you may need to adjust your margins. To do this, press the right mouse button and pick Format\Margins, or press <Ctrl-O><L> or <Ctrl-O><R>. Make sure the right margin is at least 7 inches more than the left margin (e.g. set Left Margin to 1.00 inches and Right Margin to 8.00 inches). (If you want this change in margins to be more permanent, revise the active Print Settings Group or make up a new Print Settings group using these new margins).

5. Note the ages across the top of the grid and the names of the vaccines along the left-hand side. The @functions will look up when the patient received each vaccine and what the patient's age was at that time. For example, @havrix1 is the time when the patient first received Havrix. @havrix1age is the patient's age when Havrix was first given. @havrix2 is when the patient received Havrix for the second time, and @havrixage2 is the patient's age when that was given. In other words, the @function takes the name of the vaccine, followed by which time the patient received it; if followed by the word "age", it reports the patient's age on that date instead of the date.

6. So, for example, if you wanted to add another vaccine to this Template, simply move your cursor to the bottom of the Template, type in the name of the vaccine as a label, then use the <Tab> to move to the appropriate columns and use the @MedNum and @MedNumAge @functions to place the data into the columns when the Template is used.

7. Now, store the Template by pressing Ok.

Let's see the Template in action:

1. Press Write\New Note\Note.

2. Enter the name of one of your pediatric patients.

3. Pick the Child Vaccines Template to use for the note.

4. The dates and ages are automatically filled into the Writer. You can see when the patient has received vaccines and can print this out using <Alt-P>rint\This Note.

SHARING TEMPLATE WORDLISTS (User's Manual, pgs. 623-624)

Prior to version 3.8, Wordlists were shared by all users. If a user changed the contents of a Wordlist, that change affected any user who wanted to use that Wordlist. In version 3.8, we changed this so that each Wordlist is unique to each user. (Any Wordlists already created prior to version 3.8 are handled as if each user had his own identical copy of the Wordlist, but once a user starts to change one of these "legacy" Wordlists, the changes are reflected only in his own use of the Wordlist). This allows different users to use the same Templates, but to personalize what the Wordlists say.

However, suppose you wish to share some of your Wordlists with other users. How can you go about this? The trick is to place them into a Template, export the Template to a Template Library File, then have the other users import your Template. The program will import the Wordlists at the same time. The Template doesn't have to make any sense; you can simply paste the Wordlists one by one into it. The other users can delete the Template after they have imported it; the Wordlists will still be there even if they delete the Template that they came from.

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