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Hi All,
So I have a form with a bunch of yes/no questions and users would like to have the form print (and show in the document view) all the 'yes' answers to the radio buttons will be highlighted as it's a lonngggg document and they want the 'yes' positive answers to pop on first glance when printing and looking at document view.
I know we can highlight the actual radio button label on the UI, but I don't know if there's any manual code for highlighting just the obs answer in the chart note and printed form section (I can write the check in there for if 'yes' print and if 'no' print, but for the yes check adding a highlight much like how you can declare the answer to be bold.)
Any thoughts or help would be awesome! thank you everyone!
Posted : January 29, 2018 2:18 am
Hello! here is my take on your question:
Centricity uses a "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) text editor that does not really do anything advanced like highlighting, images, etc... Because you cannot manually highlight the text, I don't believe there is any code to do that either.
When I have a long document that I need a form to stick out on, I usually just use indents, bolds, and spacing to make it look unique compared to the rest of the note. you could have the answer 2 sizes larger, bolded, and underlined if you use the following code for Yes answers: FMT("Yes","2,B,U")
I'm always open to being corrected by another CHUG member though, as highlighting would be a neat addition to Centricity notes.
Thank you,
Daniel C.
Posted : January 29, 2018 4:49 am
Centricity has suffered from the overuse of font strike since its inception (Logician). The abuse of bold in chart notes makes them hard to read and prevents the 'pop' you describe when something important needs to be communicated. There is no reason to bold EVERY question and/or response. This practice is a hold over from the paper templates once used in the office, and like those, it violates the 'rules of etiquette for professionally written communication'.
I encourage users to stop using bold for content beyond headers in their chart notes and reserve it strictly for important patient responses and conditions. This simple approach will make Centricity notes appear cleaner, professional, and make them more meaningful.
That said, what Daniel recommends is about as good as it gets.
PS. Highlighting in the chart note is a BAD IDEA, in my opinion. It would, without question, be over-used like bold has been AND unless a color copier, printer or fax is used, it is worthless for transferring the note to paper (some colors would obscure the text in gray-scale). This one limitation would make it questionable for meeting the requirements of legal documentation.
Posted : January 29, 2018 5:36 am
Those are some good points to consider Lee. I wonder if it would be good to have a highlight that did not alter the permanent note, but was a feature on top of CPS for looking in the document viewer, similar to Microsoft Word's collaboration tools. This way, those looking at the document viewer could mark personal items, and others could turn on/off the highlighting at will, but a printed or faxed note would omit any changes?
P.S. is there an official standard for writing medical notes? My only experience is seeing how different forms we use display the text, and it is wildly inconsistent. I would like to keep future forms we build in house to a standard if possible.
Posted : January 29, 2018 5:58 am
Typically, the rules are established by local policy as well as state and federal regulations. These usually assume that the standards for professional documentation (as once taught in grade school but sadly now mostly relegated to the collegiate level) are followed. Fortunately, those standards can be found on line.
Sadly, most medical practices historically have never applied those rules to their own documentation, a practice that has carried over to the EMR notes of today. What I find to be an interesting case study is how providers do not seem to care much about the 'appearance' of their office notes, but if a letter is being sent out to another provider (or entity), they typically demand that it comply with the standards for 'professional letter formatting'.
This is evidence that awareness of the rules for formatting exist, but also may indicate a the failure to understand that the patient chart note is no longer the property of the provider, rather it belongs to the patient and/or payer (the provider is merely the author and custodian of said record today).
We've a ways to go and I for one hope that NorthStar promotes professional documentation formats as a 'factory function'.
Posted : January 29, 2018 6:48 am
Oh, and my reservation to your suggestion is simply that if the note ever needed to be printed or transmitted and the highlight could not follow it, the emphasis would be lost. To that limitation, I must ask myself: 'If it were important enough to highlight locally, why would it not be so in distribution?'
Posted : January 29, 2018 6:51 am
