The note, unlike Word or other programs with autosave is not necessarily saved along the way:
Basically, here is the breakdown:
If you pull a chart from the Patient List, it is like it is in RAM. Anything you add to it, is only in the window. It is not saved either temporarily to your inbox or the hard drive. If you close that chart, you will lose everything. Now, generally, anytime you will lose anything added, you will get the window that says, click yes and you will lose everything when you close the note, or click no. Clicking no, simply stops the closing action.
Exception: If you open and note and start writing something, and then go to file and Close Chart on the dropdown menu, (why anyone would do that or even know it is there is beyond me -- maybe they need OT and can't click on the red x), the note will close without warning of losing data, but you WILL lose any and all lost data. Now, the fun thing about this and everyone should try it, is your note will not close after clicking on File -> Close Chart only one time, you have to click on it twice. Maybe that is its way of giving you time to think of what you are about to do.
One thing to remember as this has been alluded to before, if you open a chart from the Patient List (Left = RAM) and you add even one letter, if you go to close it, it will give you dialog window warning you that you will lose data if you close it -- do you still want to close it? If you add nothing or add and then delete it, it will not because nothing will be lost because there is nothing there to lose.
Of course, it doesn't matter where you open the chart, if you send a message or write an order which is printed or saved or write a script and then close the chart without saving or forwarding it, you will lose everything written in the PN, but the script, message or order will be saved as they are saved immediately.
Now sending things to the inbox:
If an MA sends a chart to the inbox after he or she writes in subjective data, all of that information is saved. If the physician sends it to the inbox, any and all information will be saved to the "chart" while it is still in your inbox. In other words, you can open it form there and if you choose not to delete it from your inbox, then if you close the chart, you can back to that information. But, if you pull the chart from the inbox and choose to delete from your inbox, which many do, if you delete that chart, you will lose all information as if the chart was just pulled from the Patient List. Think of the inbox as when Word autosaves or you type more in Word but then close it. Everything new is saved if Word closes, but if you delete Word completely, it is gone.
But, once the chart is on the right side in your inbox, if you delete it, it will go to your delete items folder. And any signed off charts will go to the deleted items folder. REMEMBER, once you close AC, the program, completely, all deleted items in the deleted items folder will be gone. And, keep in mind, even if you think you have charts there, if your colleague closes his or her AC, then all are deleted as it happens at the server level.
Also, to correct one thing I said last night, the other thing that is saved locally is if AC crashes in the middle of a note, when you reopen it, it generally givens the option of reconstructing it.
Just as it is always a good idea to save long Outlook messages to Draft or save Word documents to the desktop or wherever after typing long, long messages, if you are doing a super long note, you may want to forward it to your inbox and then reopen it but not deleting it from the inbox in case your close it.
As always, 1) I know this sounds complicated and 2) it is because it slightly is but, more so, because I make it that way.
Also, most people don't go through all of these perpetation and combinations of using AC. As an example, 90% of the time, my nurse brings up the chart, does the triage and forwards it to my inbox. I pull the chart form there, click yes to delete it from my inbox, finish the note and sign it. There is rarely a glitch. But, until you sign the note, it is never completely saved to the server's hard drive.
HTH.
I should make a chart in Word and post it, lol.
To quickly answer your question, the note is never truly saved until you actually sign it. If it is forwarded to your inbox, it is safe there until you possibly open it and delete it, but even if AC crashes, the note will be in your inbox.
One other note: When users first start using AC, they tend to print out their notes until they feel comfortable with it. Makes sense. The next step is to choose No to deleting your note from the inbox when you pull it. Sure once you sign off the note, you have a redundant note minus what you added, but then if you somehow screw up the note or lose it, you still have the original to fall back on.
