What I do is forward the chart of a patient whose visit is not finished to the "providers" box and open it back up when I am ready to add something to it.
So, that means you forward it to yourself, and then later have to click on "messages" when you want to retrieve it? Or is there another way?
As an aside, what is completing a note in Epic like vs. AC? The local hospital to our sister site in SoCal (the one that will probably go with NextGen) uses Epic - as does Kaiser - and I heard it's a pain...
It literally takes less than 0.3 seconds to hit CTRL + S. Open the other patient's chart, see him or her, send him or her on his or her way (gotta love good English), and then open the other chart.
Bert, how do you save one chart to be able to go back to it (say the pt. is in the middle of a procedure, and you move on to the next pt.) and then retrieve it? Is the only way to do this to send it to yourself, then go in and retrieve it in the messages box?
we had to make sure to log out any time we left the room for HIPAA reasons.
The thing is, if we are using a netbook/laptop/tablet, then we are taking that with us from room to room - so having the ability to have two charts open at the same time would be a bit of a timesaver. Having said that, you all do make some very good points about the safety of this (writing in the wrong note). It's easier now with the paper system, because it's simple to tell one pt's chart from another when you have it in your hand - they are clearly different in terms of file thickness, etc. On a desktop, nothing looks different except the pt's name!
Melanie
