Hi All,
Nice explanation, Dr. Jon. Also, I have answers to your post from last night. I've quoted your paragraphs. I hope you don't mind? This may be little long with the quotes, so I apologize.
couple of points about work flow and the letter writer (henceforth, LW). Excuse me if some of what I am stating is obvious. In my mind, the LW is a combination LW and note printer. The interface for the two functions is currently joined (which is fine, but not necessary).
I did notice this, and I created a prototype of the Encounters Notes? dialog as well. It might get a little tricky to code, if things do play out, for future development. If AC doesn?t allow me to see their source code (I don?t think they will) behind this, I would have to study and emulate the flow for this (Encounter Notes and LW) to work properly, which would take time.
It is important for the LW and note writer to open as each note is signed off.
The LW is accessible by right-clicking on the patient in the main patient list, in the scheduler, and in the message list: also all important.
This is very good to know.
One feature of the note writer is the ability to alter the content of the note and its format (SOAP note or detailed note, with various headers). I think it is important to retain that feature. Print preview and default options are also important. Ability to print addenda and messages is nice, but not essential (they can be printed elsewhere).
I saw your response (explanation) to Bert about this. We?ll wait and see what others say about this one. I did create a prototype of the Encounter Notes dialog, to let folks see what it would look like cleaned up.
The ability to select the patient or a contact from the Rolodex (or other contact manager, if you have a better one) would be important. I also might like a "To Whom It May Concern" option, though this could be free texted. I see little need for the "Patients" and "Other" selections. These choices could take the form of the radio buttons as in your example. On the other hand, you could just have one "To" drop down with "patient" as the first choice, "to whom it may concern" as the second, and Rolodex contacts below that.
I like what you said here. That?s the whole reason why prototypes are good. You made some good points with what you saw from the prototype. Yes, contacts and patients should be pulled directly from the patient list and rolodex. I also, liked what you said with including a second drop down, for Letter Salutations, as your example ?To Whom It May Concern? exemplified. Nice!
The ability to format the letter as indicated in your prototype is a key feature. We really would like to print letters (and notes) that appear to be on our own "stationery". The other check boxes you show seem appropriate. I would also love to see the ability to set (and change) many defaults, or at least a "last used" memory feature. This includes the "include patient demos" and "include CCD" boxes.
Yes, formatting is considered a must have for any word processor, even if it?s basic formatting. I would start off with a standard formatting bar, as you?ve seen in the prototype. To set and change defaults would be good. It would be a little more work involved, but it?s still good. We would have to see what are others say about this. One of the goals is to not take a year to put out a product, for a feature that most people may not use often. Don?t get me wrong, I?m not saying that customizable defaults shouldn?t be included. They should, but, we?ll see.
The current LW mandates some things some of us don't like: automatic use of the patient's first name in the salutation, a fixed closing with fixed spacing for the signature line. The latter cannot even be erased and changed.
I would make this more flexible, where a user has more control of the document.
Ability to template and save to the chart are important features to be retained.
Agreed. I would have to learn the flow of AC?s templates and their templates dialog window.
Again, this is just my two cents. Thanks again for all of your efforts. If this plays out well, I would be happy to work towards helping you obtain some compensation for your efforts.
You?re welcome. Thank you for your feedback, and wanting to contribute toward making an improved LW. It would be greatly appreciated, and I hope others would join, too. But, for now we?ll take it slow and wait to see if others are willing to provide additional feedback. If things go well with this preliminary phase, we might ask Bert, if he?s willing to do another poll for contributors.
We?ll see how things go in September.
