My nurse fills in the CC field, and I pretty much keep the entries she uses, which are crude, but effective:
"FEVER. COUGH. NASAL DRAINAGE."
Classically, of course, the chief complaint is what the patient tells you is wrong with them, in their own words. Following that method in AC would get you a visit history with titles like "I can't pee." or "I'm out of pain pills," which I'm not crazy about (though it has its charms).
I wish we had the option of choosing the first line of the Assessment field as the title of the visit history, or -- even better -- have both the chief complaint and the Assessment side-by-side, which would give you titles like:
"Fever & cough x 5 days/PNEUMONIA 480.8"
"Yearly exam/ROUTINE PAP SMEAR V76.2"
"Wants to talk to doc privately/ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION 302.72"
Which you can see adds a lot more specificity to the description.
(BTW, I am very happy with AC's scheduler so far)
Last edited by bcmd; 12/23/2007 5:49 AM. Reason: Decided to elaborate a bit more
