Sam:
It
is nice to break up the blocks of text into organized sections, and it can be difficult to do in Amazing Charts because there is no bold text, and no tab stops. All-Caps and special symbols are about all you have.
I break up my HPI into sections using capitalized headers like so:
Mr. Fake Patient is a 56 year-old male with the following problems:
# SINUSITIS: He complains of runny nose, yellow-green nasal discharge, sore throat and low-grade temperature over the past week. He has chronic or recurrent sinusitis.
# DJD: Chronic pain is stable with his present medications. He still has a hard time getting around. He sees a chiropractor regularly, but he doesn't think it helps very much.
# BPH: Prostate symptoms are well-controlled with his present medication. When he takes one Flomax, he has nocturia x 2 or 3. He is not currently having any nocturia while taking two Flomax.
Now, it sounds like you are wanting to take this to the next level, and have each Assessment and Plan grouped together under a heading.
There are several "rules" of Amazing Charts that make this a little difficult:
- When you prescribe a medicine, they all float to the top of the "Plan" section.
- When you write an order, they all sink to the bottom of the "Plan" section.
- When you right-click and activate a template, it sucks up all the white space between the template and the next line. (I don't know why it has to do that!)
If you want to start organizing your data in this Assessment/Treatment/Plan format, here's what I would do:
1. First, plan on using the "Assessment" field as your canvas, and the "Plan" field as your paint palette. In other words, you are going to be constructing each of your little treatment plans in the "Assessment" area only.
(If you try to use "Plan" as your main area, then every time you add a new med or order, it's going to fly away off-screen, and you're going to have to go look for it).
2. Next, create a template with the following format. Make sure to include the colons. You will see what they do in a minute:
3. Now, choose a diagnosis with the ICD-9 selector (I am assuming you use this feature). After it pops up, right-click and select SAMSPLAN or whatever you decide to call your template.
4. Order all your meds, labs, x-rays for that problem. Call up all your treatment templates. They will all appear under "Plan." Now copy and paste that info from "Plan" into the appropriate areas of the "Assessment".
5. Pick your next diagnosis and repeat the above process.
I will admit this is not "one-click" but it may be the best workaround you are going to get. If this doesn't work for you, or if I missed the whole point somehow, just let me know.
p.s. - I checked and this looks good when printed.
