Chris,
Thanks for joining in this discussion. Some of these points may seem esoteric and detailed but are actually important since they form the basis for how we use the program.
Before I forget, let me second Mel's comments with which I agree wholeheartedly. In particular, " it would be helpful for you to post popular requests on the user board for a broader notification".
I too find the initialization of a new encounter a bit confusing and think this experience should be improved.
Agree that the page can be confusing to new users. With experience, it generally functions well.
I believe the prior designers intent was to manage some of this with the buttons for "Overwrite all fields" and "Keep existing CC, HPI and ROS"
These buttons should be deleted. Their function is limited at best and I don't know anyone who uses them regularly.
Since you're clicking on the MRE (Most Recent Encounter) you should expect to see just that....the most recent encounter but with the date of the encounter and not today's date. We can change it to display the date of the prior encounter for further clarity
I think this would be a mistake. Unfortunately, not every note is completed on the day the patient is seen. If the incomplete note is saved to a message box, the date will be incorrect and when it is retrieved, there will be no way to tell when the patient was seen.
If a change is to be made, I would simply re-name the MRE tab. The user experience is only confusing because of that name. This should be called the "Note creation" screen (or something to that effect). It makes sense to a novice user that the default upon opening a chart is the "Note creation screen". It opens to boxes with the date of the visit (today) at the top. If possible, have a "user preference" which is to display the boxes empty (like the current ctrl-N option) OR populated with the most recent information (as it does now). This eliminates the confusion with the minimal amount of change or disruption to current appearance, coding, and work flows.
