Master Lists

The Master Lists screen is where all drop down lists for the system are managed. It can be used in different ways and can get as detailed as needed. The way the master lists are used can greatly increase the speed of documentation for therapists. If set up properly, an entire paragraph could be written with very few keystrokes.

Please read this section carefully to get a complete understanding of what the Master Lists are capable of.

master_lists_main

Fig 1

(1) Choose an area of the system. The different drop down lists for the area selected will appear on the left hand side (3). Clicking on one of these descriptions on the left will display the values for that drop down list in the large grid on the right (4). If you would like to further filter the list, apply any filters in the upper right hand area of the screen (2). When an item in the drop down list is selected on the large grid, it's full description will appear in the display field (5). (This is helpful when phrases or entire sentences are entered into a master list.) Lastly, use the print button to print the active list on the screen as it appears with any filters that were selected.

To add a description to the list highlighted, click the "Add New" button. The screen below will appear (Fig 3).
To edit a description, double-click on the description in the grid or highlight the description in the grid and click the "Edit" button. The screen below will appear.
To mark a description as "Inactive", click the check box in that row in the "Inactive" column. This will keep the description from appearing in the search list or drop down list.
To delete a description, highlight the description in the grid and click the "Delete" button.
To print the description list, apply any filter with the drop down box at the top of the screen, sort the list any way desired, and click the Print button.

In it's simplest form, master lists could be created so that users can not create their own lists (see General Options) and each item added to a list could be shown for all categories and all patient types. One problem with this scenario is that the drop down lists can get quite long and users may have a hard time locating items in the list. This can be due to the same description being added several times but just worded a little differently. Some of this can be avoided by limiting the number of users who have access to add items to these lists. This can be accomplished through the User Permissions screen.

A better way to organize the lists is by assigning each item added to a specific category (hand, ankle, knee, spine, etc.) and patient type (PT, OT, Speech, etc.). Each time an item is added to the list, you will have the chance to specify these options (see figure below). Adding items the the lists this way makes the lists cleaner for users and they will not have to sort through unnessary items pertaining to their case.

The best way to use the master lists is by assigning each item to a category and patient type, and to allow users to create their own master lists. This gives the user the ability to enter phrases or sentences in the way they would normally word them. When a user accesses a master lists and uses the type ahead feature to enter a phrase, they know what to type to find that phrase quickly. This can speed up the documentation process greatly. To allow users to create their own master lists, turn the option in under General Options.

Here is another example of a master list. This is the 'Medications' list on the evaluation screen. In a case like this, you probably do want to just list each medication once for All Categories, All Providers, and All Patient Types.

master_lists_meds

Fig 2

When adding or editing an item in a master list, the screen will look like this:

master_lists_edit

Fig 3

Enter the description to be added. This can be as many characters as needed and can also include special TAGS (see below) that can be replaced automatically when the user selects this item from a list.

Next, choose the category, provider and type of patient that this item should appear for in the list. Use the 'Save & Add Another' button to keep adding more items to the list.

Tags can be used to avoid repetitious entries into a master list. For example, we could add to our master list above the entries:

    Patient complains of pain in his left ankle.
    Patient complains of pain in his right ankle.
    Patient complains of pain in her left ankle.
    Patient complains of pain in her right ankle.

That's 4 different entries for the same description! To make a much cleaner list, use the tags at the left to create one entry:

     Patient complains of pain in <HISHER> <LR> ankle.

For more personalized sentences, try this:

<NAME> complains of pain in <HISHER> <LR> ankle.

This will put the patient's first name in place of the <NAME> tag.

As long as the patient gender is entered on the Patient screen and the Area Affected is selected by the therapist on the Evaluation screen, the tags will be replaced automatically as soon as the item is selected from the list.