Welcome back to my second blog post! As I replayed the Tuesday with Theresa topics from last year, I was thinking about the March session which was focused on the templates in Anesthesia, PACU and Critical Care Manager. We don’t often talk about those applications and I thought it was a really good session. When I do HealthChecks for customers with those applications, we find many opportunities to streamline the workflow in the templates. I also hear from users that they don’t always know all of the options around the templates because they don’t go into “Customize” very often.
I recall one customer being very frustrated that the fluid balance reminder popped up every time the clinician put the patient in transfer. I explained that ‘pop up’ is an option in customize and can be turned off with a check. She was so excited because she thought it was hard coded.
One of the options that folks tend to forget is that you can have macros do multiple actions. For example – if anesthesia ends their case in the PACU, the macro the PACU nurse selects to document the patient in PACU time can also log the PACU nurse off automatically so the anesthesia provider can log in and finish up their documentation right from the PACU template. This is a huge time saver and ensures that the user is documenting with their username and password. The same functionality can be used when the anesthesia provider selects the macro for anesthesia end. The one macro can then log anesthesia off so the PACU nurse can log in when ready to document. So, remember to utilize multiple actions from one macro when necessary.
Another recommendation is to utilize ALL the options when building your templates. Historically, anesthesia documentation only uses events and Preop/PACU templates utilizes assessments mostly. One site I visited, used the assessment for train of four documentation for anesthesia instead of a physiologic parameter or event. The assessment is very easy to document AND displays the train of four documentation correctly. Anesthesia loved the option of an assessment in their documentation. Think of things like repositioning or position checks as an assessment instead of events. Anesthesia may like those options.
There are many options in customize and I recommend that you take some time to explore all options and select what would work for your facility for quick and efficient documentation.
-Theresa Sullivan
