Andre’s Approach To Creating A Custom Medical History Form In Eaglesoft
IF you have any Version of Eaglesoft 16 or newer, you have the ability to “customize” your medical history form. Ok, calm down. I know it’s exciting. Stop thinking about where you can put your logo. You can’t. It’s not THAT kind of “custom”. It’s more like when Henry Ford said that “you can have the Model T in any color you want. As long as it’s black.”
There are a couple of things to consider when you do customize your ES Medical History (MH) form (NO you can’t customize the Registration form (wink wink – you can a little, but I’ll talk about that someplace else). The first consideration is that IF you change the default form, none of the existing patient answers will move over (“migrate”) to the new form. They will NOT be lost. The old answers will stay in the patient’s history. They just won’t populate into the new form. Soooo, if you decide to do this, make SURE you are ready for this and make sure that you are ready to make the new custom form yours for a good long time. If you decide after a month that you want to change again, the answers from the last form aren’t gonna move over either. If you are going to make your own Custom Medical History form, be aware that once you use a form, it can no longer be edited. Really. If you find that you spelled Penicillin incorrectly you will have to start over with a NEW Custom Medical History Form and “Inactivate” the on with Penicillin spelled incorrectly (ask me how I know this).
So, here is what I suggest and how I set up Custom Medical History Forms in Eaglesoft.
Prepare:
1) Print out the default Medical History form from Eaglesoft
2) Make enough copies so that everyone in the office gets one.
3) Let every member of your crew “redline” questions they don’t “like” (i.e. “Frequent Diarrhea”)
4) Get copies of ALL the forms you’ve used in the past and forms you like from other resources. Pick some of your favorite questions from those forms (i.e. What do you think of your smile?)
5) Make a list of questions you would like to add to your Custom Medical History Forms
Now you’re ready to start “making” your custom form in ES
1) Go to List>Medical History Forms>Click on the Eaglesoft Medical History>Click Edit. You’re going to get a warning that “This form cannot be edited because it is associated with a patient” Blah blah blah. You will, be Creating a new form based on the default form.
2) Give the new form a unique name like “Dr Wonderful’ s Invasive Questions of the Day” (or you can come up with something). Warning: Do not use the “&” in your name, It will be replaces by an underscore.
3) I recommend deleting the “Disclaimer” section all together to make room for other things and it’s also stated in the signature at the bottom.
4) Edit the first question and use “Are you currently under a physician's care; been recently hospitalized or had a head/neck injury?” This takes the first 3 questions and make them into one. You can now delete the next two question.
Both of these changes can be “tweaked” to your preferences but, they make a big difference in the “mistakes” made in nudging appointments on the schedule of Eaglesoft. This has to be done at each workstation.
Optional: In the Mouse Setting screen, on the right side, select Additional Mouse Setting and the Pointers tab. Select the Windows Standard Extra Large as your default Windows Cursor. I have found it to be the most accurate.
5) I delete the current medication questions and replace it with a “Comment”. To do this you click the “Add **” button (below and right) and enter “Are you taking any medications or other counter pills or drugs?” If yes, please list below”. In the settings to the right of the question, drop-down I remove the ability to edit.
6) I add another Comment box BELOW the medications question and set IT to be able to edit. This creates a LARGE box where patients can enter in their medications or other counter pills or drugs.
7) I leave the “Have you ever taken Fosamax, Boniva, Actonel or any other medications containing bisphosphonates?” but remove the Special diets and tobacco question (Tobacco will go into the Yes/No questions below).
8) In the next section, the only things that I “fix” is to move the “Other?” question above the “controlled substances” question.
9) In the “Do you have, or have you had, any of the following?” section you will see based on your preferences what should stay and what should go. I’ll leave that up to you. What I will suggest is that this is an opportunity to “fix” Medical History Alerts. Some items that “Pop-up” alerts and not be necessary. This would be the time to create new Medical History Alerts and connect them to your new form. Example: Asthma. I created a duplicate Asthma Medical History Alert but removed the Warn option and added an icon to designate the Alert. Now, I have an icon that shows in my Clinical view but does NOT have a pop-up when encountered. Again, I leave the choices of what stays and what is added to the individual providers.
10) The rest of the form can pretty much stay as is with the Comments and Signature lines. Here are a few things I have seen that help:
a) Delete Hepatitis B or C and delete the “A” from “Hepatitis A” leaving a Y/N for just Hepatitis. You can use the Comments to dig deeper.
b) I edit “Arthritis/Gout” and make it “Arthritis/ Rheumatism” and delete Rheumatism as a separate choice. I then add Gout to “Swelling of limbs”
c) I delete “Frequent Diarrhea”
d) I combine “Easily Winded” with “Breathing Problems” eliminating one
e) I delete “Genital Herpes”
f) I add “Tobacco User” as a question
11) Here is a suggestion for Signature statement: As required by law, our office adheres to policies & procedures to protect your information we create, receive, or maintain. Your answers are for our records and will be kept confidential subject to applicable laws. You will be asked some questions about this questionnaire and concerning your health. This information is vital to allow us to provide appropriate care for you. By signing below, you certify that you have read and understand the above and that the information given is accurate. You will not hold this practice responsible for any action taken or not taken because of errors or omissions that I may have made in this form.
12) Click OK
13) Click Preview
14) Click Preview (again)
15) Click Print Form. Now you can review your masterpiece! Print enough for everyone to review for typos and for flow. Fill one out yourself and see if it makes sense. When you’re happy with what you have.
16) You can click the boxes to make it “Active” and “Default” and unclick the ES default form,
17) Boom! You have a custom form
Medical History Tip: Pressing the F12 button on the top row of your keyboard Will open the Medical History screen for a selected patient (or open a dialog box to choose a patient)
DISCLAIMER:
This is a resource guide and all decisions on each dental office setup should remain the sole decision of the dentist/owner of the practice. Eaglesoft is a registered trademark of Patterson Dental Company. All other software or products mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Although Andre Shirdan was an employee of Patterson Dental, he is not associated with Eaglesoft or Patterson Dental Company or endorsed by Patterson or any other Company Mentioned in this blog
