Checklists allow you to customise and standardise your data collection within Genie. They can be a helpful tool in keeping track of patient responses, and provide you with the flexibility of adjusting the criteria to suit your specific practice’s needs.
With the additional options of inserting your checklists into letters and operation reports, as well as reporting on them via QuickReports, this article aims to provide you with a better understanding of the process to allow you to take advantage of the convenience and excellent data representation that checklists have to offer!
Before you begin
As Genie users are able to upload their completed checklists to the Genie Checklists Web Server, we recommend checking whether someone else has already completed the hard work for you!
You can check for existing checklists by navigating to Special > Software Updates > Checklists. If there is a form here that you think might suit your requirements tick the box to the left of the checklist/s you want, then select the button in the bottom right of this window. You will be prompted to rename the checklists before they are imported to your Genie database. The checklist can then be accessed within patient’s clinical windows.
If you have confirmed that the checklist you are after has not yet been created, you can create a new checklist template from a patient's clinical file by using the step-by-step instructions provided below:
- In the Checklists table, under either the Other or Checklists/Script Archive tab in the clinical record, click on the blue plus
icon. This displays a list of available checklist templates.
- Click the
button to create a new checklist template. Enter a name for the checklist, then click
.
- The new template will be added to the list and automatically selected. Click the
button to open the new, blank checklist.
- The bank of buttons allows you to select the type of field to add to the checklist:
- Text field (up to 80 characters) - These are configurable drop-down menus.
- Number field
- Checkbox field (true/false response)
- Radio Buttons (configurable dual response e.g. normal/abnormal, right/left)
- Date field
- Picture field
- Large Text field (32000 characters)
- Break Headers - These allow entry of any text (used to break the Checklist up into sections)
- To add a field, select the field type required, then click the blue plus
icon. The new field is added to the bottom of the form.
- To rename the field label, click on the field label, e.g. Text 1, and type the new field name.
- Once this is done, you can begin to apply additional formatting:
- Add menu items - On the right of the Text field is a popup menu which allows you to add text items for faster data selection. Click on the arrow
and select Add to Menu to add items.
- Choose the Field Reference option from the drop-down menu to bring up a list of patient demographics fields available for insertion. The available fields that appear in this list will change depending on the type of checklist option you are trying to add a reference to. For example, you will only be able to add date fields relating to the patient demographics information if you have selected an option that is a date field in the checklist itself. Once you have a date field reference in your checklist e.g. DOB, you should notice the next time you open this checklist from the patient’s clinical file, the relevant patient’s DOB should be brought into the checklist automatically.
- Radio button choices can be formatted by clicking on the
button. The default is Yes/No. Radio button fields are used when one choice is always selected.
- Large text fields behave like macros that drop in text of a paragraph or more. When configuring the menu you will be prompted to enter the short text for the menu list and then to enter the long text that will be entered when selected. For example, the “consent” menu item drops in a paragraph about the informed consent discussion prior to the procedure, which can be seen below:
- Add menu items - On the right of the Text field is a popup menu which allows you to add text items for faster data selection. Click on the arrow
When you are finished creating your checklist, you will be able to see a list of fields displayed on your checklist as seen below:
Prior to saving the checklist, you can use the icons at the top of the window to:
Print the checklist
Lock the checklist so are the only one who can see this information
Link the checklist to a procedure
Upload the checklist to our Web Server so that it may be downloaded by other providers who may require a similar checklist
You can also use the button to change the order of the fields in the checklist if you would like to rearrange the order that the fields appear on the checklist.
Remember to click the button when you are finished creating the checklist!
When you click after you have initially created the checklist, the checklist template is saved into the list of checklist templates, and a copy of this checklist is added to the patient’s clinical file.
To find this, you can navigate to the patient’s clinical file, select the Other or Checklists/Script Archive tab, and you should be able to see the checklist has been added to the Checklists table. You can double-click the checklist you would like to edit from the list to open the blank checklist.
Once you have the checklist open, you can go through and enter the relevant information into the different fields of the checklist. If you have added a Field Reference using the arrow icon next to each field, you should see patient information populate automatically depending on which field you have selected for this checklist option.
Once you are happy with the information you have added to this template, you can click the button again to save the changes to the checklist in the patient’s file.
Once you have created and saved a checklist to the patient’s file, you have the ability to include this checklist in a consult note. The instructions outlined below show you how this can be done:
- From a patient’s clinical file, click
and select the required checklist from the
drop-down menu. In the checklist window, the radio buttons indicate where the notes collected in the checklist will be deposited when saved:
- To keep the checklist, as well as the consultation notes, or to use its field content in letters, click the
button.
- To avoid duplication of data, click the
button to save the checklist text to the selected section of your consultation notes. The original checklist will not be kept if you choose to save the checklist in this method.
- For example, the image below shows what a checklist looks like when added into the Examination section of a consult:
In order to add a checklist to a letter template, you will first need to decide if you would like to insert the entire checklist into the letter as it is, or if you would prefer to integrate fields from the checklist into a letter you have hand written.
For inserting the full checklist:
- If you would like to insert the full checklist as is, open the letter template and select the Fields tab on the left hand side
- Expand the Checklists table, and click and drag the name of the checklist from the list on the left, into the letter on the right where you would like the checklist to appear
- You may wish to include in your letter template placeholder text such as (insert checklist here), which you can use to identify where on the template you wish the checklist to be placed
- Once the checklist is added, you could then remove the placeholder text prior to printing/sending the letter
- Below is an example of what a full checklist looks like when added to a letter template:
For inserting individual checklist fields:
- If you would like to integrate specific fields into a hand written letter, open the letter template, and select the Fields tab on the left hand side
- Expand the Checklist table, navigate to the specific checklist you would like to use and expand this as well
- This will open a list of all the available fields contained in that checklist, which you can add to your letter by clicking and dragging from the list on the left, into your letter on the right.
- You will need to ensure that you position the fields so they will fit into your hand written letter, showing the correct checklist data in the order you would like them to appear
- You may wish to create your checklist after you have created your letter template, so you will know which data to add to the checklist so that it matches your letter template.
Example letter template with individual checklist fields included, references disabled:
Example letter template with individual checklist fields included, references enabled:
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