Auto Text (Dr. Barker)

We have lots of templates built up in Cerner clinical notes, but getting them modified is time consuming and rarely anyone’s top priority.  Using AutoText you can make modifications to templates and you can make them more useful.

This time lets start off in the clinical documents – the old way we have been doing documents.  By the way if you are nervous, there are quite a number of bogus patients named Test, Test etc. that you can work on and not harm. 

 

Open up a new note, and import your favorite template as you usually do.

Mine is the template for recording HIV resistance tests.

 

Now, lets fix a few things, take out the empty space at the top, fix the misspellings, add a couple colleagues names at the bottom, etc.  Just bring it up to date. 

Next step is to use a Cerner trick – there are a whole bunch of places in this form where we need to enter information but this is just plain text as far as Cerner is concerned.  We can tell the Cerner System where those places are by using the UNDERSCORE character.  To insert an underscore you place your cursor where you want and while holding the SHIFT key down you hit the key just left of the + and = sign key, this inserts an underscore.  Cerner understands that an Underscore is where you want to enter data.   So the best practice is to go to each place in a form and leaving one blank space after the : place a ­_ symbol.

So my form now looks like this.

 

Cerner uses the F3 key at the top left of the keyboard as a TAB key to move between underscores in a document.   Hitting the F3 moves you right to the next underscore. 

So how does this tie into AutoText – simple; remember the thing about placing the cursor in front of text and holding down the left mouse key – and dragging it through the whole text you want to use?  Do it now and highlight the whole modified template.   Whole thing should be highlighted in black. 

 

Now right click the text and pick Save As Auto Text. 

Follow the same steps and create an Auto Text , name it “zzSomething” , click Create, click Close.

Now the next time you need the template, instead of using the old template through the “rubber stamp” icon you can use your updated AutoText.  Just start a new document and either type “zz” or right click the blank field and click insert Auto Text and pick the one you want and click it. 

 

As a result you get your newly updated, personalized template with the nifty F3 accessible info entry places. 

  

Other very handy uses for the Underscore might be places where you want

Yes ­_  No _  N/A _  and such answers.   Just keep in mind that this is just text and in the final note you would see it as.  

Yes _  No  X   N/A _ 

This is not as good as a true PowerNote because the info is just text and cannot be searched the way the <elements> in the Sentences of a PowerNote can be.  However a really good template can make your work go faster and allows you to develop something that can later be translated into a PowerNote by an HIS analyst.   Plus you can invoke a template built as an Auto Text in a Clinical Document or a PowerNote very easily.   Your AutoTexts are available to you in both types of documents, so you can develop it in one and use it in both types.