Online Help

Overview

Chart Parts are user-managed templates that you can use to quickly populate your encounter note with text, information about the patient, and/or suggest actions (diagnoses, prescriptions, orders, supplements, charges, alternate plan options, even handouts). To use a chart part you just need to type the first 3 letters of it, it will come up as a suggested item on the left. 

This feature can be used to auto-complete a commonly-used phrase, add a set of text prompts, populate the note with the patient's medical history,  add a combination of actions (like a protocol or lab panel), or add any combination of text and actions to the note.

Chart parts can also be used in tasks, secure messages, and emails to patients. 

Related Articles

• Create a Chart Part based on a Patient Submitted Questionnaire
• Advanced Chart Part Examples
  
• Create and Add Lab Panels Using Chart Parts
• Creating and Managing Alternate Plan Items

  
  

Videos

• Short (11 min) overview of Chart Parts in Cerbo:

• Just want to create an encounter note outline/ simple note template? Create a Simple Encounter Note Template using Chart Parts (4 min)
• Want to dive deeper? Watch the Chart Parts Intensive - livestream recording (1 hour)

Details

Create or manage Chart Parts via Admin >> Manage >> Chart Parts. Click on "Create New Chart Part" or click on an existing Chart Part to edit it. You can also clone an existing Chart Part by clicking on the 3 dots under the "Actions column". This can be useful if you want to use an existing Chart Part as a starting point for a new one. 

Basics

Name- this is how you will search for the Chart Part. A chart part name may not contain spaces or special characters/symbols. Consider using underscores as spaces.

Nickname - Multiple nicknames should be separated by spaces. Nicknames can be very useful if you have many chart parts (dozens or even hundreds), and don't want to remember the exact name of each one. You can employ nicknames to group chart parts and search for them with alternate terms. For instance, you could use the term/nickname "female" to label all female-specific templates. This way, you can bring up all those templates just by typing in the common nickname.

Scope of the Chart Part refers to who may use it: just the user who creates it or anyone in the practice. 

Text and Variables

Text to be Inserted: add text that you want to appear exactly as written when the Chart Part is called and/or text variables (see below) to pull contextual information from a patient's chart.  

Show Available Variables: click this button to view all the variables you can use. Click on the Variable Name to add it to your text in the body of the template. Each row in the table on the right lists a "variable name" and its corresponding "Replacement Action". In short, the variable, if used in a template, will prompt the software to replace the name with the piece of information described in the Replacement Action column. 

The placeholder variable - {???} - can be used for quick navigation within the note if your template is lengthy, or to create a simple intake template for when you're charting. When you include this in a chart part, and the latter is used in a note, you can press your tab key to navigate to the next placeholder in your template. With this system in place, you can fill out a portion of your note, and when you're ready for the next portion, just press the tab key to navigate to the next place requiring your input. In the example below, you could fill our the information related to the patient's smoking habits, then press tab to move the cursor to the next placeholder, which is prompting the user to complete notes related to drinking habits.

Custom Variables

You can use special variables for custom vitals or lab-values in the Vitals block, and pull those values in a chart part using the following syntax:

Vital: [[pt_vital_ShortNameOfVital]]

Lab results: [[pt_lab:NameOfLabResultField]]

For example, if you regularly record a patient's PulseOx reading, you can pull up the last value in a SOAP note using the variable [[pt_vital_PulseOx]] in a chart part.

NOTE that this may not work if there are spaces or special characters in the custom vital's Short Name. You can edit the Short Name to omit these, if needed, under Admin > Manage > Vitals. 

Pull in multiple readings: If you want to see for the most recent several lab or vitals values, you can do that with this syntax:

Vital name: [[pt_vital_ShortNameOfVital(#)]].  

For example, [[pt_bp(3)]] will pull into the note the last 3 blood pressure readings.

Actions

In this section, you can associate diagnoses, medications, orders, supplements, charges, tags, or your custom alternate plan items to the Chart Part. In this way you can make chart parts based upon diagnosis, appointments, types of patients, services, or create a lab panel. 

First, select what type of action you'd like to connect using the Action Type drop down menu. Then search for the item by typing search terms in search bar to the right, and then click on it to add it to the Chart Part. 

Using Chart Parts

You can apply a template, or Chart Part to a note by typing all or part of its name or nickname in the main text field of the open encounter note. You can use the same technique to bring in a template in other areas of the EMR where this feature is supported. A common example would be the email free text fields. 

As you type in the encounter note, the software will "listen" for names you have defined in Chart Parts. It will display any matches in a pop-up next to the current word you are typing. Click on one to select it. To select an entry from the list without using the mouse, use the up/down arrow keys. Within the list, the down (or right) arrow moves down the list, and the up (or left) arrow moves up. Press enter to select.

Once selected, any text from the Chart Part template will be added to the main text block. In an encounter note, actions will be added as "Suggested Actions" as shown below. Click on a suggested action to add it to the note. Click on the "x" icon to the right of any suggestion to remove it. If you don't add a suggested action to the note, and sign your note, they will not be included. 

Using Chart parts outside of the Note

You can also use chart parts in tasks, secure messages, and emails to patients. This enables you to quickly pull up instructions for a task or common messages to patients. Just type the first three letters of the name or nickname of the chart part in the text of the message or task, and you will see the suggested chart parts. Please note that actions and variables associated with chart parts will not work in areas other than encounter notes.

Other keywords: dot phrases macros