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Part 5: Writing your note and leverage rich-text formatting

This article covers the different ways to write a draft note and use shortcuts for formatting.

Table of contents:

 

Overview

The instructions below cover a wide range of ways to write a visit note in Note 2.0. You don’t need to use all of these workflows; rather test out and pick the ones that feel most comfortable and efficient for you.

 

Workflow Instructions

Starting a new draft

  1. Open the patient’s chart.

  2. At the top of the chart, click the Visit Note button and select Visit Note 2.0 in the dropdown menu.

    • Click on the patient's name from their appointment today to open a Visit Note 2.0 draft if you are using Note 2.0 with the visit note automation feature.

  3. A new draft note will open on the right-hand side of the chart.

 

Addressing Clinical Reminders

Review the Clinical Reminders at the top of the visit note draft to address/dismiss any relevant reminders. 

Important: Clinical Reminders are only available for Health Maintenance measures and customers using custom Care Gaps at this time. 

Writing a visit note

Using a template

In Note 2.0, you can export a template that was created with Elation’s legacy Visit Note Template feature or created with our new Template 2.0 feature. (Click here to learn more about how to create the new 2.0 templates.)

Multiple templates (both legacy and new) can be applied to the same visit note draft. The contents of the template will simply add to what’s already been documented in the draft.

Option 1: Export a legacy template
  1. As a recommendation, keep all of the default blocks that appear when you start your draft note. Doing so helps ensure the contents of your template appear in the expected order.
  2. Follow any of these 3 workflows to insert the Template block and select your desired template from the menu.

⚠️ When exporting a legacy template to Note 2.0, don’t export it from the visit note templates window. You must use one of the workflows in the above link.

Option 2: Export a note 2.0 template

If you haven’t written anything in the draft yet:

  1. Delete all of the default blocks from your draft first.
    Tip: On your keyboard, press cltr/command + a to select all, and then press Delete/Backspace.
  2. Once the note has no more blocks, follow any of these 3 workflows to insert the Note 2.0 Template block and select your desired template from the menu.

If you’re adding a note 2.0 template to a draft that already has content:

  1. Follow any of these 3 workflows to insert the Note 2.0 Template block and select your desired template from the menu.
    The blocks from the recently added template might not appear in the expected order (i.e. blocks may get appended to the bottom of the note). If needed, use the icon to drag-and-drop the blocks to the right position.

⚠️ At this time, you cannot link a ‘2.0 template’ when setting up visit note automation.  

 

Typing directly into the note

You can place your cursor into any text field within a block or outside of a block to type new content.

 

Creating a text field outside of a block

Option 1: Add a text field above or below a block
  1. At the top of any existing block, click thebutton on the right or the icon on the left.
  2. Select Add block above or Add block below depending on where you want the new text field to appear.
  3. When the dropdown menu appears, delete the forward-slash (/) so that you’re left with a regular text field that you can type in.

Option 2: Add a text field below a block
  1. In an existing block, place your cursor at the end of the last line of text.*
  2. Press Return or Enter on your keyboard twice. With the first keystroke, you’ll create a new line, and with the second, you’ll create a text field outside the block.

*Note: If there is no text in the block, pressing return/enter will delete the block. Enter a space in the block before you press return/enter to prevent the deletion.

 

Importing content from outside the note

For the blocks that are associated with the Subjective, there are a few workflows to transfer data from the Clinical Profile to the draft note.

Option 1: Use the import button found at the top of the block

Note: Only certain blocks will feature an import button.

  1. Click thebutton to import the content from the corresponding section of the Clinical Profile.

Option 2: Insert a block whose name ends with (from Clinical Pr) into the note

Note: This version ending with (from Clinical Pr) is only available for certain blocks.

  1. Follow any of these 3 workflows to search for and enter a block that ends with (from Clinical Pr).
  2. The block will appear pre-populated with content from the corresponding section of the Clinical Profile.

Option 3: Initiate an export from the Clinical Profile
  1. Scroll to the section of the Clinical Profile that you’d like to export. 
  2. Hover over the heading name or a specific line-item under the heading until you see an Actions button appear.
  3. Click Actions and in the dropdown menu, select the type of import that you’d like to perform.

⚠️ Currently, the following exports from the Clinical Profile don’t work but will be addressed later on:

  • Synopsis of a diagnosis from the Problem List.
  • When using the “Export to Note” button for the entire History section: the structured portions of the Family History, Cognitive History, Functionality History, Habits, and Health Maintenance.
  • When exporting individual line items from the Clinical Profile: the structured portions of the Family History, Habits, Vaccine, and Health Maintenance.

Option 4: Applying a Dynamic Macro
  1. Use the @ shortcut to insert any of the following data into a standard block or text field:
    • Clinical Profile (Allergies)
      • Bulleted list of Active Allergies from the patient's clinical profile. 
    • Clinical Profile (Medications)
      • Bulleted list of Active Permanent Medications from the patient's clinical profile.
    • Clinical Profile (Problems)
      • Bulleted list of Active Problems from the patient's Clinical Profile Problem List.
⚠️ Dynamic macros cannot be used in custom blocks, Vitals fields, structured PE and ROS fields or anywhere outside of the Note 2.0 draft or template builder.

 

Using the + button in certain blocks

The allergies, reconciled medications, and assessment & plan blocks have a + button that allows you to simultaneously add structured information to the draft note and Clinical Profile.

  1. At the top of one of the 3 blocks mentioned above, click the + button.
  2. A pop-up window that corresponds with the block will appear.
  3. Complete the fields within the pop-up window.
  4. Click Save.

Note: The Family History block also has a + button, but it can only be used to add information to the note daft.

 

Inserting patient demographics into standard blocks or text fields

Use the @ shortcut to insert any of the following patient demographic data into a standard block or text field:

    • Patient age
      • Patient's age at the time of visit. 
    • Patient DOB
      • Patient's Date of birth.
    • Patient name
      • Patient's Legal first name, Middle name & Legal last name.
⚠️ Dynamic macros cannot be used in custom blocks, Vitals fields, structured PE and ROS fields or anywhere outside of the Note 2.0 draft or template builder.

Deleting content from your note

Aside from pressing the Delete or Backspace button to delete individual letters, you can also use the methods below when appropriate.

Option 1: Use buttons to remove an entire block.
  1. At the top of any existing block, click thebutton on the right or the icon on the left.
  2. Select Delete from the dropdown menu.

Option 2: Highlight content to delete
  1. Highlight text from the visit note. The highlighted portion can span across blocks.
  2. Press Delete or Backspace on your keyboard.

 

Copy forward a signed 2.0 visit note

  1. In the Chronological Record, locate the signed visit note.
  2. Click the Actions menu and select Export to New Note (All Sections).
  3. A new draft will appear with the contents of the prior visit note.

⚠️ You can only copy forward a Note 2.0 visit note into a Note 2.0 draft (i.e. you cannot copy forward a legacy note into a Note 2.0 draft).

 

Rich-text formatting with shortcuts

Within any text field (inside or outside a block), you can use the following keyboard shortcuts to achieve more detailed formatting.

Action

Steps

Create a heading

Press the # key + space key + your heading text.

Bold

Ctrl/command + b

Italicize

Ctrl/command + i

Bold and Italicize

Ctrl/command + b + i

Undo

Ctrl/command + z

You can also click the button at the top of the note.

Redo

Ctrl/command + y

You can also click the button at the top of the note.

Copy

Ctrl/command + c

Cut

Ctrl/command + x

Paste

Ctrl/command + v

Create a bulleted list

Press the dash key - followed by space.

Use the Tab key to indent.

Press Shift + Tab to un-indent.

Convert an empty bullet to a paragraph

Press the Enter key.

Create a numbered list

Press a number + . + space key

Use the Tab key to indent

Press Shift + Tab to un-indent

Convert an empty numbered list to a paragraph

Press the Enter key

Move cursor to the start of a line

Ctrl + A

Moving between blocks

Press the up ↑ or down ↓ arrow.

Select all contents in the note

Command/Windows key + A

  

Additional Reading