Tippy - Time Shortcuts

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Date, Time and Interval Shortcuts

Users often encounter fields where a date, time or interval needs to be specified. Examples include start and end dates for orders, visits and other scheduled events.

A few shortcuts make it easy to place common values with minimum effort.

Time Shortcut	Example
N for Now	N is the time right now
T for Today	T-1 is yesterday
W for Week	W-2 is 14 days ago
M for Month	M-1 is this day last month
MB for Month Begin	MB-1 is the first day of last month
ME for Month End	ME-1 is the last day of last month
Y for Year	Y-40 is this day forty years ago

For a reminder about these, use the F1 key, then look to the top drop-down menu in the pop-up that appears and select the "F1 Help" view. 

Tippy - Advanced Chart Searching

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Advanced Chart Searching

The search function (CTRL-Space) in Hyperspace (top right or within Storyboard) is remarkably useful. It can help find an activity or navigator that may not be among one's favourites.

Search also supports clinical discovery when used within an open chart. One can find, for example, all visits where mention was made of a specific symptom or sign.

Searches can be made more specific by using multiple terms joined with "AND", or more sensitive with terms joined with "OR":

If you want to get fancier still, parentheses can be used for more complex logic (e.g., "Refill AND (Ryan OR Robert)").

Tippy - Chart Search

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• CTRL + Spacebar = Search

The "Search" tool (top right in Hyperspace) can be a big help. Position your cursor over the magnifying glass icon,

to cause an edit box to appear,


where a search term can be entered (start typing the letters, e.g., "phone", and note the completion matching options that appear, e.g., "Phone Book") to find and click-activate:

• Most activities, commands or functions that otherwise need to be found in the Epic Menu
• Many settings, such as user interface settings and themes
• Other menu-accessible functions that otherwise may take many clicks to find

When a patient chart has been opened, Chart Search can be found within the patient Storyboard (leftmost column). Here one can additionally search for specific entries within a chart (e.g., "diabetes"). Hovering over a search result gives more information; double-clicking jumps to the activity or information.

The keyboard shortcut (Control key plus Spacebar) is worth remembering.

If mouth is to microphone (Dragon Medical One), pause and say "chart search" or "search chart".

Tippy - Keyboard Shortcuts

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Useful Hyperdrive Keyboard Shortcuts

A few keyboard shortcuts can speed up common Hyperdrive workflows and tasks. For a reminder about these, use the F1 key, then look to the top drop-down menu in the pop-up that appears and select "F1 Help" view.

Action	Shortcut
Open Chart Search	CTRL+Space
Log out	CTRL+ALT+L
Secure	CTRL+ALT+S
Close Workspace / Patient	CTRL+W
Close Activity	CTRL+Q
Toggle Workspace	CTRL+Tab
Home Workspace	CTRL+ALT+1
Second Workspace	CTRL+ALT+2
Nth Workspace	CTRL+ALT+number
Epic Button	ALT
More Activities	CTRL+D
Toolbar Actions	ALT+T

Prescribers can get a big efficiency boost from less mouse-work. To see this in action:

• Here's How: Keyboard Shortcuts, Part 1 (general navigation)
• Here's How: Keyboard Shortcuts, Part 2 (chart navigation)
• Crib-Sheet: Hyperdrive Keyboard Shortcuts

Tippy - F1 Help

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• F1 = Quick Help

With Hyperdrive open, the F1 key can be pressed within any activity or workflow to gain rapid access to Connect Care tips, guides and learning resources. 

The same screen can be opened via the main Epic menu in the "help" section.

The associated "Universal Connect Care Links and Information" dashboard can also be found in the "My Dashboards" activity. 

Consider the F1 key for rapid-access to a general purpose learning home dashboard. Note that links to help for prescribers appear in a small box at the top of the middle column (just below first row).

Tippy - Updating Primary Care Provider Associations

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Updating a Patient's Primary Care Provider

Connect Care uses information about a patient's primary care provider (PCP) to facilitate a number of automated communications. These can include:

• admission, discharge and death notifications
• consultation and referral tracking
• alerts to key test results, and 
• sending copies of summative documents (e.g., operative reports, discharge summaries) 

Although patients are asked to confirm their primary care provider at every Connect Care registration, changes can occur between the start and end of an encounter. It is important for providers to know how to change the primary care provider name (or clinic) associated with a patient chart.

Editing PCP information is easy. Either select (click on) the Storyboard (leftmost column of any open chart) row where provider names appear, or use chart search to jump to the "Care Team" chart activity. A "Patient Care Team" section has a tool for adding a PCP. 

This is used to identify a PCP when none was previously specified. The same tool is used to enter a new PCP name to replace a previous outdated PCP association.

For more information:

• Manual: Shared Documents

Tippy - Completing Consult Orders without Consult Notes

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Completing Consult Orders from Patient Lists

Admitting services may elect to complete an admitting H&P note and use this to fulfill documentation requirements for consultation requests from emergency departments. In this case, a Consult note is not prepared and the usual method for closing the consult order is not available. If the consult order is not "completed", the patient remains in the admitting service's unfinished consults list. 

A simple workflow can be used to complete the consultation order from within an inpatient list. This is done by using a "Physician Consults" report when a patient in a list is selected. The report has a link to "complete" the consult (simultaneously removing it from the list of unfinished consults).

• Tip: Completing Consultation Orders from within Patient Lists
• Manual: Consultation Workflows

Tippy - Routing Documents to External Systems When There Is No Primary Care Provider

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Sharing when there is no Primary Care Provider

When prescribers see patients in outpatient settings (office, clinic, etc.), a "Communications" workflow and "letter" typically is used to share findings with the primary care provider (PCP) and/or referring provider. The same workflow can be used to copy the communications letter to external systems, including the Netcare electronic health record. 

What if the patient has no PCP? Any of the following actions will result in a Netcare share:

• Emergency Provider
  The patient may have been referred from an emergency encounter, and the emergency provider can be entered as a "referring provider" before the communications activity is initiated. Communications can be routed to referring providers when there are no PCPs.
• Patient has no PCP
  Connect Care allows "Patient has no PCP" to be entered as the PCP for a patient. "Patient has no PCP" can also be selected as a letter recipient even when not set as the patient's PCP. Use of a Netcare letter template will work, but Connect Care will attempt a local print of the letter as well; this is avoidable by selecting "Print to PDF" and then not following through on the "save" part of the printing workflow.
• Copy to self
  Letters can still be routed to Netcare without primary care or referring providers identified. One can send or copy the letter to oneself (use ".ME" SmartLink in the recipients box). The letter will go to Netcare and be copied to the Connect Care prescriber's In Basket. 
  
  
  

When using letter templates that copy the information to Alberta Netcare where a primary care provider is not defined, providers should edit the default cover letter text to make it clear whether they participate in ongoing care or not. For example:

For more information:

• Manual: Shared Documents

Tippy - Adding or Updating Referring and Primary Care Providers in Clinic Schedule Lists

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Updating a Patient's Referring and Primary Care Providers in Outpatient Lists

Connect Care uses information about a patient's referring and primary care provider (PCP) to facilitate a number of workflows. 

Ensuring that both the referring provider and PCP are correctly identified prior to starting an outpatient encounter is essential to some communications and billing actions. While this information should be entered when visits are scheduled, prescribers should confirm its presence before initiating an actual visit. 

An appointment list column makes this easy to do. 

Note the column with "Ref/PCP Info" in its header. Missing information will be apparent within the column as a blank space. Users can double-click within that blank space to open an editing tool that facilitates rapid entry or revision of the correct referring or PCP provider name.

• Tip: Identifying/Modifying Primary Care and Referring Providers in the Clinic Schedule

Tippy - Optimize Your Screen Resolution

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Make Room for More Hyperdrive

Connect Care Hyperdrive can be accessed via AHS facility workstations, laptops-on-wheels and tablets. Hyperdrive can also be accessed via AHS or personal laptops or tablets outside of AHS facilities. 

Sometimes the screen size of a portable computer causes Hyperdrive content to appear crowded, with loss of sidebar space or other useful user-interface features.

When using computers with smaller (LCD) screens, it is best to maximize the screen resolution, and so maximize the amount of Hyperdrive that can be displayed all at once.

• Windows 10 - Changing Screen Resolution
• Windows 11 - Changing Screen Resolution
• Macintosh OS - Changing Screen Resolution

Tippy - In Basket Notification for Inpatient Lab Results

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Get Notification for Selected Inpatient Test Orders

Results relating to orders placed within an inpatient encounter are, with few exceptions, managed within that encounter. There is no default routing to In Basket or other communication channels. The assumption is that results are routinely reviewed by the inpatient team.

 
Sometimes high-stakes results need clinician attention as soon as available. In such cases, inpatient prescribers can mark specific tests for In Basket notification.

Within an opened inpatient chart, go to the "Orders" activity and find the ordered investigation (e.g., imaging, laboratory test). Hover over the order of interest, looking to the far right of the row holding the order where a pick-list icon (q) will appear. Select this, then the "Notify Me" menu option:

The prescriber selecting the notify option will receive an In Basket message as soon as the requested result is available.

• Manual: Inpatient Results and Reports Routing

Tippy - Compare 2 or More Radiology Images

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Comparing Studies with PACS Image Viewer

Clinicians can view diagnostic imaging test results within the Chart Review activity that appears as a main tab in all opened charts. On reviewing study results in the "Imaging" tab in Chart Review, a "PACS Images" section provides links to relevant images. Selecting a link opens the "Xero Viewer" in a pop-up window.

Comparing new to old images for a particular study type (e.g., Chest Xray) helps clinicians recognize important changes. A short demo shows how to do this with ease.

• Demo: Using Image Viewer to Compare Multiple Studies

Tippy - Cut Down on Patient Blood Draws with Add-on Labs

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Reduce blood-draws by using add-on lab tests

Inpatients are typically burdened with one or more repeating blood draws (venipuncture) so that their clinicians can track important developments. Sometimes new information is needed after other blood samples have already been drawn. Wouldn't it be nice if additional information did not incur another poke?

Connect Care makes "add-on" blood testing easy:

• When ordering a new test, note how the order is displayed in the "New Orders" list prior to signing. If the test can be performed on blood already in the lab, a yellow-highlighted question appears:
  
  
  
  
  
• Click on the new order to open the order composer. Note that any recently reported results are shown (maybe the order can be cancelled!) and that an "Add-on" box can be used to add the test to an existing specimen (the date and time of the eligible specimen is provided). 
  
  
  
  
  
• The default option for the Add-on section is "New Collection". Selecting the "Use Existing Specimen" option instead, then signing the order, will prevent a new blood draw for the ordered test. 

Tippy - Ordering Repeating Tests

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Ordering Repeating Tests

Laboratory technologists do blood draws at roughly standardized times on most inpatient units. To order daily repeat testing that corresponds to morning phlebotomy, the easiest way to set testing intervals is by using the “Frequency” pick list in laboratory test orders. 

 

Sometimes it is important for tests to be drawn at a time other than the default morning slot. The best way to do this is to select “Daily Afternoon” or “Daily Evening” as the frequency, then use the “edit” (pencil icon) tool in the test schedule table to select the days for testing.

• Tip: Ordering Repeating Laboratory Tests
• Manual: Procedure Orders

Tippy - Avoid Duplicate Orders

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Duplicate Order Avoidance

It is better to prevent duplicate orders than to clean up later in a long encounter.

One way to anticipate possible duplicates is to note the visual cue appearing when orders are being lined up for signing:

The small purple square to the left of the new order contains a digit reflecting the number of possible duplicates. Clicking on the number brings up a list with buttons that can be used to discontinue duplicates right away.

Tippy - Fast Prescriber and Team Updates from Patient Lists

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Quick Changes to Prescriber and Team Attachments within Patient Lists

Clinicians caring for panels of inpatients often depend upon timely information about which patients are attached to inpatient teams. Many Connect Care system behaviours depend upon correct patient-attending attachments.  

The default workflow is to open a patient chart, go to the "Care Teams" activity, then update information about attending, referring, primary care, consulting or teams of prescribers associated with the patient. 

A faster workflow is to edit patient attachments right within patient lists, avoiding having to open each chart. This is supported when AHS-recommended list templates and columns are used (see Manual link below). 

To change an attending, referring or primary care provider, just double-click on the current (or blank) name. A focused pop-up editor will allow correction of that detail.

To change prescriber-patient attachments for many patients at once, select all (CTRL-A) or multiple (CNTRL plus click on the desired multiple rows) patients, then right click, and select. 

• Manual: Patient Lists
• Manual: Patient Attachments

Tippy - Email Alerts to In Basket Status

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• Email Alerts to In Basket Status

Some Connect Care prescribers work a few weeks (e.g., inpatient service) alternating with weeks off clinical work. The clinical information system (CIS) In Basket is important to check daily when on-service, but results and other messages will be less frequent when off-service.

It can be useful to configure the CIS to provide an email alert to new, or accumulating, In Basket tasks. The alert email can go to an address of one's choice because no patient information is revealed.

To set this up, go to the "Personalize" menu within the In Basket activity in Hyperspace.

Select the "Reminder Emails" tab in the pop-up that appears.

You can set the email to use for alerts, the frequency of alerts and whether specific In Basket folders should be used to trigger alerts.

• Tip: In Basket Email Reminders

Tippy - F3 to Expand

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• F3 to Expand Edit Area

There are many Connect Care activities where text can be entered and edited. Examples include notes, In Basket communications, problem overviews and handoff reports.

Sometimes editing is easier if the edit area is bigger. That's what F3 does. Press the F3 (function) key from within any text editing tool, and the edit space will expand to a near full-screen size.

An F3-enabled edit area is recognized by its tools button bar. Comment boxes, for example, do not have these buttons and do not respond to F3.

When dictating (Dragon Medical One), if this F3 functionality is important, create a custom command with a single step as illustrated:

Tippy - Fast Notes

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• F2, Spacebar, Enter = Fast SmartText

SmartPhrases and SmartText can make documentation a breeze. Indeed, it is possible to complete a complex note without taking fingers off the keyboard.

Commonly used within notes and communications, SmartPhrases and SmartText help set the form and flow of a note, using active placeholders (e.g., SmartLinks, SmartLists) to pull in patient-specific details from elsewhere in the chart. When working with a text automation:

• The F2 key jumps from one placeholder (***) to the next.
• When in a SmartList, use the spacebar to select a list item(s) and use the Enter key to move to the next smart item.
• Yellow lists allow only one selection, whereas blue lists allow multiple selections.

If using a pointing device within lists, left-click (=spacebar) to select and right-click (=enter) to proceed.

If dictating (Dragon Medical One), say "next wildcard" to move from item to item, then left-click to select and right-click to proceed.

Tippy - External Orders for Inpatients

Tippies can be quickly adopted with immediate workflow benefits...

• External Orders for Inpatients

Inpatient and outpatient order catalogues are not the same. Some order items are available in one context but not the other. This works most of the time.

However, there may be situations when the purpose of ordering is to organize actions outside the current encounter facility. Examples include ordering a procedure performed at another facility or setting up a clinic visit that occurs during or after the current admission.

If external actions need to be requested before the patient leaves the current admission, these can be lined up by placing "External Orders" within the Orders activity:

Be sure to sign any external orders. Pending is also possible if there are details to be worked out prior to discharge. 

• Demo: Using External Orders for Inpatients

It remains possible, and common, to order external actions at the time of discharge using the Discharge navigator "Discharge Orders" tab. Remember that a discharge order will be automatically generated and may need to be managed.