Flowsheets

Flowsheets are an information tool optimized for tracking observations at multiple points in time, allowing trends and relationships to be perceived. Flowsheets can be as simple as a table with rows for observations and columns for time snapshots. More sophisticated flowsheets can impose data quality rules on cells of the table, complying with standardized scales. Finally, flowsheets can be used to calculate metrics based on the data and to recognize critical values of those metrics.

Flowsheets are part of everyday nursing (e.g., vital signs, Ins and Outs, etc.) and allied health (e.g., respiratory device measures). Flowsheets are used in a more focused way by physicians, who may want to use a measure or framework to track clinical findings over time (e.g., CiWA tracking of alcohol withdrawal, Geriatric Depression Scale, etc.). Note that flowsheets are but one ways for deriving scores and metrics. When one-off summary measures are wanted, it may be better to use the Clinical Calculator or the Scales and Scores tool.

Flowsheets are available in all care contexts and are organized in an Activity Tab.

Demonstration

Resources