Sidebar Charting Tools

A "Sidebar" is available in most patient charts, in many clinical contexts (inpatient, emergency, critical care, outpatient, etc.). It can be collapsed or expanded. When open, it facilitates quick access to information that can help with charting tasks performed in the main (center) chart area. The Sidebar can also be used to complete documentation tasks, while the center views are used to gather and review needed information.

Inpatient Sidebar Index

Patient charts opened in Hyperspace to an inpatient encounter have a right "Sidebar" default view topped with an "Inpatient Sidebar Index". This supports rapid switching between different Sidebar activities. The primary intent of the Sidebar is to bring commonly needed tools to the forefront for rapid access. A secondary purpose is to provide aids for quickly finding, displaying and editing information in either the main (central), Sidebar (right) or pop-up chart spaces.

There are two columns in the Sidebar index, each with rows containing links that, when selected, jump to an indicated activity. Link rows can have up to three parts, each performing different actions when selected (clicked):

Available links can have different actions depending upon patient (e.g., pediatric), provider (e.g., specialty) or setting (e.g., login department) characteristics. Link behaviours may change over time as new tool optimizations are discovered. Current Sidebar index activity links include:

Outpatient Sidebar Index

Patient charts opened in Hyperspace to an outpatient encounter have a right "Summary" default view topped with an Index of links to alternate sidebar displays. This supports rapid switching between different Sidebar activities. The primary intent of the Sidebar is to bring commonly needed tools to the foreground for rapid access. A secondary purpose is to provide aids for quickly finding, displaying and editing information in either the main (central), Sidebar (right) or pop-up chart spaces.

There are two columns in the Sidebar index, each with rows containing links that, when selected, jump to an indicated activity. Link rows can have up to three parts, each performing different actions when selected (clicked):

Available links can have different actions depending upon patient (e.g., pediatric), provider (e.g., specialty) or setting (e.g., login department) characteristics. In particular, the outpatient sidebar index is truncated (fewer links and options) when an outpatient visit is opened in "Pre-Charting" mode. The sidebar index may not appear by default for all visit or context types. It such cases, look to the chart activity menu or the chart search tool to see a "Physician sidebar" menu or search result.

Current Outpatient Sidebar index activity links include:

Emergency Department Sidebar Index

[Emergency department Sidebar index tools are currently under development.]

Other Clinical Systems Sidebar Tools

New patient assessments offer important opportunities to initiate core clinical data in the patient chart. This decreases documentation work thereafter, allowing clinicians to revise or validate information already entered. 

Sidebar tools can be help clinicians when they review information in other clinical information systems (e.g., Netcare) or in unstructured Connect Care documentation (dictated notes that, e.g., did not include updated problem lists). The user needs to review and document information at the same time, ideally without jumping back and forth between different windows. The Sidebar can help in two ways, either when used to review information that informs documentation performed with main panel tools, or when used to enter information gleaned from the main panel. 

Use-cases include:

The links available in the "Other systems" Sidebar index will vary by patient, provider and clinical context. They will also grow over time as new features are added for particular specialties. 

Clinical system links are formatted like the Sidebar index links described above. There may be a left arrow (generally opening functions in the main Hyperspace panel), a link topic/title (often opening functions in a pop-up window) and a right arrow (opening functions in the Sidebar itself). Core links available to all clinicians in all inpatient charts include:

Problem-dependent Sidebar Tools

Some Sidebar displays and tools become available only when a patient as a particular health condition, as reflected in the problem list (active problems). These usually appear within the Notes & Reports section. Clicking on the relevant link will open the relevant Sidebar toolkit.

Resources