This article covers the functionality inherent in the EMR & EDR Ability in MacPractice, which is used to design, utilize, and manage electronic patient forms. This article will focus on the specifics of the interface and what each area does.

If you're interested in how to build templates, please check out our Building Templates article here.

If you prefer learning from a series of videos, you can refer to our EMR and EDR series here.

Adding EMR/EDR to the Toolbar

Once the EMR/EDR Ability has been added to your MacPractice license, you'll simply need to navigate to MacPractice Preferences located in the MacPractice Menu. Click "Abilities" in the Sidebar of the Preferences window, and in that section, click the Fetch License button.

To add the EMR/EDR icon to the MacPractice Toolbar, right-click or Control-click the MacPractice Toolbar and select “Customize Toolbar”. From there, you can drag the EMR or EDR icon to a location on the Toolbar.

EMR/EDR Preferences

You can access EMR and EDR Preferences from the MacPractice Menu > Preferences > EDR or EMR:

This Preference category is split into three tabs. You can read more about EMR/EDR Preferences here.

The main recommendation we have is to ensure that in the Data Tab, you have the"Ask Me What To Do For Each Section" option selected under "When a new form is created”.

This will allow you to decide when creating a new patient form what information you would like to pull for each section, giving you more granular control over how you handle each generated patient form.

Common Terms Used in EMR/EDR

The following are terms and their definitions that are commonly used in the EMR ability:

EMR: Electronic Medical Records
EDR: Electronic Dental Records (as it will be designated for Dental Offices)
Template: A template is an accumulation of sections where the content of a form will reside, but no patient data is visible. The fields of a template cannot be interacted with and patient data cannot be entered directly into a template.
Patient Form: Patient forms are created from templates. Once a template is selected and the green plus sign is clicked, this becomes a patient form. Data entered into a patient forms is specific to that patient and form and does not affect the template, except in certain cases.
Section: Sections are what make up the content of a template. Once a template is created, sections must be created and added to the template in order to add usable content to that template.
Element: Elements make up the different fields and options that have been added to a section. Text Fields, Labels, and Popups are a few examples of an element.
Form Side: This is the interactive side of a patient form where data pertaining to the patient is input.
Narrative Side: This is the "printable" view of a patient form. Data in this view cannot be edited. If a form is locked, only the narrative will be accessible for that form and no further changes can be made.
Pull Fields: The term "pull fields" can represent two different things - 1. "Narrative Pull Fields", which control what and how elements in a form section will show on the narrative of a patient form, and 2. "System Pull Fields", which pull data from other areas of MacPractice into the form and narrative. We can call these System Pull Fields, since they pull data from other parts of the system. System pull fields can be used on the form side and narrative side of a template, but Narrative Pull Fields are only used on the narrative side.
Data Pulling: This term can refer to data that pulls into a form, using the pull fields outlined above, or it can refer to the ability for data input into a patient form to be pulled into subsequent forms. Data pulling only works if you are creating another form with the same template, or if multiple templates share the some or all of the same sections in common.

Layout of the EMR/EDR Ability

The EMR/EDR Ability will appear slightly different depending on what node you have selected.

Screen_Shot_2021-03-09_at_6.55.55_AM.png

You'll primarily work in the EMR/EDR Main View in the center of the EMR Ability. This will display the item you have selected in the Sidebar and will appear slightly differently depending on what you have selected. The Navigation Pane, for example, will only be available when a Template or a Patient Form is selected.

Sidebar

Standard Sidebar Features (seen across all MacPractice abilities):

Patient Selector: allows you to search and select a patient. When you are selected on a patient, you will only see forms for that patient in the Patient Forms node. If you are not selected on a patient, you will see patient forms that have been created for all patients.
Highlight Color Selector: allows the user to highlight certain selections in a particular color. If you select a section in the Forms Sections node, or a template in one of the tempalte category folders, you can select a color to highlight that particular record.
Plus/Minus Buttons: used in creating or deleting/archiving records. You can only delete unused sections (sections that aren’t currently on any templates. You can archive or delete templates or patient forms. If archived, they can be retrieved from the Retrieved Archived option under the File Menu. If deleted, the template or patient form is gone forever, and cannot be retrieved, except through a backup.
Search Bar: allows the user to search a particular selection in a given node. If the Form Section node is selected, this will search section titles in that node; If a templates folder is selected, this will search template titles in that node, and so on.

EMR/EDR-Specific Folders (Nodes):

Form Sections (purple): This folder contains all form sections, which
are blocks of assembled Form Elements, that have been created or imported into the database. Sections in this folder may or may not exist on templates, but are available to be added to templates. Use the green plus button to create a new section and the red minus button to delete a section. If a section is used on a template that has been used for a patient form, that section cannot be deleted and red minus button will be greyed out.
General (pink): This is a default Template Category folder where templates can be created using the Green Plus button. Templates will be comprised of sections located within the sections node above.
Downloads (pink): This default folder is where any templates imported into MacPractice or downloaded from the Shared Forms Library will reside. These templates can be drag and dropped into other category folders, such as General, or a custom category. If none have been downloaded, this Category won't be present.
Unarchived (pink): The folder contains any templates that have been
Patient Forms (blue): This folder stores any forms created for patients. If you are selected on a patient, this is where you will see all of their past patient forms. If you are not selected on a patient, this folder will show all past patient forms for all patients.
Locked Patient Forms (blue): This folder will contain patient forms that have been locked. Locked forms prevent any further edits or changes to that particular form. The only way to edit the content of a locked form is to click the Unlock button on the top right of the form. A duplicate will be made and the original will be archived.
Note Templates (yellow): This folder gives the user access to Notes templates that can be used to pull in EMR form narratives.
Shared Forms (cloud icon): The Shared Forms Library contains pre-made templates that can be downloaded and used by any office. In order to view a form, it must be imported into the system, which will go to the Downloads folder. Within the Shared Forms Library you will see:
- Select Specialties Filter: Allows the user to select a specific medical specialty a forms may be designated for.
- Form Version Filter: A form may go through several iterations of updates. This filter allows the user to select a version designation. The higher the number the most recent, but generally all versions would be searched. By default, versions 3 and 4 are selected, which will return the most results.
- Apply button: Commits the selected filters and searches based on the filter criteria.
- Main Window: Shows the resulting list of templates/template bundles. Categories in this window are:
  - Form Version: Shows the version a particular template or bundle is designated as.
  - Form Name: Shows the name of the template or bundle.
  - Specialty: Shows the medical specialty the template or bundle is designated as.
  - Description: Usually indicates the number of templates in a given bundle. This will be the number of templates added to your database, if downloaded.
  - Created: Date and time the template or bundle was added to the Shared Library.
  - Approved: Indicates templates or bundles approved for sharing.
  - Uploaded By: Indicates the user that added the template or bundle to the Shared Library.
- Download button: Downloads the selected templates or bundle to the Downloads folder in EMR. Templates and bundles can only be downloaded one-at-a-time. Command and Shift-selecting is prohibited in this area.
EMR Form Category (reference): This node allows for custom Template Category Folders (the pink folders) to be created. This allows the user to create categories where they can organize the various templates they have, so they don't have to store everything in the General folder. To create a new Form Category node, select the EMR/EDR Form Category node then click the plus sign to create a new record. As you can see in the screen shot above, the titles in this node correspond to the pink category folders in the Sidebar. When adding a Form Category you will see the following fields:
- Form Category: where you would specify a name for the Category Folder.
- Form Category Order: where you would specify the order in which this folder appears compared to other category folders.
Family History (reference): Not Used.
Sensitivities (reference): Not Used.
Social History (reference): Not Used.

The above listed are all default folders, or nodes, in the EMR sidebar. These particular nodes cannot be removed or altered, though custom Category (pink) folders/nodes can be added in order to categorize templates. Custom Category folders that are created, but empty, can be deleted from the EMR Form Category Reference by selecting the category and clicking the red minus button. If you need to delete one that has template in it, drag and drop these templates to another category, then you will be able to delete once it is empty.

The Difference Between a Template and a Patient Form

Template: A “form” that contains no patient data and is not tied to a patient

Patient Form: Created from a template, but contains specific patient data and is tied to that patient in their account.

Menu Bar

The EMR/EDR Menu title contains the following items:

Import EMR/EDR Forms: When selected, a file selection window will appear, allowing you to select an .ETPL file that was exported using the Export Forms option described below. Any form templates present will be imported. You'll see a confirmation prompt indicating that the import is complete if successful.
Export EMR/EDR Forms: When selected, this option will open a window that will let you choose form templates to export. You can choose to export all, some, or a single form by checking and unchecking them. Once you have selected the forms you intend to export, click the Export button. You'll then be prompted to save the exported forms into a single file as a .ETPL file.
Send Form to Kiosk Machine: Allows users to send a selected Patient Form to the Kiosk for the patient to fill out.
Show Layout Rectangles: Shows a red border around each element (as pictured) when in a Form Section.
Toggle Narrative/Form: Toggles the form between Narrative and Form views. The Form view is the side where data is input for the patient; The Narrative view is the printable view of the form. For the most part, only data which is input on the form side will show on the narrative (this will depend on if the form has been constructed properly). Sections and element within the sections that aren’t interacted with will not show on the narrative. Essentially, the narrative is the “final report” for that particular patient visit.
Toggle Palette: This option brings up the Forms Palette, which is used to edit and examine Form Sections, Form Templates, or Patient Forms. Click the link to learn more.
Print Patient Forms: This option will either be listed as "Print (Patient Name)'s Patient Forms", or "Print Multiple Patient Forms", depending on if you have a patient selected or not. If a patient is selected, this window will only display forms for that patient. This will open a window where you can search for and select which forms you'd like to print.
Print Narrative: Prints the Narrative View of selected form.
Upload Form to Shared Forms: sends a copy of a selected template to MacPractice to share with other offices. Templates do not contain patient data, so this will not upload any patient data to shared forms.

Form Table View and the Clinical Ledger

The lower table at the bottom of the EMR / EDR Ability will display different depending on whether a Form Section is selected, or a Patient form is selected.

With a Form Section selected:

When a Form Section is selected, this table will display all patients who have this form section included on a patient form connected to them, as well as columns summarizing the data entered.

With a Patient Form Selected:

When a Patient Form is selected, this view can either be the Form Table View or the Clinical Ledger. You can toggle between the two by Control-Clicking or Right-clicking on the table. If you want to adjust the default, you can adjust the Default View by navigating to EMR/EDR Preferences in the MacPractice Menu > Preferences > EMR or EDR, and checking the Others Tab as shown below, specifically the "Default View Below Form" selector.

Form Table View

By default, the Form Table View is visible, which will display a record of this patient's responses when filling out this particular patient form. You can note the responses in the subsequent columns.

Clinical Ledger

The EMR/EDR ability's Clinical Ledger is a view of ledger entries and selected information from the View Options area.

The Incident pane displays all active and archived incidents and the information that has been associated to the incident for the patient.
The View Options menu sets the information that will display in the Clinical Ledger pane. This information is separate from the Ledger > View Options and will not affect the Ledger's display.
The detail pane displays basic information about an item.

In Preferences, you can adjust the behavior when you double click an item in the Clinical Ledger's detail pane. If you check MacPractice Menu > Preferences > EMR or EDR > Others Tab, you can adjust the "When double clicking on an item in the Clinical ledger" selector. This will either allow you to be taken directly to that item in the same MacPractice window, or you can open a new MacPractice window.

Navigation Pane

The Navigation Pane will show differently depending on if you are selected on a template or a Patient Form.

As you can see from the Fig A. below, when selected on a template, the Navigation Pane will show a list of all sections present on this particular template. When constructing a template, you can use this pane to drag and drop the order of your sections. Sections that do not have a section header will show greyed out, but can still be reordered. Whether or not a section header shows is controlled via the “Show Title” check box in the palette. The title will show if this is checked.

When selected on a patient form, as in Fig B., we see that only certain sections are listed, which happen to be sections that have a default section header (notice the dark gray “S”, “O”, “A”, and “P” section headers on this SOAP note example). When selected on a patient form, you can quickly jump to specific sections on a form by clicking that section in the Navigation Pane.

Fig A.

Fig B.

Narrative View

The EMR/EDR Narrative of a form displays a text layout of the form suitable for printing for a patient or another provider. The Narrative View of a form can be customized to an office's needs.

To switch to and from the Narrative and Form Views, you can navigate to the EMR/EDR menu and select Toggle Narrative/Form. Alternately, you can press the Command and Backslash ( ⌘ + \ ) keys on your keyboard to flip the form between Narrative and Form view.

You can print the Narrative view of a form by navigating to the File Menu and selecting Print, or by pressing the Command and P (⌘ + P) keys on your keyboard.

Generating a Patient Form from a Template

Templates that have been downloaded from Shared Forms, imported, or created within the EMR/EDR ability can be used to generate Patient Forms.

The process of generating a patient form is as follows:

Go to the EMR/EDR ability (if you’re not there already)
Select the patient you are creating the form for (if you haven’t already)
Select a template from one of the pink category folders (nodes)
Click the Green Plus button (if you aren’t already selected on a patient when you click the Green Plus button, you will be prompted to select the patient at this point). You will then see a record added under the Patient Forms Node with any of the resulting pulled data. You can then navigate through the form using the Navigation Pane and the Main View to complete the Form. With some Form Elements like the Drawing View, you may need to utilize the Forms Palette to complete the section.

Locking and Unlocking Patient Forms

Once a patient form has been filled out to completion, it is common practice to lock patient forms to ensure no changes can be made to them. There are several ways to lock a form, and once locked, they will be present in the Locked Patient Forms node.

You can identify if a form is locked by the notification bar at the top of a locked patient form and the padlock icon that shows to the left of the form in the Locked Patient Forms node.

You can lock a patient form by:

Click and Drag the patient form in the sidebar to Patient Forms to Locked Patient Forms. No Prompt will occur.
Use the Palette and select the Lock Form button. You will receive a prompt when locking the patient form.
Use the Menu Bar > Text > Move EMR/EDR Form to Locked. You will receive a prompt when locking the patient form.
Use commands on your keyboard with Control + Command + L. You will receive a prompt when locking the patient form.

Unlocking

In the future, if an edit needs to be made to a locked form, you can click the Unlock button on the top right of the form. A duplicate will be made and the original will be archived. On the duplicated unlocked form, the Updated Date will change to the date it was unlocked, but the Procedure Date will remain the same.

Printing Forms

You can print a selected Patient Form by pressing Command-P, or by navigating to the File Menu and selecting Print. If you are on the Narrative side of a Patient Form, the Narrative will print, which is typically recommended as the graphical elements of forms are not designed to be printed. You can toggle between the Narrative and the Form View by pressing Command-Backslash (\) or by selecting Toggle Narrative in the EMR/EDR Menu. If a background is used on the form, then the Form side will need to be printed, since the background will not show on the narrative. Using a form background is not recommended, except in specific circumstances.

Printing Multiple Forms

In the EMR/EDR Menu, there is an option that allows you to Print Multiple Forms for a patient.

If you have a patient selected, the EMR/EDR Menu will have an option that says Print (PATIENT'S NAME) Patient Forms. If no patient is selected, this option will instead state "Print Multiple Patient Forms".

The “Print (PATIENT'S NAME) Patient Forms” option may appear greyed out. If this is the case, you would just need to select one of the patient’s forms in the Patient Forms folder in order to activate this option.

From here, a new window will open with the following options:

Start Date: The date set here will keep forms from before this date from showing
End Date: The date set here will keep forms from after this date from showing
If you want to print every form for the patient, you can leave the Start and End Dates blank, and then Select All.
Filter By Form: Allows the user to print all patient forms or to select only specific forms (i.e. only print H&P forms for this patient)
Select All checkbox: Allows the user to check or uncheck all forms listed
Oldest to Newest dropdown: Allows the print order to print the forms from oldest to newest, or in reverse order, from newest to oldest.
Cancel: Cancels the print task
Print Forms: Allows the user to print the Form View of the selected forms
Print Narratives: Allows the user to print the Narrative View of the selected forms

Archiving or Deleting Form Sections, Templates, and Patient Forms

Before going over the archive/delete process it is important to note the difference between Archiving and Deleting, which is:

Archiving: Removes the template/form from the visible list items in the EMR and Clinical abilities. Archived records can be retrieved via the Retrieve Archived option in the File Menu (File Menu>Retrieve Archived>EMR Templates or EMR Patient Forms).

Deleting: Removes the template/form from the database entirely. In most cases, deleted records cannot be retrieved, except through a past database backup.

Deleting a Form Section

You can delete an unused Form Section by selecting the section under the Forms Sections node and clicking the Red Minus button in the sidebar. You can only delete Form Sections that are not being used in templates or patient forms. There is no option to archive a form section. If a form section is being used on a template/form, the Red Minus button will be greyed out and the section cannot be deleted.

To remove a Form Section from a template, locate and select the template from one of the pink category folders. Locate the section on the template and single-click the section to select it. You will notice the orange markers on each corner of the section. Note that everything within these markers will be deleted if you remove this section. With the section selected, press the delete key on the keyboard and click the Remove button on the resulting window.

If a section on a template has been used on a patient form, then the section has patient data tied to it and it cannot be removed. If you attempt to remove the section you will receive the alert pictured below. See the Editing a Used Template article for the proper process on how to make changes to a template that has already been used on patient forms.

Archiving a Template

To Archive a Template:

Go to the EMR ability (if you aren’t there already)
Find and select the template from one of the pink category folders (you may have to click the arrow to the left of the category folder in order to see the contained templates)
Click the Red Minus button at the top of the sidebar and select Archive

Deleting a Template

To Delete a Template:

Go to the EMR ability (if you aren’t there already)
Find and select the template from one of the pink category folders (you may have to click the arrow to the left of the category folder in order to see the contained templates)
Click the Red Minus button at the top of the sidebar. If the template hasn’t been used on any patient forms, you will have two delete options:
Delete: Removes the template from the database, but retains the sections that were contained on that template.
Delete All: Removes the template and all of the sections contained on that template from the database, except any sections that are used on other templates. Using the Delate All option can help keep the Form Sections node less cluttered.

Archiving a Patient Form

To Archive a Patient Form:

Go to the EMR ability (if you aren’t there already)
Select the Patient (if you haven’t already)
Find and select the patient form from the Patient Forms or Locked Patient Forms node (you may have to click the arrow to the left of the node in order to see the records)
Click the Red Minus button at the top of the sidebar and select Archive

Deleting a Patient Form

*Note that you are removing patient data from your database that may not be recoverable when performing this action.

To Delete a Patient Form:

Go to the EMR ability (if you aren’t there already)
Select the Patient (if you haven’t already)
Find and select the patient form from the Patient Forms node (you may have to click the arrow to the left of the node in order to see the records)
Click the Red Minus button at the top of the sidebar and select Delete. You cannot delete Locked Patient Forms.

Editing a Used Template

Once a template is used for a patient form, there is now patient data associated to that template. This means that if any edits are made to that template, some considerations must be taken in how the form is edited in order to protect that patient data. The way we edit a form that has patient data associated with it, is by duplicating the areas we are editing.

The general rule is this - If you are deleting or renaming any of the existing content on a template, then you’ll need to duplicate. If you are simply adding new content, then you don’t have to duplicate, though you still can if you’d like. However, in an effort to maintain data pulling for the areas you’re editing, it is recommended to only duplicate when necessary or when data pulling isn’t needed for that section.

Data Pulling

What is Data Pulling? The term “data pulling” can be used in a few ways. This could mean:

Pulling specific information from other parts of MacPractice into the form;
When pulling data from other parts of MacPractice, this would utilize what are referred to as “System Pull Fields”. These are elements that can be added to the template that will pull in data from specific areas outside of EMR/EDR. For example, if you wanted to pull in the patient’s insurance information without having to type it manually on each form, you would add the insurance pull fields to the template. Since insurance information is likely already entered into the Patient ability, we can pull it in instead of re-entering that information again. These pull fields are added during the template construction process or added to a template later, as an edit. System Pull Fields can be added to both the Form and Narrative sides of EMR/EDR templates.
Pulling data from the Form side to the Narrative side;
Each element (or field) you add to a form section will have a pull field associated to it. These are referred to as “Narrative Pull Fields”. When formatting the narrative side of a section during the template construction process, these Narrative Pull Fields are used to control what and how the data from the form side will show on the printable narrative view. If there is a certain element from the form side that we don’t want to show on the narrative at all, we would remove the pull field for this element from the narrative. Generally, we format the Narrative Pull Fields as closely as possible to how the corresponding elements are formatted on the form side. This formatting would include bolding and element position, among other things.
In the following example, you’ll see that the elements used on the form side correspond with the pull fields on the narrative side. You’ll also see how the positioning of the elements can differ from the form side to the narrative side and a comparison between the template and patient form.
Pulling data from past forms into new forms
Pulling data from form-to-form pertains to the ability to pull data from a previous form into a new form in order to be able to review what was covered on a previous patient visit and to keep the user from having to re-enter data that still pertains to the subsequent visit. Data that is pulled from a previous visit can then be overwritten, or added to, without affecting any data on the previous form.
Form-to-Form data pulling is determined by the sections contained on your templates. Data pulling works at the section level, which means, if a specific section is used on multiple templates, data entered into that section in one form will pull into a completely different form, as long as the templates share that same section.
For example, let’s say you have an H&P template that you collect patient data on once a year. If you create a form with the H&P template in January of 2018, then create another patient form with the same H&P template in January of 2019, since it is the same template, containing all of the same sections, all of the data from the visit in 2018 can pull to the visit for 2019. It is the same template and therefore uses the same sections.
However, let’s say you have an Initial Exam form that you collect data on for a patient’s first visit, then a Follow-Up Exam form that you use for all subsequent visits. As long as both templates utilize the same sections, data can be pulled between the two. In this case, the Follow-Up form may be a more simplified version of the Initial Form, so you may only utilize some of the sections contained on the Initial from. In this case, the Follow-Up form won’t pull in all of the data the Initial Form has, but only those sections that are shared across both templates. If however, the Follow-Up form collects completely different data, and therefore utilizes completely different sections from the Initial form, then data pulling cannot occur between these two templates, even if some of the fields are collecting the same data.
It is also important to note here that if you have two separate but identical sections and use one section on one template and the other section on another template, data will not pull for that section between those two templates. The two templates must use the same section in order to pull data between them. Even though the two sections may be identical in content, they are still two separate sections.

The Template Editing Process

The main rule to follow when editing sections on a template is:

If you are deleting an element, renaming (overwriting) an existing element, or changing the format of an existing field (i.e. - changing a text field from Freeform to Date format), then you always want to duplicate.

If you are simply adding elements to a section or adding a section to a template, you do not have to duplicate.

*Important: Duplicating a template does not mean you can edit it any way you want. You have to also duplicate the section(s) being edited. Editing any section that hasn’t been duplicated first will result in editing the contents of both the original and duplicated templates, because the same sections are present on both templates, even after duplicating the template.

If you are editing a template where none of the sections on the template have been used to collect patient data, then it can be edited in any way without duplicating. However, even if you haven’t used a section, if you’re making changes to a section that you aren’t sure you’ll want to keep, then duplicating is a good way to keep several iterations of a section, just in case you make changes that you decide you don’t want. Any section you end up not using, can be deleted later.

Once a template has been used to collect patient data, the process of editing that template are as follows -

Editing an Existing Section:

Locate the template in one of the pink category nodes in the sidebar to the left
Once selected on the template, it is best to add a special character, such as an asterisk [ * ] or exclamation point [ ! ], to the beginning of the form title. You can do this from the Name field located in the palette. Then save your changes.
*If you do not see the palette, Select the EMR Menu in the Apple toolbar and select “Toggle Palette”. You may have to do this twice in order for the palette window to appear.
Select the Edit Menu from the Apple toolbar at the top of the screen, then select Duplicate Record.
You will now have an exact duplicate of your template. Locate the palette again and remove the special character you placed at the beginning of the template title. This gives you a way to differentiate between the original and the newly duplicated templates, with the original being the only one with the special character in the title at this point.
Select the new template from the sidebar (if you’re not already selected on it) and locate the section you would like to edit.
Double-click on the section and this will take you to the section editor for this section.
*You will notice that you are now selected on that section from the Form Sections node in the sidebar. You can access the section by going directly to it in the Form Sections node, but we recommend using the double-click method from the template in order to make sure you are editing the correct section, in the event that you have multiple sections with the same title.
Locate the palette and now place a special character int he section title, then save.
Select the Edit Menu from the Apple toolbar at the top of the screen, then select Duplicate Record.
Remove the special character from the duplicated section title, then save. You should now be selected on the newly duplicated section.
This is a new section and has no patient data tied to it, so you can now edit the section freely. Once you have your edits complete, save your changes.
You’ll then want to make the same edits to the narrative side of that section. Locate the EMR menu in the Apple Toolbar and select Toggle Narrative/Form (or use the shortcut by holding the Command key and tapping the backslash key [ \ ]). This will take you to the narrative of the form section where you will want to add the pull fields for the elements you may have added. If you were simply renaming existing elements, the pull fields for these will likely be there already. If you do not see the pull fields related to your changes, then they can be added one of two ways:
1. Highlight and copy everything in the section. Click the Reset Default Narrative Sheet button in the palette and paste in what you copied without over writing anything. Add some spacing in between your original pull fields and the ones that were added after clicking the Reset button. You will see duplicates of most of your pull fields, but should also see the pull fields for the added fields. Copy/paste the new pull fields in the proper locations among the original pull fields above, then delete all of the duplicate pull fields. Save your changes.
2. Locate the pull fields for the added fields in the “Pull Fields” portion at the bottom of the palette. Drag and drop the new pull fields into the correct locations amongst the existing pull fields. Save your changes.
Now that you have successfully edited your section, you will now need to add the new (duplicated) section to the new (duplicated) template. Locate and select the template from the pink category node in the sidebar. While selected on the template, scroll up and locate the section that you created. Do not click on the section or you will select the section instead of the template. In one motion, drag and drop the section to the template.
Once the section has been added, use the Navigation pane on the far right to drag and drop your new section to the correct order, as compared to the other sections. You should see the original section (with the special character in the title) still on the template. After your new section is in the correct position, select the old section on the template in the middle portion of the screen. Once you see the orange markers on the section, hit delete on the keyboard to delete the old section, then save.
You can now archive the original template by selecting the original template (the one with the special character in the title), click the Red Minus button, the click Archive at the prompt.

The following video outlines how to edit a section that has already been used to capture patient data (the steps outlined above). In this scenario, we want to change the Relationship field of the Emergency Contact section to an Address field. We don’t simply want to overwrite the existing field because it will affect past forms and data, so we will duplicate before editing. The process is as follows:

Duplicate the template and section being edited.
Make the edits to the section.
Add the edited section to the duplicated template (drag and drop the section position in the Navigation Pane, if needed).
Archive the old template (you can also archive the old section, if you’d like).

*You can download this video for better viewing from the “cloud” icon in the lower-right corner.

Adding a New Section:

After your new section is created Locate the template in one of the pink category nodes in the sidebar to the left
While selected on the template, scroll up and locate the section that you would like to add. Do not click on the section or you will select the section instead of the template. In one motion, drag and drop the section to the template.
Use the Navigation pane on the far right to drag and drop your new section to the correct order, as compared to the other sections, then save.

MacPractice HelpDesk

EMR / EDR - Ability Overview