Custom Forms is part of PPS Clinical Notes. You can design, create and use forms to collect information about your clients. All forms are accessed from the Consultation screen. Typical examples for use of forms are: Clinical notes records, clinical diagnosis and outcome forms, medical or case histories, test and measurement results, questionnaires, and many more.
PPS Custom Forms is either in "Registered" mode or "Unregistered" mode. If you have purchased the full version of PPS that includes clinical notes, then this is the "Registered" mode; you will be able to design new forms and make changes to existing forms. If you have not purchased the full version of PPS with clinical notes, then Custom Forms will not be registered and will be the evaluation version only. This means that you can complete 5 forms only as part of your clinical notes.
If you want to upgrade your PPS to the full clinical notes version, then please contact your PPS supplier
- The Custom Forms Maintenance screen is used to add new forms and change existing forms. You can add new questions and change existing questions within each form. The Custom Forms Maintenance screen is accessed from the PPS Tools Menu > Custom Forms Maintenance.
- The left-hand side of this screen shows your existing forms, listed in the categories they are filed in. Clicking on the + symbol or double clicking the category name will display the list of available forms within that category. The buttons at the bottom of this list enable you to add new forms, modify existing forms, and delete forms.
Note: If you select to delete a form, PPS first checks to make sure that the form can be deleted (you must have the correct authorisation to delete forms from your system administrator) and that no other users (on your network) are using the form. If a form has been completed and “signed off” for any client, the form cannot be deleted. If the form can be deleted and you confirm that you want to delete the form, then ALL RECORDS THAT YOU HAVE ADDED USING THIS FORM WILL ALSO BE DELETED - PERMANENTLY.
The ‘Custom Form Set Up’ section of the screen is used to create new forms and make changes to existing forms - The custom form designer screen is accessed from the Custom Forms Maintenance screen. To Modify an existing form simply highlight the form in question and click on Modify. Otherwise click on New to create a form.
- Firstly you can use the ‘Form Category’ to organise your list of Custom Forms into different categories, depending upon the type of form it is. For example you can have one category for Treatments, one for Outcomes and so on. This enables means you have quick easy access to your forms, while setting them up and using them in the Consultation screen.
- ‘This Form is Active’ - This box needs to be ticked in order for the form to be available for use in the Consultation screen. You can leave this option un-ticked if you want to make further changes to your form later before making the form available for general use.
- Alongside the "Active" box is the Favourites box, which if ticked will appear instantly when completing a form instead of having to go into your All forms > category’s sections as shown above.
- The form heading is your main name for the form. This is how the form will be identified in the Form Maintenance list and is also used to identify the form when used in the Consultation screen. This name must be unique amongst your collection of forms within the each category.
- Short Heading - The form short heading is used to identify the form in the consultation screen, and must also be a unique name (among all forms in all categories).
The "grid" in the main portion of this screen, shows the list of questions, headings and subheadings that have been included on the form. The following options allow you to add, change or remove questions, headings and subheadings on the form. The area shown below can be found at the bottom of the forms ‘Modify Existing Custom Form’ screens.
- Add Heading - Use this button to add a main section heading to your form. Your form can include main headings and subheadings. When you select this button, you can type your heading directly into the grid.
- Add Sub Heading - Use this button to add a subheading to your form. Sub headings are a useful way of dividing your form into sections, for example: Diagnosis, Treatment, etc. This can make your form easier to read. Your form can include both main headings and subheadings. When you select this button, you can type your subheading directly into the grid.
Headings and subheadings can have their own background colour, and use a larger font size than questions.
- Add Question - Use this button to add a new question to your form. Questions are always added to the bottom of the current list, and can be moved up and down the form as required. When adding a question you can select from your existing list of questions, or add a new one. When you click this button, select your question from the drop down list directly on the grid.
Here, you can either select an existing question from another form, or select the "Create a New Question" option to create a new one using the question designer screen. You can also filter your list of questions by category by first selecting the required category from the drop down list in the right hand column of the grid.
The question list then only shows questions contained in that category.
More details with regards to this are contained within the “Add a New Question” section below.
- Delete Line - Use this button to remove a heading, subheading or question from the form.
- Move Up / down - This button allows you to move your headings, subheadings and questions up or down the list to reorder them. You can use the normal left mouse button to move the item up or down one position, or use the right mouse button to move the selected item to the top/bottom of the form. This can be useful if you are adding a question to an existing form and you would like the question to be near the top of the form - simply add the question, use the right mouse button to move the question to the top of the form, then use the left mouse button to move the question down the form until the correct position is reached.
- Form Settings - This button displays the Form Settings screen which is used to control form colours, fonts, etc. for this form. See the Form Settings section of this help guide for more details.
When you select an existing heading, subheading or question in the grid, the auto-preview section shows you what this will look like on the form.
- You can quickly check the layout and style of the question to make sure that you have selected the correct one by clicking on Form Preview.
- Comments - The comments section is your own notepad for comments on the form. The comments are not displayed anywhere else except on this screen.
- Save/Cancel buttons - The Save button will save your latest changes to the form. The Save As button will save another copy of the form - you will have to specify either a different form category or heading before you can use the Save As button.
Note: This is useful if you wish to create a new form based upon an existing one. It can be quicker to make a few changes to an existing form rather than build a new one from scratch.
- The Cancel button will cancel any changes you have made and revert to the previously saved version of the form.
The ‘Maintain your questions’ screen is used to create new questions and make changes to existing questions. This question designer screen is accessed from the ‘Custom Form Set Up’ Screen.
- Shown here, when adding a new question, the screen is initially displayed showing a blank area in the middle. This space is used for your settings that are specific to the type of question you want to set up - See ‘Question Types’ for more details later on in this guide.
- If you already have a question setup, that you wish to make a slight adjustment to – this can be done by simply using the Copy Question button.
- Category - You can divide your list of questions into different categories, defendant upon the type of question it is. This gives quick easy access to your questions from the Form Maintenance screen.
- Heading - This is the question heading that is used on the form - such as "what are the symptoms".
- Question Type - The question type determines how the answer will be entered. You can select from the following types:
- Normal text
- Numeric
- Date
- Multiple Choice List
- Check Box
- Radio Buttons
- Free Text input
- Answer headings
- Body Chart
See Question Types for an overview of the various question types you can use.
As you select each question type in the ‘Add a New Question’ screen, the middle portion of the screen changes to show the settings available for each question type. Each section will tell you the various settings for each question type.
When setting up a question, you have to specify what type of question/answer it is. Below is a description of each question type. For all question types you can select the question background colour (this is in addition to selecting an overall form background colour). This is useful for highlighting individual questions on your form.
You can specify input notes for each question. These appear at the bottom of the form and can be used as a useful prompt for the user during input.
You can also add your own comments to each question. These do not appear on the form.
Normal text
- Length - the maximum number of characters that can be entered, for example Neck Stretches is 14 characters (including the space).
- Input control - select from either None, or Force Upper Case, where your answer will automatically by uppercase regardless of how it was typed in.
- Mandatory - if this box is ticked, then this question must be answered. An Asterisk (*) appears alongside the heading on the form to visually indicate questions that must be answered.
- ‘No. of entries’ (up to 4). For example select 2 to record separate answers for "left" and "right".
- Spacing of entries - Fixed - the number of answers (except where the number of entries is 1) is spaced evenly across the screen. Proportional - the answers appear one after the other - depending upon the length of each prompt entry. Where several questions all have a "left" and "right" answer, fixed spacing is normally used so the answers line up in columns on the screen.
- Prompt - you can optionally include prompts for each of your answers. This could be "Left" and "Right" or perhaps an indication of the "units" required in the answer, for example cm, or °. If you have several questions that all use the same prompts, you can insert an "Answer Headings" question (see below) which acts as column headings for the following questions.
- Notes - If this box is ticked, you can also enter free text notes alongside your main answer.
Numeric
- Length / Decimals - the maximum number of digits that can be entered including decimals for example 1234.56 is length 7 (including the point) and decimals 2.
- Minimum / Maximum value - You can optionally select a range of input, for example you can restrict the answer to a range between 1 and 10.
- Mandatory - if this box is ticked, then this question must be answered. An Asterisk (*) appears alongside the heading on the form to visually indicate questions that must be answered.
- No of entries - up to 4. For example select 2 to record separate answers for "left" and "right".
- Spacing of entries - Fixed - the number of answers (except where the number of entries is 1) is spaced evenly across the screen. Proportional - the answers appear one after the other - depending upon the length of each prompt entry. Where several questions all have a "left" and "right" answer, fixed spacing is normally used so the answers line up in columns on the screen.
- Prompt - you can optionally include prompts for each of your answers. This could be "Left" and "Right" or perhaps an indication of the "units" required in the answer, for example cm, or °. If you have several questions that all use the same prompts, you can insert an "Answer Headings" question (see below) which acts as column headings for the following questions.
- Notes - If this box is ticked, you can also enter free text notes alongside your main answer.
Date
- Mandatory - if this box is ticked, then this question must be answered. An Asterisk (*) appears alongside the heading on the form to visually indicate questions that must be answered.
- No of entries - up to 4. For example select 2 to record separate answers for "Start" and "End".
- Spacing of entries - Fixed - the number of answers (except where the number of entries is 1) is spaced evenly across the screen. Proportional - the answers appear one after the other - depending upon the length of each prompt entry. Where several questions all have a "Start" and "End" answer, fixed spacing is normally used so the answers line up in columns on the screen.
- Prompt - you can optionally include prompts for each of your answers. This could be "Start" and "End". If you have several questions that all use the same prompts, you can insert an "Answer Headings" question (see below) which acts as column headings for the following questions.
- Notes - If this box is ticked, you can also enter free text notes alongside your main answer.
Multiple choice lists
- Length - the maximum number of characters that can be entered, this will typically be the length of the longest answer in your list of answers.
- Mandatory - if this box is ticked, then this question must be answered. An Asterisk (*) appears alongside the heading on the form to visually indicate questions that must be answered.
- Allow other answers - tick this box if you want to either pick an answer from the list OR type in your own answer. Leaving this box un-ticked means you can only select from the answers in the list.
- No of entries - up to 4. For example select 2 to record separate answers for "left" and "right".
- Spacing of entries - Fixed - the number of answers (except where the number of entries is 1) is spaced evenly across the screen. Proportional - the answers appear one after the other - depending upon the length of each prompt entry. Where several questions all have a "left" and "right" answer, fixed spacing is normally used so the answers line up in columns on the screen.
- Prompt - you can optionally include prompts for each of your answers. This could be "Left" and "Right" or perhaps an indication of the "units" required in the answer, for example cm, or °. If you have several questions that all use the same prompts, you can insert an "Answer Headings" question (see below) which acts as column headings for the following questions.
- Notes - If this box is ticked, you can also enter free text notes alongside your main answer.
- Multiple Choice Answers - You can either type in your list of answers here, or use the "Copy" button to copy a set of answers from another question. To type in your answers, press the "Add" button. A small input box will appear at the bottom of the list for you to type in your first answer. Press Enter when you have typed in your answer and it will appear in the list. Use the "Modify" or "Delete" options to change your answers as required. You can use the A-Z option to automatically sort your list into alphabetical order. Or you can click and drag an item in the list to move its position.
Check Box
- Mandatory - if this box is ticked, then at least one check box must be ticked. An Asterisk (*) appears alongside the heading on the form to visually indicate questions that must be answered.
- No of entries - up to 8. For example select 2 to record separate answers for "left" and "right".
- Spacing of entries - Fixed - the number of answers (except where the number of entries is 1) is spaced evenly across the screen. Proportional - the answers appear one after the other - depending upon the length of each prompt entry. Where several questions all have a "left" and "right" answer, fixed spacing is normally used so the answers line up nicely in columns on the screen.
- Prompt - you can optionally include prompts for each of your answers. This could be "Left" and "Right". If you have several questions that all use the same prompts, you can insert an "Answer Headings" question (see below) which acts as column headings for the following questions.
- Notes - If this box is ticked, you can also enter free text notes alongside your main answer.
Radio Button
- Mandatory - if this box is ticked, then one answer option must be selected. An Asterisk (*) appears alongside the heading on the form to visually indicate questions that must be answered.
- No of entries - up to 8. For example select 2 to allow selection of "left" or "right".
- Spacing of entries - Fixed - the number of answers (except where the number of entries is 1) is spaced evenly across the screen. Proportional - the answers appear one after the other - depending upon the length of each prompt entry. Where several questions all have a "left" or "right" answer, fixed spacing is normally used so the answers line up in columns on the screen.
- Prompt - you can optionally include prompts for each of your answers. This could be "Left" and "Right". If you have several questions that all use the same prompts, you can insert an "Answer Headings" question (see below) which acts as column headings for the following questions.
- Notes - If this box is ticked, you can also enter free text notes alongside your main answer.
Free text input
- Mandatory - if this box is ticked, then this question must be answered. An Asterisk (*) appears alongside the heading on the form to visually indicate questions that must be answered.
- No of rows - minimum 3 maximum 25. This determines how many line of input appear on the screen. If more line is used while entering this answer, then the text within the box itself will scroll.
- Formatting - if you select this box, text can be formatted (change of font, bold, colour etc.).
- Toolbar - You can select to show a toolbar below the text typing area. The toolbar has text formatting options (if selected) and date/time stamps that can be used during input.
Answer Headings
- No of entries - up to 4. For example select 2 to show headings "left" and "right".
- Spacing of entries - Fixed - the number of answers (except where the number of entries is 1) is spaced evenly across the screen. Proportional - the answers appear one after the other - depending upon the length of each prompt entry. Where several questions all have a "left" and "right" answer, fixed spacing is normally used so the headings and answers line up in columns on the screen.
- Heading - Enter the Headings. This could be "Left" and "Right" for example.
- Include question heading - If this box is ticked, the name of this question (the Heading) will be displayed in the left column of the screen alongside all other question headings. Leave un-ticked and the actual answer/column headings only will be displayed.
- Body Chart Image File - Select the image file that will be used for the body chart. This can be one of the following supported image file types: BMP, JPG, TIF, DIB, CUR, ICO, ANI and GIF. You can either type in the name of the file or press the ... button to select the file. If the image file is too large, PPS will offer to resize the image to a more suitable size. Your image files must be saved in a folder that is under the main PPS database folder on your system. The folder is called “Standard Charts”. If you select an image file from outside this folder, PPS will copy the file into this folder for you.
- Allow selection of another image. This can be ticked to allow an alternative image to be used when the form is used. This could allow for a client-specific image to be selected when filling out the form - a digital image for example.
- Annotation Settings - you can select the default font, size and colour and style - these can be changed while using the form.
- Lines and Shapes - for boxes, crosses, circles and free drawing on the chart, you can select the pen width (in pixels) and colour. This can be changed while using the form.
- The image thumbnail shows a small preview of the image file you have selected.
- Background colour - You can specify a background colour for a question which is different from the background colour selected for the main form. This is useful to draw attention to important questions on the form. Click the box to display the colour selection pop-up. Click on a colour from the list, or select "More Colours" to select from a full range of available colours.
Mouse Click Scale
- Lowest Value - Enter the lowest value of clicks in here.
- Highest Value – Enter the highest value of clicks in here.
- Mandatory - if this box is ticked, then this question must be answered. An Asterisk (*) appears alongside the heading on the form to visually indicate questions that must be answered.
- Notes - If this box is ticked, you can also enter free text notes alongside your main answer
Existing PPS Lookup Table
- PPS Table – Choose the existing look up table that you use as a question in your custom form. The list of these tables can be found in the General System Options menu from the PPS Tools menu.
- Mandatory - if this box is ticked, then at least one question must be answered. An Asterisk (*) appears alongside the heading on the form to visually indicate questions that must be answered.
- Spacing of entries - Fixed - the number of answers (except where the number of entries is 1) is spaced evenly across the screen. Proportional - the answers appear one after the other - depending upon the length of each prompt entry. Where several questions all have a "left" and "right" answer, fixed spacing is normally used so the answers line up nicely in columns on the screen.
- Notes - If this box is ticked, you can also enter free text notes alongside your main answer.
- As you are setting up your question, the auto-preview section shows you approximately what the question will look like on the form.
- The input notes are used during actual input of records to the form. As the user selects each question, the input notes are displayed in a highlighted bar along the bottom of the form.
- Comments are for your own benefit and do not appear on the form that this question is used on. As you move around the screen to set up each part of your question, help text is displayed in an area at the bottom of the screen (above the Save/Cancel buttons).
- If you are setting up a new question, use the Save button to save your question. If you are changing an existing question in order to create a new one, then use the Save As button to save another copy of the question. The new question can only be saved once you have changed either the Category or the Heading for the question.
The form settings screen is used to specify various settings that will apply to the form you are currently designing. This screen is accessed using the Form Settings button on the ‘Custom Form Setup’ screen.
- This is the area where you can change the colours and font styles/sizes of your actual form. The ‘Example’ Area shows how your sections of the form will look currently and after you have made any changes.
Moving forms is a manual process if you have 2 or more sites that Sync. This is stop possible conflicts over multiple sync sites.
PLEASE NOTE: When moving a form from one system to another, please ensure that you have previously created a brand new template and do not edit an existing one that may already be on the PC you’re moving this too, and that the questions for this form are also created and not existing questions that you have edited which may be different on the 2nd machine.
To load or save a form, use the buttons shown below from the Custom Forms and Questions screen.
- To send a form from one PPS system to another, you simply need to highlight the form in question you wish to send on the main screen, and then click on the Send Form button. This will bring up the following screen.
- You now need to confirm it has selected the correct form, and then click on the ... button on the bottom right of the screen to decide where you want to save this file. Once selected, click on Send to move the .zip form to that location.
- You will then be required to load your form into the second system. Once you have your .zip file on the 2nd computer, go to your Tools menu > Custom Forms and Questions and then click on Load.
- You will need to select your form by pressing the ... button and selecting the location of where it was saved onto your PC. Once selected, you will simply need to confirm this is the correct form and then click on Load.
Add
Look this up under the type of new record you want to add – e.g. Client - Add or Appointment - Add Administrator
See: System Administrator Annotation
See: Charts - Annotations Body Chart
See: Chart Cancel
See Also: Delete; DNA; Cancel button Change
See: Cash Desk; Modify Charts
You can incorporate charts, diagrams and pictures into your clinical notes using PPS Custom Forms. These charts are graphical images that can be a variety of Windows graphics formats including bitmap (BMP), JPEG (JPG) and TIFF (TIF) file formats. The idea of using a chart as part of your clinical notes is that you can make annotations on the chart on screen using a variety of annotation tools and markers. This can assist in the clinical note taking process. You can either use your own charts, scanned images, x-rays, digital photographs or scanned-in diagrams, or you can use one of a range of standard body charts that are provided with PPS as standard. When using PPS Custom Forms, Charts are a specific “question type” on your form. You can incorporate more than one chart on a form if required.
If you want to simply attach a chart, diagram or picture to your clinical notes without annotating it, then this can be done using the “attach document” facility – see: Document Library for more details. Client
Client records are the hub of your PPS database. PPS refers to these records as “Clients” rather than “Patients” because PPS is used across a variety of business and clinical disciplines, some of whom use the term “client” and others use “patient”. A client record can have either minimal details entered, such as first name and surname, or can be a comprehensive range of details including full address/contact details, alternative addresses, DOB, sex, “known as”, full profile details including “source of introduction”, occupation (plus a range of entries you can set up yourself). In addition you can associate a variety of third-parties to clients such as doctors, insurance companies, etc. The more comprehensive the details you store for each client, the greater the opportunities to use these details in your reports and mail-merge operation. For example, by recording the “source of introduction” for each client (such as yellow pages, local advert, recommendation, etc.) you can run almost any report in PPS to show a breakdown by “source of introduction”, for example “practice revenue” by “source of introduction” will show where you earn the most money from – thus where you should concentrate most on your advertising! Clinical Notes
The Clinical Notes facility in PPS is available in the “Professional” version of PPS. This includes screens to record your Clinical Notes, manage Treatment Episodes, complete specific forms (Custom Forms) including body charts and your own questionnaires, etc. All Clinical Notes are structured into the framework of Treatment Episodes. Although some of you may be used to slightly different terminology, PPS uses “Treatment Episode” to define a specific course of treatment for a specific condition, and “Consultation” as the individual treatment sessions/consultations. Therefore each time you see a client – whether or not it is an initial consultation/assessment or a follow up treatment – this is known as a “Consultation”. You can have more than one current Treatment Episode per client if required. When you select to record clinical notes, PPS checks to see if there are any current (not completed) Treatment Episodes for the client. If there is more than one, you can choose which one to record your consultation notes for. Otherwise a new Treatment Episode will be started, and this consultation will be consultation number one for the new Treatment Episode. When you complete the consultation, you can enter set up the full details of the Treatment Episode including the name, number of consultations required, diagnosis details etc. See: Treatment Episode for more details. For more detailed information about recording clinical notes and consultations, see: various entries under Consultation and Custom Forms. Columns
See: Appointments Diary - Columns Complete
The term “Complete” is used in PPS for both Appointments and Consultations. You can select to Complete an Appointment – where is it marked in Purple, and you can then raise the charge, book another appointment, etc., and you can Complete a Consultation – where you can decide if the Treatment Episode is completed, or how many more consultations are required, you can raise the charge, produce a Discharge Letter etc. The term “Complete” is also used for Treatment Episodes that have an “End Date” entered – see: Completed Episodes. Consultation
PPS uses the term “consultation” to define each time you see a client, whether or not it is an initial session, or a follow up one. PPS has a clinical notes system that allows you to record Consultation notes each time you see a client, and these are all part of a Treatment Episode. If you see a client once, and their treatment is completed in one consultation, then the Treatment Episode will only have one consultation. If, alternatively, you see a client six times before the treatment for the presenting problem is complete, then the “one” treatment episode will have “six” consultations. To access the clinical notes system in PPS, either select from the PPS Menu: Client – Consultation, or click Consultation on the PPS Task bar. You can select an appointment, or client record first if required to give immediate access to the consultation screen for that client. Copy
When entering text into any field, you can highlight the text and use the standard Windows™ “Copy” option to place the text on the Windows clipboard. You can then paste the text back into any similar field. See also: Appointment – Copy. Create
See: Add; Charge – Create Custom Form
A Custom Form is part of the PPS Clinical Notes system. When you record a consultation record, you can also record one or more Custom Forms as part of that consultation. The term “Custom Form” is a very general term because there is a very wide range of uses for Custom Forms. They can be used for specific assessments, such as a “biomechanics” assessment, also for special questionnaires you may use as part of your consultation, or to record the results of specific examinations you carry out. A Custom Form can include as few or many questions/entries as you want, including using Charts for annotation purposes. There are a variety of question “types” available including Dates, Numeric, Text, Multiple Choice, etc. For more details about Custom Forms, see: various entries under Custom Form. Custom Forms
See: Custom Form Database
The PPS Database can be stored in a separate location on your computer/network from the main PPS application files. This would apply to a PPS installation on a network where the PPS Application files are installed onto each computer, and the database is located centrally on the network. There is the option to change the database location as part of the initial installation of PPS, and there is also a separate “database only” installation available if the database is to be installed onto a computer such as a server where PPS will not be used on that computer – servers often reside in a “back office” and are not used as a desktop computer. Delete
Delete is the term used to remove any record or file in PPS. Most “data entry” type screens will include a Delete button on the toolbar. You can use this button to delete the currently displayed record. There are various restrictions placed on deleting records in certain parts of the system. For example you cannot delete a client record if accounts records exist for that client. The System Administrator can also decide which PPS Users are allowed to delete which type of records. This is set up as part of the User Profile for each user – see: Access Control for more details. Details
This is a generic term used to describe the information stored in any particular part of PPS. For example Main Client Details is the information you enter to this screen. In addition, there are several “notes” type fields that allow you to enter further “free text” details against a record – these are also sometimes referred to as Details. Diagnosis
When starting a new Treatment Episode as part of your clinical notes records, you can enter Diagnosis details. This can be useful for reporting purposes to help analyse the type of problems you are treating. There is a “Diagnosis Codes” table where you can set up your standard list of Diagnosis entries. To set up this table, select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Look Up Tables, and select the Diagnosis table from the Clinical Notes section. To make a Diagnosis entry as part of your clinical notes, from the PPS Consultation screen either use the <Update> button towards the top of the screen – this updates the Treatment Episode details for this consultation, or when completing the consultation enter the diagnosis details in the Treatment Episode details screen (can be accessed using the <More> button in section 1) of the Consultation Complete screen. The Diagnosis can be selected as a Breakdown option on many reports – especially clinical notes type reports. FavouritesPPS offers a wide variety of reports for which you can select a broad range of selections, criteria and breakdown options. You have the option of adding any report, including your selections, criteria and breakdown options to a list of Favourites. To access your favourite reports, these are displayed alongside all other PPS reports and are accessed from the PPS Menu: Reports – PPS Reports & Mail Merge. This screen has a “favourites” section in the bottom right corner. To add a report to your favourites list, simply select any report from any section, and select the <Open> button for that section. The PPS Report Wizard screen appears allowing you to make your selections for the report – this screen has an <Add to Favourites> button (if you open one of your current favourite reports, the button prompt is <Update Favourites>). When you add a report to your favourites, you can add a Title and Description that will appear on the main PPS Reports menu screen. All your selections for the report are saved so that each time you run the report you do not have to make all your selections again. Form
See: Custom Form Grid
See: Client – Browse Important
You can flag information as “important” while recording your clinical notes. For more details see: Consultation – Important information. Include
This is a term used in the PPS Reports Wizard – on step 3 of the selections for your report. On most reports you can select to “include” a selection of details on the printed report. You can un-tick any items that you do not want to include. The “Include” options only apply when the report is printed or previewed – if you are exporting the report to a file or mail merge, then the “include” options do not apply. Line
See: Charts - Annotations List
List is the term used to describe information that either appears on the screen or on a report in rows and columns. The term List is also used in PPS as a list of items such as menu, or list of entries such as a look up table. See also: List style diary. Location
A Location in PPS is a physical clinic location. Older versions of PPS referred to treatment rooms as locations. Now Treatment Rooms are an additional field of information. You can set up locations to use in your PPS Appointments Diary. You can set up your diary for diary users/practitioners to be scheduled to work either in specific treatment rooms and/or locations on various days during the week. You do not have to use “Location” if you only work from one location. To set up locations, select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Look Up Tables, and select Location from the Appointments Diary Tables section. Here you can set up your various locations, and nominate a colour to each location to make each location clearly identifiable in the diary. Maintenance
See: Database Maintenance. Mandatory
Mandatory is the term used in PPS Custom Forms when a question included on the form must be answered. If you are setting up your own forms, you can decide if each question is mandatory or not. Modify
This is the term used throughout PPS to “change” any of your existing records. PPS has buttons on many screens with a <Modify> prompt. Clicking this button will normally take you onto a further screen that allows you to modify the selected details. For more information about modifying various types of record in PPS, see the “modify” entry under the various section of this help guide, for example Invoices – Modify, Appointments – Modify, etc. Move
See: Appointment - Move Network
You can run PPS on your PC Local Area Network. If you need to run PPS across a “wide network” or across the internet, then you will need to talk to your PPS supplier for details of how to do this.
--br--
If you would like to run PPS on your local network, then make sure that your PPS licence includes the appropriate number of “concurrent” users required (the number of users who can log into PPS at the same time). Extra concurrent licences can be purchased from your PPS Supplier. You are sent a new PPS Registration File each time you purchase more licences.
--br--
In order to install PPS on a PC on your network, first make sure that the location that the main PPS database is installed is “shared” on the network, and allows “other users to update files”. Doing this ensures that the “network installation” of PPS can locate the database across the network and successfully log into the database.
--br--
Also See: Installation New
Look up this under the type of new record – e.g. appointment - new Notes
See: Client - Default Notes Entry Options
PPS has a screen on the PPS Tools menu called Options. This screen can be used to set up a wide variety of system settings that affect the way that PPS works. You can make your changes to these areas and press the OK or Apply button to save your changes. The Options screen has four tabs along the top: General, Custom Client Fields, Set Up Client Contacts, and Clinical Notes. See the entries under each of these sections for more details, for example Options – General. Order
This term applies to the Order in which information is listed on the screen. Information in PPS is often listed in a “Grid” with rows and columns; you can often click on the column headings to change the order in which the information is displayed. There is also a Client Browse screen that includes an “order” selection to allow the client details to be displayed in a variety of orders such as Surname, etc. Outcome
When completing a Treatment Episode as part of your clinical notes records, you can enter Outcome details. This can be useful for reporting purposes to help analyse the type of problems you are treating. The Outcome will normally describe the clinical outcome to your treatment and will be an entry such as: “Maintenance Achieved”, or “Problem resolved”. There is a “Outcome Codes” table where you can set up your standard list of Outcome entries. To set up this table, select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Look Up Tables, and select the Outcome table from the Clinical Notes section. To make an Outcome entry as part of your clinical notes, from the PPS Consultation screen either use the <Update> button towards the top of the screen – this updates the Treatment Episode details for this consultation, or when completing the consultation enter the Outcome details in the Treatment Episode details screen (can be accessed using the <More> button in section 1) of the Consultation Complete screen. The Outcome can be selected as a Breakdown option on many reports – especially clinical notes type reports. PPS
PPS is the acronym for “Private Practice Software”. Preview
See: Reports – Report Output Revert
Some screens in PPS use a <Revert> button on the tool bar. This means that if you have made any changes to the details on this screen you can use the <Revert> button to cancel those changes and reset the screen back to the previously saved version of that record. Save
PPS Uses a <Save> button on many screens. This will save the updates that you have made to this screen and store them permanently in your database. One some screens the <Save> button will also close the screen. Select
A term used when you choose something on the screen. Some PPS screens have a <Select> button, this normally means that you pick an option, or entry in a list, then click the <Select> button. This will “select” your chosen entry and proceed to the next screen, or return to the previous screen with your chosen entry selected. Set Up
See: Medical History – Setting Up; PPS – Setting Up; Custom Form – Maintenance; Users – Setting Up; Letterhead – Set Up Sync
See: PPS Sync Time
See: Activities – Time; Appointments – Time Toolbar
Many screens in PPS have a toolbar. This is a selection of “buttons” that can be clicked to perform tasks specific to that screen, or used to launch other screens. Sometimes a toolbar button requires that you select something on the screen first before pressing the button – for example selecting an item from a list before pressing the <Delete> button to delete the selected item. Toolbar Buttons will normally have “tips” that show when the mouse is placed over the button, the tip can give a further indication of what the button does. Tools Menu
Options on the Tools menu are listed alphabetically in this reference guide under each Section e.g. Look Up Tables.
|
Post a reply
