I am a dermatologist attempting to configure OEMR for use in my practice. I have been attempting to develop forms for progress notes, surgical notes, etc using a combination of Nation Notes and Layout Based Forms. I am having difficutly generating text that is formatted correctly and fits within the margins of what can be printed in portrait orientation. I have not been successful in controling the column widths (by changing the setting in layout based forms) or the font size. I also have not found a way to print the resulting notes other than selecting the text in the note and printing via my browser. I can control the font size within Nation notes, but I have not been able to control the font size resulting from Layout Based Forms. I see that Nation Notes has a print function, but that only allows printing of whatever text is in the window in which you are currently working. I also looked at the CAMOUS module, which has a print function, but does not allow the use of drop down boxes, radio buttons, etc. which I require for my forms.
Am I missing something? Surely there is a way to format and print encounter notes generated by forms as this is a pretty basic function.
None of the systems currently in place, not CAMOS, LBV, or the small list of old contrib forms function as well as they might at this point. It isn’t too much to hire some professional support to write you a set of real php forms (well, compared to buying Medisoft anyway).
Though it is not a great solution for limited bandwidth situations, you can always use fillable pdf’s and enter them as “Scanned Documents” in the encounter. If your version did not come with scanned notes form already turned on (check forms admin if you don’t have it active already), you can find it in the contrib folder. Be warned there is a “scanned notes” a “scanned documents” and maybe a couple of others, and only one is any good. You want the one that says “Scanned Notes”
Art, thanks for your reply. At your rec, I did play some with the xml form generator. I was able to use the example XML file, communication_log.xml, to generate a form and successfully import it into OEMR. Currently, all the forms I use are in MSWord, and (as I’m sure you know) these docs can be saved in XML format. Granted, the example XML file is greatly simplified compared to a MSWord doc, but If I edit the XML files generated by MSWord to contain all the required “parts” of the XML input file, will the generated form retain the formatting of the MSWord doc? If so, this would be extremely useful. One potential snag I see is the required <style> entity.
If the above is a viable option, do you have any suggestions on how to go about this and help me avoid the time drain of “trial and error.”
The .pdf suggestion is a viable option as I’m running OEMR on an intranet and only have 5 users. If I can’t get the form gen to do what I want, that will likely be my next move. I just hate to have to add an extra step every time I need to add a note to a patient’s record.
As for hiring a pro to write PHP forms, It looks like the going rate is about $100 an hour-and I have a lot of forms
Blake,
You aren’t going to get what you want with the current iteration of the XML Form gen either. The XML it uses is to define the .PHP files for OpenEMR. Word won’t understand it in a meaningful way.
I have an idea to build a module which will generate MS Word Documents from List Based Forms. One could edit and control the formatting of the document in word, so no special skills would be needed to customize and alter the printed document. I’m just waiting for appropriate motivation to work on it.
What I was suggesting was to take the output from a word xml save and load it into an editor to add the required “parts” for the xml form gen. Therefore, word would not need to “understand it in a meaningful way.” I didn’t know if the form gen engine would interpret the formatting tags placed in the word generated xml file and refelct them in the created form.
In reviewing the user forums, I saw that word docs (and not just .pdf) can be added to pt records via “scanned notes.” This may be my simpliest solution until something better comes along.
Blake,
XML is not as “standardized” as I believe you are thinking.
I guarantee that editing XML generated from Word is not a viable approach for generating a useful OpenEMR form. The XML output from Word is very complicated and has far more information in it than is needed for the XML Form Generator and the tags involved are also very different.
Yeah, I figured as much. That would have been way too easy. It was just a thought.
I know just enough about this stuff to be dangerous. Anyway, the inability to easily customize forms is an important issue (at least for me, and I have seen other docs voice this opinion on the forums as well) with OEMR. It looks like several peeps have taken a crack at dealing with this problem, but it’s not dialed in yet. At least from an end user point of view, it seems like dealing with this “fly in the ointment” (a little dermatology humor) should now be a priority. I’m sure that until recently most efforts were focused on getting OEMR certified for MU, but now that has been accomplished (grats to all, btw) fixing the forms should now make the short list. I hope I don’t sound critical, this is great software (and the price is right). I believe that once I get it configured for my needs, it will be great.
If you want to email your word documents/templates to me, kevin.y@integralemr.com
I might try to put together a proof of concept and see if it would meet your needs.