Five Best Practices for Using Care Plans
When implemented correctly, Care Plans can free up time spent on chart documentation, providing increased productivity and efficiency in your workflow. Following are five recommended best practices for using care plans in RevolutionEHR:
- Keep your care plans simple and concise. Only one execution item should be listed in each care plan item. This keeps your care plan items short and makes them very versatile for reuse when the patient returns.
- Group all test orders together. This makes test orders easy to identify in the patient record and easy to find when choosing a test order. The easiest way to do so is to capitalize the word “ORDER” and list out the test order description as shown below.
- Set up recalls in advance. This will allow you to quickly and easily choose a recall for your patient, providing a streamlined and flexible process that saves you time while fulfilling the needs of your patient.
TIP: Keep in mind that you can also sort to help make your desired recall easier to find as shown in the example below:
- Use Care Plan Templates for new patients. Care Plan Templates give you the most flexibility with new patients and are incredibly helpful when you are new to RevolutionEHR. Using a Template enables you to pull forward several Care Plan items at once which saves time and clicks, providing a more efficient workflow.
- Use CPI History for established patients. After a patient is established in RevolutionEHR, we recommended transitioning away from using Care Plan Templates and to begin using the CPI History. Often practices that do not transition to using the CPI History, and only use Care Plans and Care Plan Templates, end up with a messy Care Plan Item Library that is filled with “one off” plan items that were specifically created for one patient and accidentally saved to the library. Using the CPI History button allows for a more custom Care Plan specific to the patient AND helps to reduce clutter in your Care Plan Item library.
TIP: To look up the past care plan items for a patient, you can find them in the plan section of the encounter.
TIP: When choosing the CPI Hx, all of the Care Plans that have been assigned in the past for this patient, and diagnosis, can be viewed, and chosen again, if necessary. For highly complex patients, this view is particularly helpful as it allows you to see when past tests have been ordered for the patient so as to appropriately manage the patient’s medical condition.
For additional information, please watch the following video tutorials:
- Watch 'DxCPI Hx & Reason For Visit' Video to learn how to quickly assess past care plan items without having to leave today’s encounter.
- Watch 'CPI Hx Plan' Video for best practices on how to increase efficiency when documenting your care plans.