Dot phrases work like magic. Simply kind just a few keystrokes, and poof—a full template seems! However how do you decide shortcuts that don’t intrude together with your common typing? And the way do you keep in mind all these shortcuts? Through the years, I’ve made tons of templates, every with its personal shortcut. I’ll clarify the system I take advantage of for memorable shortcuts that don’t mess with my common typing.
What’s a shortcut? A shortcut, often known as a “dot phrase,” is a sequence of characters you kind within the observe area of an EMR to open a template. For instance, typing “.headache” would insert an entire headache observe template. As a substitute of inserting pre-written textual content, the shortcut might additionally open a form-like template for a headache observe you may fill out. This strategy means that you can kind much less and save time.
The fundamentals of making shortcuts: The very first thing to think about when selecting a shortcut is that it should not battle together with your regular typing. Don’t set a shortcut to a mixture of characters chances are you’ll wish to kind for causes apart from triggering the template. Setting a shortcut to “med” can be a nasty concept as a result of it could inappropriately set off the template as quickly as you begin typing phrases like “medical” or “drugs.” A great shortcut must be a singular sequence of characters you don’t usually use in common typing.
The opposite key ingredient is that your shortcut must be straightforward to recollect. Utilizing “mwozx” as a shortcut for a diabetes progress observe can be unsuitable as a result of it doesn’t characterize the template and is just too arduous to recall. A extra logical shortcut can be “diabetesprogress.” Shortcuts exist to save lots of time and cut back typing, in order that they’re ineffective if you happen to can’t keep in mind them.
Utilizing a prefix: I normally use a prefix with my shortcuts. A prefix is a personality that begins the shortcut, usually a dot or a letter:
- h for historical past (e.g., “hcellulitis”)
- e for bodily exams (e.g., “eankle”)
- p for plans (e.g., “ppharingitis”)
- w for workup
- inj for injection
- x for drugs
These prefixes create a logical construction, making shortcuts simpler to recollect and use.
HPI: Each HPI template begins with the letter “h” (h for HPI). To set off the “cellulitis HPI” template, I kind the shortcut “hcellulitis.” For my “headache HPI” template, I take advantage of “hheadache.” Another choice might use the letter “s” (for subjective) as a substitute of “h.”
Examples:
- huti for my UTI HPI template
- hpharingitis for my pharyngitis HPI template
Bodily examination: For the target part, I take advantage of the “e” prefix for “examination.” This implies “eankle” is the shortcut for an “ankle bodily examination” template, and I take advantage of “ecarpal” to set off the bodily examination for “carpal tunnel syndrome.”
Examples:
- euti for my UTI bodily examination template
- epharingitis for my pharyngitis bodily examination template
A/P: The letter “p” is used for my plans, like in “psyncope” for … properly, you get the concept.
Examples:
- puti for my UTI evaluation and plan template
- ppharingitis for my pharyngitis evaluation and plan template
Others: For another parts, I don’t use only one letter however a mixture of letters as a prefix. I take advantage of “injknee” for my knee injection and “injtrigger” for the set off finger cortisone shot. Generally I additionally use non-letter characters in my prefixes.
Examples:
- .ros for a overview of signs
- .pe for a bodily examination
- .lab for a blood pattern request
Medical abbreviations: Should you’re like me, you employ loads of abbreviations in your notes to be extra environment friendly. For abbreviations, I don’t use a prefix. I merely kind the abbreviation in lowercase as a shortcut. It’s then routinely remodeled into a correct abbreviation:
- copd turns into COPD
- ruq turns into RUQ
- famhx turns into FamHx
- sx turns into Sx
As you seen within the earlier desk, it’s a lot simpler to kind abbreviations in lowercase, stopping you from having to make use of the shift and caps lock keys.
Utilizing a suffix: For some very quick textual content snippets, I take advantage of a suffix as a substitute of a prefix.
- o; to ø (void image)
- bil; to bilateral
- sym; to symmetrical
- cc; to chief criticism
- t2dm; to kind 2 diabetes mellitus
- r; to proper
- n; to regular
- fp; to household doctor
- wa; to properly showing
Combos of phrases: Combining phrases right into a single shortcut is one other technique to create intuitive and non-conflicting shortcuts. Good examples of this are “chestpain” or “carpaltunnel.” It’s also possible to use a personality to separate the phrases for readability, like “wrist.trauma” or “knee.shot.”
Create your individual system: Organizing your shortcuts successfully is essential for fast entry to your templates when wanted. The system described right here can function start line, however be happy to adapt it to raised fit your workflow. The perfect system is the one which works for you!
Charles Tanguay is a doctor and the visionary founding father of Dilato, an modern software that makes use of clickable templates designed to alleviate the documentation burden for physicians. Hundreds of templates can be found to check out. He’s additionally the creator of the Template Generator, a free software to create medical templates on any matter, utilizing AI.
