The system also gives you the capability of building an unlimited number of chart notes templates. You can preload those templates in the note text window before you start typing your notes to give you a structured format for the notes. You would just fill in the blanks. Multi-therapist practices find this feature useful for standardizing chart notes across the practice.

You can copy and paste these templates from existing documents such as MS Word documents that you might already be using in your practice.

In the example below, a template was loaded for an initial visit.

You can also print chart notes, export chart notes in a comma-separated values (.CSV) format to MS Word or Excel for inclusion in a progress report to physicians, and there is a full-text search facility that allows you to search for word strings in existing note text.

Imagine a situation where two years from now you are trying to locate a patient who was referred by someone from McGill University in Canada, and you have no recollection of who the patient was, or when the note was written, but you are certain that a chart note was written at the time the patient was first seen.

You obviously have the option of digging through cartons of old charts in the dust-filled basement store room looking for chart notes with a mention of McGill University — a chore that could take days.

Or you could just use the chart notes inquiry facility in the system and search for “McGill” and tell the system to search for notes created on “Any Dates” since you do not know when the note was written.