General Information

Select a View | Work with Data Grids | Document Conventions | Notifications

General Overview

Emergency Department Integration Software (EDIS) incorporates several Web-based views that extend the current Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS). The views are based on a class-three application developed by the Upstate New York Veterans Health Care Network—or Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) 2. Most views are site-configurable. EDIS enables you to:

• Add emergency-department patients to the system‘s display board
• View information about patients on the display board
• Add and edit patient information
• Remove patients from the display board
• Create administrative reports

The application also includes views for entering patients’ dispositions, removing patients from the display board, and configuring the display board.

Help Overview

These context-sensitive Help pages step you through the process of performing the following tasks:

• Sign in patients to the emergency department (when you use the VistA Scheduling package [Appointment Management] to make appointments for—or check patients into—the emergency department, EDIS automatically adds the patients to its Active Patients list)
• Triage patients
• Update patient information as patients progress through the emergency-care process
• View the display board
• Enter patients’ dispositions in EDIS and CPRS
• Remove patients from the display board (incorporates discharge and admit processes)
• Make site- and shift-relevant staff assignments
• Edit visit-related information
• Create reports
• Configure the application using its graphical user interface (GUI) tools

Role-Based Access

EDIS provides role-based access to the specific functionality sets that are available through its views. If you do not have access to a view that you need, please contact the information resource management (IRM) or clinical application coordinator (CAC) staff responsible for role-based access at your site. Please see Emergency Department Integration Software Technical Manual— for information about configuring role-based access to application functionality.

Accessibility

EDIS Help files support assistive reading devices such as Job Access with Speech (JAWS). Because the views that comprise EDIS provide GUI access to underlying functionality, the application’s Help pages will include steps for accessing application functionality via mouse devices and keyboard actions (when keyboard actions are available).

JAWS Workstation Requirements

If you are a JAWS user, you or your site’s IRM staff must download and install Adobe Flex accessibility scripts. To download JAWS scripts for Flex 3, go to http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/flex/jaws.html. Click the executable file to install the scripts on your machine. These scripts work for JAWS 9 and 10; however, the EDIS project team recommends that you use JAWS 10 for the best results with EDIS.

Flex applications behave a bit differently than do regular Web applications—a result of the way Flash and Flex interact with browsers and JAWS screen readers. JAWS, Flex, and EDIS work together best with Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0. (Testers experienced a few problems with IE 7.0 and Firefox.) Regardless of which browser you use, you can expect a slight learning curve.

Recommendations for JAWS Users

The EDIS project team offers the following recommendations for using EDIS effectively with JAWS:

1. Use JAWS 10.
2. Use JAWS in forms mode; most functions work best in forms mode.
3. In JAWS 10, use JAWS Verbosity settings to turn off autoforms mode.
4. Make certain the latest Flex scripts are installed on your machine. (You can download JAWS scripts for Flex3—an executable file—at http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/flex/jaws.html.)

Application Timeouts

EDIS uses the same parameter settings that CPRS uses for application timeouts and timeout countdowns: namely ORWOR TIMEOUT CHART and ORWOR TIMEOUT COUNTDOWN settings. If the ORWOR TIMEOUT CHART parameter contains a value, this value determines the amount of time that EDIS can sit idle before it displays a timeout warning and begins its countdown. If the ORWOR TIMEOUT CHART parameter contains no value, EDIS uses the value of the Timed Read (DTIME) parameter, which is available through VistA’s user setup menu. The value of the ORWOR TIMEOUT COUNTDOWN setting determines the length of the application’s timeout countdown. EDIS displays its timeout message and countdown within the browser, at the bottom of your current EDIS view. Because JAWS cannot read this message, EDIS also sounds a chime as it begins its timeout countdown.

The EDIS timeout warning and countdown.

Document Conventions

• Bold type indicates application elements (views, panes, links, buttons, and text boxes, for example) and key names
• Key names appear in all CAPITAL LETTERS
• Italicized text indicates special emphasis

EDIS Views

Following is a list and brief explanation of each view:

Note: Not all views are available to all users. EDIS offers site-configurable, role-based access to views. If you do not have access to a view that you need, speak with the IRM or CAC staff responsible for role-based access at your site.
• CPE
  The Clinical Practice Environment CPE view contains each window or a combination of these windows which enable you to perform the following functions:

  Display Board Window
  

  • Add patients to the display board
  • Add or change a room/bed
  • View or update patient demographic information
  • Change the status of a patient
  • Change the ESI
  • Change the Disposition
  • Assign or Change a Provider
  • Add or change a Nurse
  • View labs, imaging and orders
  • Enter comments in free-form text
  • View the total number of minutes in the Emergency Department

  Visit Worksheet Window
  

  • View, add or change Complaint, Status/Responsibility or Disposition
  • View, add and print vitals

  Assess Worksheet Window
  

  • View and print lab results
  • View and Print Active Problems
  • View and Print Active Medications

• Edit Closed
  The Edit Closed view enables you to edit patients’ information after their emergency-department visits have ended.
  
  • This view enables you to enter patients’ dispositions and diagnoses (either International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modifications [ICD-9-CM] or free-text, if the system administrator allows free-text entries).
  • If patients’ stays have exceeded the national emergency-department visit limit (currently six hours), the application may require you to select a reason for delay. If it does, this view will include a list of reasons from which you can choose.

• Display Board
  
  • The Display Board view is a PC-based version of your site’s main electronic white-board—or big-board—display. You can configure multiple big-board displays for your site. However, you can view only your site’s main display board using the PC-based Display Board view.

• Assign Staff
  
  • The Assign Staff view enables you to create site-specific staff-selection lists. You can also use this view to assign color indicators for individual staff members.

• Reports
  
  • The Reports view enables you to select date ranges for, and run, 13 standard reports. EDIS also includes two restricted reports that require security-key access.

• Configure
  
  • The Configure view enables you to localize the tracking application. For example, it enables you to assign locally meaningful color codes for patients’ acuities and statuses, populate pick lists with the names of your site’s treatment areas, set up display boards that contain only relevant information, and more.

Select a View

• Click the button associated with the view you want to access from EDIS’s main navigation page. This menu is available from all application views. Keyboard: use the Tab key to locate EDIS’s main navigation page buttons. Use the Down Arrow and Up Arrow keys to locate the view you want to select. Use the Spacebar key to select the view.

Work with Data Grids

EDIS commonly displays information using a tabular—or grid—format. The application’s data grids allow you to:

• Arrange columns
• Resize columns
• Sort information within columns

The results of these actions are temporary. EDIS does not retain data-grid changes.

Arrange Columns

Use a drag-and-drop operation (steps follow) to arrange columns.

1. Point to a column header and hold down the left mouse button.
2. Still holding down the left mouse button, move the column header to a new location.
3. Release the left mouse button.

Resize Columns

Use a drag-and-drop operation (steps follow) to resize columns.

1. Point your mouse to a column boarder in the header row. EDIS displays a column slider () in place of the pointer.
2. Hold down the left mouse button and move the boarder to a new location.
3. Release the left mouse button.

The slider for resizing columns.

Sort Information within Columns

You can sort the information within any column.

• Click a column header to sort the information within the column in descending order.
• Click the column header again to sort the column’s contents in ascending order.

Sort information within columns by clicking on column headers.

Notifications

When you select patients who are already registered in your local VistA system, EDIS may display one or more of the following notifications:

• Restricted Record Warning: EDIS displays this message when you select a patient whose records contain confidential information. Only authorized users may view restricted patient records.
  
  The Restricted Record warning for patients whose records contain confidential data.

Related Topics

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