Local Guideline Features

To select a local guideline, see Ways to select Guidelines.

Note - Management Plans, also local guidelines, are best selected with a right mouse click on the required line on the navigation pane (the Left-hand navigation pane of the Patient Record). They are then shown under the Management tab. This is because the full list of Management Plans is only generated after the first entry of each Management Plan, so if you type @ at the Select Guideline screen, you will only see listed the Management Plans you have already used.

Local Guidelines that are locally created may have some of the following headings:

  • Reference is journal references supporting the succeeding information.
  • Aim of a guideline is free text which defines the treatment aim, for example, for Acute myocardial infarction, this might be "to reduce morbidity and mortality due to heart attack."
  • Supportive Text is clinical information relevant to the guideline, but most likely not information you would print out for a patient.
  • Prescribing Message is text supporting the subsequent drug regime.
  • Drug Regime is an ordered collection of drug defaults, usually including variations for infants, children or other age ranges.
  • Patient Advice may be seen on other guidelines, as an alternative to drug therapy.
  • Multi-media - In some cases, a guideline may include a picture, or a picture or button you can click on to activate a screen, or a video clip or other multi-media feature.
  • See the separate Reports and Guidelines Maintenance).

Expand / Collapse - When you first view a guideline, you may initially find it collapsed with only the headings showing. By clicking once on a black, blue or red heading, you can expand or collapse the sections beneath it. Its sub-sections are usually indented from the left-hand margin. Alternatively, you can expand all of a guideline by clicking on , or collapse all levels by clicking on . Collapsing all the text reduces the guideline to headings only which is sometimes useful to grasp an idea of the structure.

To print the whole guideline, click and then either Print, or you can first do a Print Preview.

For how to print other sections, see Non-drug Therapy Items or Advice on Prescriptions, Print Local Guidelines.

Right mouse - Use the right mouse and click on a line if you want to change one of the following on a local guideline, which are explained in Guideline/Reports and Design Mode:

  • Font
  • Background Colour
  • Properties (of lines)
  • Category Defaults
  • Get Category Defaults
  • Save as Category Defaults
  • Increase Font Size
  • Decrease Font Size
  • Information & References

Click within a section to block highlight it. Then click Go in order to print that highlighted section.

Design mode is only available as an option for guidelines that are locally generated (see the separate Reports and Guidelines Maintenance - ). This allows you to add or change the content of a guideline.

To close and exit, click on .

Note – To print this topic select Print in the top right corner and follow the on-screen prompts.