Guidelines - How They Can Be Used...

A guideline can include one or more of the following:

• a recommended prescribing regime,
• supportive text for the prescription of drugs,
• drug information for the patient issued at the time of prescription,
• generalised advice on the treatment of the condition,
• a text of patient advice as an alternative to drug therapy, which can be printed out and given to the patient.
• a means of displaying other information, such as videos or pictures

Although each patient consultation is individual, there are prescriptions or standard patient advice that might routinely be offered as a result of a consultation for the most common conditions.

Using Guidelines can be a quick way of prescribing acute prescriptions without the need for making a direct entry on Therapy - Add. Prescriptions added via Guidelines automatically record to the patient's Therapy record.

If alternatively, you offer patients a printed text as a memory jog, or to summarise what you have said, for example, in insomnia, then using Patient Advice in Guidelines allows text to be stored on the system, printed and handed out as required. The text can be edited at any time so that it is instantly up-to-date. This is an advantage over pre-printed sheets which take up space to store, may be difficult to locate and may be out of date.

What Else Can Guidelines be Used For?

A Guideline is not constrained to the concept of clinical guidelines to manage patients' conditions although it can be utilised for that purpose, it is a much more powerful tool. It can also be used:

• to change your view of the patient record, by displaying elements from different parts of the database on one form.
• as a start-up form to display summary information, such as significant medical history or problems data, recent medications and recent consultations.
• customised for different members of staff, particularly attached ancillary staff like District Nurses and Midwives, as different views can be defined as their startup forms.
• to guide infrequent users of the system, by including patient data, textural help on how the practice wants data recorded, and buttons to take the user to the correct forms for data entry.
• triggered from events recorded in the patient record, so if, for example, your locum enters a condition of URTI, it can immediately present a guideline suggesting that it is practice policy not to prescribe antibiotics.
• provide customised lists of clinical terms to limit data entry to codes useful to your practice.
• provide lists of appropriate medications for prescribing and the ability to navigate through the BNF from that point.
• print customised reports on individual patients such as Encounter forms, Visit reports, Insurance reports, or summaries for when the patient moves practices.
• provide links to external applications such as the electronic BNF, Bodyworks, PatientWise or any other applications available from your workstation.