Introduction

This document describes the process of designing forms in ChartNet.  All report types must be defined in the site's Forms file.  For example, the Forms file might have an entry in it for a Discharge Summary report type.  Since the transcriptionist only has to type the body of the report, all other aspects of the report are pulled from the Forms file at distribution time to create the final version of the report. 

Reports are made up of the following sections:

Header

Body

Report Footer (sometimes called the "signature block")

Page Footer

When a new report is typed, ChartNet presents to the transcriptionist the "body" section along with the "Report Footer" section.  After typing, the report "body" is stored in the database.  At time of report distribution, ChartNet assembles the report by pulling in the report body (from the Reports database) and the header and footer (from the Forms file) to create the final report.

Patient data and other items that need to be printed in the header, body, or footer sections of the report are done using a data merging technique called "bracketed fields".  A bracketed field is string of text in a specific format that, when found anywhere in a report, will be substituted with data from the database.  For example, the bracketed field for merging in the patient name is "[r.ptname               ]". 

The Forms file is where the report's default distribution is defined.  "Distribution" in ChartNet refers to sending a report to one or more "devices".  The "device" defines how the report is actually distributed.  For example, you can have devices that print the report to a laser printer, create a file in Word format, or fax the report to a specific location.  If electronic signature is used, in addition to the "default" distribution device(s), you can also define what devices to use for "pre-signing" and "post-signing".  A form can have an unlimited number of distribution devices defined.