How do I use flowsheets? – Practice Fusion

Practice Fusion’s customizable flowsheets can help you improve patient progress by allowing you to track all relevant vitals and lab results in one location. Review this article to learn more about flowsheets.

Flowsheets can be found in the Summary tab of the patient chart and in the Encounter. By default, all patients have a Vitals flowsheet.

With flowsheets, you have the ability to:

Add multiple vitals to a single encounter
Review and edit vitals from previous encounters
Enter additional properties for vitals, such as blood pressure measurement location and patient position
Review multiple lab results simultaneously

Adding flowsheets to a patient chart
You can add a flowsheet to a patient chart in two locations

Summary tab
Within an encounter

From the Summary
1. Click the plus icon to the right of Flowsheets, highlighted inGraphic 1. Select a flowsheet from the drop-down or begin typing to search for a flowsheet. Select the flowsheet name to add it to the chart.

Graphic 1: Add Flowsheet from Summary

2. Click the search box again to continue adding flowsheets to the patient chart. ClickDonewhen finished.
3. Click on a flowsheet name to open and edit it in a new tab.

Within the Encounter
1. Use theGo to…menu or scroll down to theFlowsheetssection and clickAdd(SeeGraphic 2, below).

Note: If you or a practice Administrator has hidden this section of the encounter through your Display settings, it will not be visible in the “Go to…” menu nor the encounter itself. Please see How do I customize my encounter? for details on showing any missing sections.

Graphic 2: Add Flowsheet in Encounter

2. Begin typing to search for a flowsheet in your account and select the flowsheet name to add to the patient chart.

Copying community flowsheets
The fastest way to get started with flowsheets, in addition to using the default "Vitals" flowsheet, is to copy a flowsheet from the Community. For now, only flowsheets published by Practice Fusion are available in the Community. In the future, the Community may support flowsheets published by Practice Fusion providers, similar to how you can publish charting templates.

1. Click Settings in the top-right corner and selectFlowsheets(under the Charting header).
2. Select theCommunitytab, shown inGraphic 3, below.

Graphic 3: Flowsheet community

3. Select a flowsheet that interests you to view additional information.
4. ClickCopy flowsheet. You will then be able to rename and customize the flowsheet.

Frequently Asked Questions
Will lab values auto-populate or will they need to be manually entered?
Your lab values will auto populate as long as you’re connected to one of our 300+ lab partners. If any lab values are not auto-populating, this may be due to the lab observations selected for your flowsheet. For detailed instructions on how to resolve this, see: How do I choose the right lab observation for my flowsheet?

If you're not connected to a lab partner, you canadd those values manually. Values will then populate when lab flowsheets are added. For more information on connecting with one of our integrated lab partners, seeHow do I sign up for a lab integration?

Can we add custom vitals or variables?
Not at this time; however, our team will be collecting feedback from customers to prioritize which variables we’ll be adding next.

Can we have the current date listed first (i.e. display in descending order)?
Based on our user research sessions, our customers preferred ascending order. However, if the current order is hindering your workflow, please let us know.

Could you limit the number of days that are displayed on the flowsheet?
To the right of the flowsheet name, you can select the drop-down menu to display only the last encounter or lab, last five encounters or labs, last 10 encounters or labs, or a custom range.

Can flowsheet values be alphabetized?
Yes, you may move a particular flowsheet up or down in the list using the Move up or Move down buttons.

Is it possible to assign flowsheets to specific types of patients?
At this time, you can apply flowsheets to all patients or assign flowsheets to patients associated with a particular provider. However, we’re considering allowing providers to auto-assign flowsheets based on specific demographics or diagnoses in the future.

Additional information: