BACKGROUND

Healthcare providers are increasingly using electronic medical records for the management of patient health data. The records typically include patient notes, where a detailed account of a caregiver's encounter with the patient is recorded. For example, the patient note may include a record of the patient's chief complaint, the symptoms that the patient was exhibiting, the results of an examination, the patient's relevant medical history, the results of any tests that were performed, the diagnosis, and the therapy.

Healthcare providers may want to or be required to document certain medical findings during patient encounters depending on the reason for the patient encounter. This has led to the development of various protocols for documenting patient encounters. Some medical records systems include many protocols and it may be difficult to identify appropriate protocols for use during a particular patient encounter.

SUMMARY

In general terms, this disclosure is directed to electronic medical records, and more particularly, to a caregiver interface for electronic medical records. In one possible configuration and by non-limiting example, the caregiver interface includes intelligent prompting of protocols. Various aspects are described in this disclosure, which include, but are not limited to, the following aspects.

In one aspect, a method of generating a user interface for use in documenting a patient encounter comprises: automatically identifying, with a computing device, at least one documentation protocol based on at least one element of the patient's medical record; and generating a user interface including at least one of the identified documentation protocols, the at least one identified documentation protocol identifying at least one medical finding.

In another aspect, a method generates a user interface for use in documenting a patient encounter. The method comprises receiving medical finding data through a user interface, the medical finding data identifying two or more medical findings; searching a database of documentation protocols, each documentation protocol in the database being linked in the database with at least one medical finding; identifying each documentation protocol in the database linked with at least one of the two or more medical findings; assigning a score to each documentation protocol identified in the act of identifying documentation protocols, each score assigned to a documentation protocol identified in the act of identifying documentation protocols being equal to the number of medical findings identified by the medical finding data entered through the user interface that are linked to the documentation protocol in the database; and displaying a user interface, the user interface comprising the identified documentation protocol having a score equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold score.

In another aspect, a method generates a user interface for use in documenting a patient encounter. The method comprises receiving medical finding data through a user interface, the medical finding data identifying two or more medical findings; searching a database of documentation protocols, each documentation protocol in the database being linked in the database with at least one medical finding; identifying each documentation protocol in the database linked with at least one of the two or more medical findings; upon identifying two or more documentation protocols, merging the identified documentation protocols; filtering duplicate medical findings from the merged documentation protocols; and displaying a user interface, the user interface comprising the merged identified documentation protocol.

A system comprising a data store encoded on a memory device. The data store comprises a database identifying a plurality of documentation protocols and linking at least one of the documentation protocols to one or more medical findings. The system further comprises an input apparatus and a computing device in data communication with the data store and the input apparatus. The computing device is programmed to receive medical finding data input through the input apparatus, the medical finding data identifying a medical finding, search the database of documentation protocols, identify a documentation protocol linked to the medical finding, and generate a user interface, the user interface comprising the identified documentation protocol linked to the medical finding.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended that this summary be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.

