Viewing patient education topics

You can provide education resources to a patient according to that patient's medical alerts/problems, medications/prescriptions, allergies, and laboratory test results. This feature uses a database of patient education topics that are available on the MedlinePlus website. The content of this website is sponsored/backed by the government.

Note: Accessing patient education topics requires the "Patient Education, Open" security right.

To view a patient education topic

Do one of the following:

With a patient selected in Family File, Ledger, Chart, click the Patient Education button on the toolbar. The Patient Education dialog box appears. Skip to step 4.

With a patient selected in Family File, Ledger, Chart, on the File menu, point to Switch To, and then click Patient Education. The Patient Education dialog box appears. Skip to step 4.

With a patient's prescription selected in Patient Prescription, click the Patient Education button .

Depending on a clinic setting, one of the following occurs:

If there is a valid NDC associated with the selected prescription, the MedlinePlus website opens in a browser window and displays the relevant patient topics, if any. Ignore the steps that follow. However, if there are no relevant topics, a message appears and asks if you want to search the patient topic database. Proceed to the next step.

The MedlinePlus website opens in a browser window and displays the patient education topics, if any, that match the description of the selected prescription. The Record Patient Education dialog box opens but is behind the browser window. Skip to step 9.

With a patient's problem, medication/prescription, or allergy selected in Medical Alerts, click the Patient Education button .

Depending on a clinic setting, one of the following occurs:

If there is a valid SNOMED-CT code associated with the selected alert/problem or allergy, or if there is a valid NDC associated with the selected prescription/medication, the MedlinePlus website opens in a browser window and displays the relevant patient topics, if any. Ignore the steps that follow. However, if there are no relevant topics, a message appears and asks if you want to search the patient topic database. Proceed to the next step.

The MedlinePlus website opens in a browser window and displays the patient education topics, if any, that match the description of the selected alert/problem, medication/prescription, or allergy. The Record Patient Education dialog box opens but is behind the browser window. Skip to step 9.

With a lab test result selected in a patient's Lab Tests dialog box under Lab Results for Selected Lab Order (for a selected lab order) or under All Lab Results, click Education.

Depending on a clinic setting, one of the following occurs:

If there is a valid LOINC code associated with the selected lab test, the MedlinePlus website opens in a browser window and displays the relevant patient topics, if any. Ignore the steps that follow. However, if there are no relevant topics, a message appears and asks if you want to search the patient topic database. Proceed to the next step.

The MedlinePlus website opens in a browser window and displays the patient education topics, if any, that match the description of the selected lab test. The Record Patient Education dialog box opens but is behind the browser window. Skip to step 9.

If applicable, do one of the following:

If the Password - Patient Education, Open dialog box appears, user verification has been assigned to the "Patient Education, Open" task. Do one of the following:

If your user account has been granted the "Patient Education, Open" security right, enter your credentials in the User ID and Password boxes, and then click OK.

If your user account has not been granted the "Patient Education, Open" security right, have a user with permission temporarily override this restriction so you can access patient education topics this one time. The overriding user enters his or her credentials in the User ID and Password boxes and then clicks OK.

If a message appears, informing you that you do not have rights to this operation, your user account has not been granted the "Patient Education, Open" security right. To have a user with permission temporarily override this restriction so you can access patient education topics this one time, do the following:

On the message, click Yes.

In the Password - Patient Education, Open dialog box, the overriding user enters his or her credentials in the User ID and Password boxes and then clicks OK.

Click Yes.

The Patient Education dialog box appears.

Select a category: Problems, Medications, or Lab Tests.

Do one of the following:

Enter all or part of the description or code for a topic that you want to view, and then click the search button to view a list of topics that match your search criteria. Proceed to the next step.

Enter the words that you want to search for, and then click Search Online to browse topics on the MedlinePlus Connect website that match your search criteria. Skip to step 9.

Note: The search box allows for dashes (-).

Select the topic that you want to view.

Select whether you want to view the selected topic in English or Spanish. The default selection is determined by the patient's selected language and a clinic setting.

Click Show Education.

The MedlinePlus website opens in a browser window and displays the patient topics that match either the description or code (according to a certain clinic setting) of the selected topic.

In the Record Patient Education dialog box, change the Date, change the Provider, enter or select the Encounter # (available only if encounter numbers for clinical notes are required, according to the global setting), and/or change or enter the Education URL as needed.

If there is text in the Education URL box, select or clear the Send link to portal checkbox to send or not to send a message to the patient's Updox portal. If the Education URL box is empty, make sure the Send to link portal checkbox is clear, or else an error message will appear and state that the message could not be sent.

Either click Record to record that you provided the patient with education resources, or click Don't Record to not record an entry in the patient's education history.

If the Send link to portal checkbox was selected, you clicked Record, and the message was sent successfully, a message appears. Click OK.