Adding data variables to letter, message and encounter templates

🎞️ View video tutorial: Adding variables to letter, message, and encounter templates

To use data variables, you must first add them to a letter, message or encounter template. You can add variables anywhere in a letter or message template and to the History, Examination and Assessment sections of an encounter template.

When you apply your template, the data variables automatically prepopulate information. For more information, refer to Using data variables in letters, messages and encounters.

For information about inserting instant variables, refer to Adding instant variables to letter, message and encounter templates.

Steps

1. Click the area in your template where you want to add the variable.

2. Click Insert Variable.

3. From the list of variables, select the data variable type you want to use. The variable is added to your template. For more information about these variables, refer to Variables for use in letter, message and encounter templates.

📌 Note: Contact variables are available only for letter templates.

Patient data variables, lab result variables, and health profile variables require additional configuration.

Patient data variables

1. Click Add Patient Data Variable, and the Add Patient Data Variable window opens.

2. Complete the following fields as required and click Save when you are finished.

⚠️ Important: Do not click outside of the window while editing; the window will close and you will lose your work.

Field	Description
Category, Data Property and Visible Data	Associate the variable to the specific data point in the CHR that you want to pull into your letter, message or encounter. Category, Data Property and Visible Data are all connected to each other. You must make your selection from top to bottom. For example: Demographics (such as name, sex or contacts). Identification to pull in health card numbers or other IDs. Social History 📌 Note: This pulls from Patient Data > Social History. For the Health Profile, use Add Health Profile Variable. Latest lab results pulls from electronic labs in the patient chart. Medical History (such as problem list). Preventive care, if configured (such as FIT test, Mammogram, COVID-19). User can be Current, Selected or Appointment (such as full name or billing number). Appointment (such as appointment note or service name). Recipient (such as name or email).
Sentence Prefix	Add text that you want to appear before the variable. For example, you can add the subheading “Alcohol:” before the patient’s Social History > Alcohol data variable.
Sentence Suffix	Add text that you want to appear after the variable. For example, you can add “drinks/week” after the Number of Standard Drinks per Week data variable.
Force lowercase	Most items in patient data are capitalized by default. Force lowercase allows you to remove capitalization when it is better for the word to be lowercase. 📌 Note: When the variable is at the beginning of a new paragraph or after an end mark (.), it remains capitalized even if Force lowercase checkbox is selected. For example, the capitalization for the Smoking > Status variable can be removed so that it can be used in a sentence: “He is a current everyday smoker.” instead of “He is a Current everyday smoker.”.
Separator	Only applicable for patient data where you can have multiple entries, for example Secondary Languages. Allows you to choose a different punctuation between the items, for example “English - French - Spanish”.
Display like a sentence instead of using the above separator	Only applicable for patient data where you can have multiple entries, for example Secondary Languages. Adds commas and “and” to your list for example “English, French and Spanish”.
Automatic punctuation	Only applicable for patient data where you can have multiple entries, for example Secondary Languages. Allows you to separate each item with a comma for example “English, French, Spanish”.
Custom Format	Only applicable for date data fields, such as Date Of Birth. From the list, select the format you want the date or time to appear in. You can also type the format you want, for example YYYY/MM/DD or MM/DD/YY.

Lab result variables

1. Click Add Lab Result Variable.

2. Complete the following fields and click Save when you are finished.

Field	Description
Lab Result	Click into the field and search for and select the lab result.
Format	Defaults to Simple. Click Default and select the information you want to pull in such as the value, unit, or range. To pull in multiple items, select Advanced. In the text field that appears, use the following syntax to pull in the corresponding information: #value #unit #range #min_range #max_range #abnormal_status #note #collected_date #collected_time 💡 Tip: You can combine the keywords in advanced formats: A1C: #value (#unit, #min_range-#max_range).

Health profile variables

1. Click Add Health Profile Variable.

2. Complete the following fields and click Save when you are finished.

📌 Note: These fields are connected. You must make your selection from top to bottom.

Field	Description
Health Profile Section Category	Select Social history record or Obstetrical care record.
Health Profile Variable	Select the specific variable such as Smoking or Alcohol for social history, or Current or Past for obstetrical care.
Visible Data	Select the specific data point for the variable. For example, Number of cigarettes per day or EDB by US.

💡 Tip: Ctrl {command} click to delete a variable.

To remove a variable from a template, you can click beside it and press Backspace {delete}, or hold Ctrl {command} on your keyboard and click the variable.

Updated November 29, 2024