You can enter vital signs for a patient by selecting the Vital Signs option from the Medical Dropdown Menu just beneath the Print All Records button on the Main Patient Screen. Scroll through the list and select the option, then click the View button.
The system opens the Vital Signs Screen, where you can view any vitals that have previously been captured for the patient. To add a new set of vitals, click the Add Vitals button. The system displays the Add Vital Signs screen where you can record new vitals for the patient.
Enter the patient’s vitals in the following required fields. If you click OK, the system displays a red exclamation mark indicating these fields are required:
- BP
- Temperature
- Pulse
- Height (feet and inches)
- SaO2
- Weight (pounds)
You can also enter additional information in the following fields:
- Reported Pain Level – enter a number from 0-10, with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain.
- Position – Use this dropdown menu to indicate the position of the patient when taking the vitals. Options include NA, Lying, Sitting, and Standing.
- Orthostatic – Use this dropdown menu to indicate the orthostatic position of the patient when taking the vitals. Options include NA, Sitting to Standing, and Lying to Standing.
- Location – Use this dropdown menu to indicate which arm or leg you used to measure the vitals. Options include NA, Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg, or Right Leg.
- Type – Use this dropdown menu to indicate whether you took the vitals Manually or with an Automatic blood pressure monitor. You may also enter NA.
The Vital Taken (Date/Time) fields default to the current date and time. Click the checkbox if you want to change the date and time to be different.
NOTE: You may type in NA (not case sensitive) in any field for any vital sign that is not available.
Once you have entered in all of the information, click the OK button. You will see the vitals you just added on the Vital Signs screen.
You may print the list of vitals recorded for the patient by clicking the Print Vitals button. You can also view a graph of all vital signs collected for the patient by clicking the Graph Vitals button.
Graphing Vitals
Once you click the Graph Vitals button from the Vital Signs screen, you can use the dropdown menu to select which graph you want to view. The system defaults to the Blood Pressure Readings graph.
You can select the graph you want to view for the patient by using the dropdown menu (1). Available options include:
- Blood Pressure
- Blood Sugars
- Blood Sugars and Insulin
- Body Mass Index
- Fetal Heart Rate
- Height
- Insulin Administration
- Pain
- Peak Air Flow
- Pulse
- Respirations
- SaO2
- Temperature
- Weight
You can choose a specific timeframe (2) in which to search.
Click the Generate (3) button once you have selected which graph you want to view and entered any additional parameters. The graph will appear in the top portion of the screen.
You can use the checkboxes next to Show Position and Show Orthostatic (4) to include or exclude this data from the table on the left. The default value is that these fields are checked and will be included in the results.
You can print the graph by clicking the Print Graph (5) button. This prints the graphed vitals as shown in the top window of this screen. You can print the results of the vitals (information displayed in the lower left window of the screen) by clicking the Print Results (6) button.
Lastly, you can add another vitals entry from this screen by clicking the Add Entry (7) button.