Clinical Questions

Halaxy

05 March 2020 06:09

Clinical questions can be used on clinical tools to create questionnaires, assessment forms and other patient diagnostic tools. They are a powerful way to gather information about your patients. These clinical tools can then be added to intake forms or to the patient's electronic health record.

Using questions in your clinical tool templates also means you can track the health of your patients via a clinical dashboard, providing you with powerful data to help you care for your patients.

The same questions can be used across multiple clinical templates, saving you time.

Questions can also be added to customised patient profiles to add extra information to a patient profile.

You can create questions in two ways:

From the Questions page: click Settings > Clinical in the sidebar, then click the Questions tab at the top of the page.
When you create a tool: click Add another question, start typing your question and select to add it as a new template question.

Please see this detailed example on how to create and use a clinical question.

Add a new question

From Template Questions, you can add new questions by clicking Add Question on the top-right of the screen.

Enter the question in the Question / Title field. If a similar question is already listed in your list (e.g. if you are wanting to copy some details of an existing question) or is listed in Halaxy's question database, you can copy it to your list. All the details are pre-populated in the form for you to review. All you need to do is make any changes required (e.g. the description) and click Save. The question is then saved to your list.

If the question is not in your list or in Halaxy's question database, add the details below:

Question / Title: the question that appears on the form; if it is listed, select the question from your existing or Halaxy's preset questions; if the question is not listed, add it to your List
Answer Type: choose the type of data that will be entered; this can be either free text, single choice, multiple choice, annotatable drawing/image, numeric value or date/time
Display Type: for each answer type there is a corresponding display type, including radio button, drop-down, slider, checkbox, inline text editor (allows editing and formatting), image selection etc.
Measurement: For answers with numeric or decimal value, choose the type of measurement, including kilogram, pound and centimetre. For these questions, a timestamp appears when the clinical note is chosen so that you can record when the measurement is taken.
Data Set: Data sets are the range of possible answers to a single or multiple choice question. You can choose from Halaxy's predefined data sets or create your own. Data sets are used only for single choice or multiple choice questions. They can be reused for different questions. For example:
- Relationship status, including married, single, de facto, divorced etc.
- Frequency, including daily, weekly, monthly etc.
Sub text: you can include further information or instructions to help answer the question
Add answer option: add your own type of answer and corresponding score
Mandatory: select whether the question is optional
Used in templates: If this question is used in other templates, they will be listed here. Clicking on the link will take you to the tool with that question.

If choosing an annotatable drawing/image, you can select your own image or chose one from Halaxy's library. Images should be valid formats including: .jpg, .png, .gif or .jpeg.

Use your tool question

You can use your new tool question in a number of different ways depending on how and when you want your patient to tick the box.

Your tool question can be included into an intake form and emailed to your patient to complete themselves, or it can be added to a clinical template or the Social History.

In a patient intake form

To add your tool question to a patient intake form:

Click Settings > General.
Under the Clinical Settings section, next to Patient intake form, click the Edit icon.
Click the intake form you want to add the question to.
In the right-hand section, click Add Another Question in the section you wish the question to appear. You can also create a completely new section by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking Add Another Section.
Start typing the title of your question you created earlier and select it from the list.
Click Save.

Adding a question to an intake form and selecting it using the magic lookup field

RESULT: Your intake form will be updated with the question. When your patient receives the intake form, the question will appear in the More information page, along with any other questions or information you added to the relevant section of the form:

In a clinical template

You can add your question to a clinical tool template in a very similar way to how this would be added to a patient intake form.

To add your tool question to a clinical template:

Click Settings > Clinical.
If you want to add the question to an existing tool, select the existing clinical tool and then click the in the top-right of the page.
If you are creating a new tool, click New Template in the top-right of the page and then click New tools template on the left-hand side of the page.
On the template editor page, click Add Another Question in the section you wish the question to appear. You can also create a completely new section by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking Add Another Section.
Start typing the title of your question and select it from the list.
Click Save.

RESULT: Your template will be updated with the question.

In the Social History form

The Social History form is based on a clinical template and to that end can be edited in exactly the same way.

To add the question to the Social History form:

Click Settings > General.
Under the Clinical Settings section (not the Patient Portal section), next to Social history form, click the Edit icon.
The Template Editor page appears. Click Add Another Question in the section you wish the question to appear. You can also create a completely new section by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking Add Another Section.
Start typing the title of your question and select it from the list.
Click Save.

RESULT: Your Social History form will be updated with the question. You can view and complete the social history form by going to the patient's record and selecting the Social History Form tab. Click Edit to complete the form.