New in 1.7
Prescriptions
This is the first release to support Prescriptions.
Prescriptions can be created and dispensed from within Patient|Medical Records and the Visit Editor.
Estimates
Estimates can now be created and managed from the Visit Editor.
Products
Price Export/Import
Product prices may now be exported to CSV files, and imported.
This enables practices to apply complex pricing strategies in Excel or OpenOffice, and import the changes to OpenVPMS.
Check-In Workflow
The Check-In workflow has had the following enhancements made:
- multiple patient forms and letters may now be printed. Previously, only a single patient form could be selected
- patient letters may prompt for parameters
- the patient forms and letters presented may be restricted to the Schedule or Work List
- prompting for patient forms and letters may be disabled
- prompting for patient weight may be disabled. This could be used for house-call schedules where there is typically no weighing facility
- available Work Lists may now be limited to the Schedule
For more information see the relevant administration sections:
Orders
Automatic Order Generation
Support has been added to generate orders for stock:
- below ideal levels
- at or below critical levels
Tills
Till Balancing
An optional two-step process has been added to clear Tills, to support practices that need to clear tills without interrupting collection of payments.
The Start Clear button on the Reporting|Till Balancing screen puts the selected Till Balance in a Clear In Progress state, so that new payments and refunds don't impact it while it is in the process of being balanced. Once it has been balanced, it may be cleared using the Clear button.
Reminders
Reminders requiring mailing can now be exported to a CSV file during reminder processing using Reporting|Reminders.
When sending emails, a list of possible 'To' addresses are displayed. These now include the relationship type of the email address, e.g. Customer, Referring Vet etc.
If a referring vet is listed, then any vet practice address associated with that vet will also be displayed.
Reporting
Extension Functions
Extension functions have been developed to support:
- querying patient medication. This can be useful for reporting on patient vaccinations
- BSA calculations. The functions are:
party:getWeight(patient)
party:getWeight(act)
party:getWeight(patient, units)
party:getWeight(act, units)
math:pow(value, exponent)
math:round(value, n)
These can be used to define macros like:
- expr:if($patient.species='Feline', math:round(0.001 * math:pow(party:getWeight($patient, "GRAMS"), 2 div 3), 2), 'Patient is not a cat')
- expr:if($patient.species='Canine', math:round(0.00101 * math:pow(party:getWeight($patient, "GRAMS"), 2 div 3), 2), 'Patient is not a dog')
See Party Functions and Math Functions for more details
Macros
Report Macros
Macros may now run reports. This can be used to accelerate entry of text in any text field by running a report. E.g. it can be used to generate email text and patient notes.
Macro Variables
Macros within the GUI can now use variables that refer to the current selections. E.g. the $customer variable refers to the selected customer, and $patient, the selected patient.
User Interface Enhancements
Context-Sensitve Help
Help for each screen can now be accessed by pressing Alt-F1.
In addition to the per-screen documentation, there is an Introduction, Concepts and Glossary, and Reference section.
Many thanks to Tim Gething for his enormous efforts putting this together.
Active Search Filter
Searches may now find active, inactive, or both active and inactive results, using the Active search filter.
This replaces the Include Deactived checkbox. The filter is a dropdown list, with the options:
- Yes - only include active results. This is the default
- No - only include inactive results
- Both - include both active and inactive results
If Both is selected, the results will include an "Active" column indicating if a result is active/inactive.
Cursor Position after Macro Expansion
When macros are expanded, the cursor will now move to the end of the expanded text. Previously, it would move to the end of the document.
NOTE: this functionality is not supported in Internet Explorer.
View/Edit Selection
When switching from viewing to editing an object, an attempt will be made to pre-select the field being viewed. E.g. if a customer phone contact was selected, this will be displayed when the customer is edited.
Show Clinician in History Items
A new Practice option, Show Clinician in History Items, may now be selected to add a clinician column in Patients|Medical Records. This displays the clinician associated with each patient history item. By default, it is unselected.
Patient Clinical Notes
The Notes field of Patient Clinical Notes has been increased to fill the available window width.
See the help documentation for a screenshot.
Letter Parameters
Letter parameter entry was previously limited to 5000 characters. This is no longer restricted.
Auto Logout
User sessions may now be configured to automatically logout if they are inactive for a certain amount of time.
See the Practice Configuration for instructions on its configuration.
Estimates
The layout of Estimates has changed so that:
- the Low Total and High Total now appear on the same line
- the Notes field is larger
See the help documentation for a screenshot.
Label Alignment
Field label alignment can now be changed so that labels are left or right justified.
