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Ranking and Usage Counts in Pick Lists
Table of Contents
A Work in Progress
This page is applicable for SOAPware 2008 and later versions. Prior to SOAPware 2008, the pick lists in SOAPware were not particularly useful. None of the following information is particularly important, or necessary to understand, in order to use SOAPware efficiently. Most of these actions are intended to be automatic and fairly hidden. Additionally, this is only the beginning of a process of adding more SMARTS to pick lists. Over the next couple of years, this will be progressively evolving, and some of the tools will be inactive in certain builds of SOAPware, intermittently, as we migrate to more robust tools.
Ranking Rules for Pick List Items
Unused Checkbox
Checking or un-checking Show Unused offers an option to expand and contract the number of items in the list. The default is for it to be unchecked.
SMARText items that have never been used in a particular field/setting will have a usage count of zero and thus will not be included in pick lists unless a check is placed in front of Show Unused. In other words, there has to be a check in the box in order for SMARText items having a count of zero (i.e. Unused) to be placed in the list. The default setting is for this option not to have a check. So this prevents SMARText items from cluttering up the list if they have never been used in that field even if they contain a matching keyword or shortcut, etc. This resolves the issue in earlier versions where there were often medication items in pick lists for the Assessment field and visa versa.
Location Ranking Rules in Quick Access
The location of the insertion point triggers additional points to be added to the displayed Usage count in Pick Lists
For specified fields, specific SMARText items types that are intended to be used in a particular field automatically have one point added to their Usage count when that field is active. For example, when in Assessment or Active problems, 1 point is added to the Usage count of all Structured Dx SMARText Items.
Current Location-Relationships where a point is automatically added
| Field | SMARText Item Types |
| Assessment, Active Problems and Inactive Problems | Structured DX Items |
| Medications | Structured Rx Items |
| Plan (preliminary) | Structured Plan Items and Order Entry Items |
Chief Complaint and Usage Counts
If a Chief Complaint SMARText item is used in the , this action triggers the possibility for additional points to be added to SMARText items in lists in other fields. In SOAPware-2010, the chief complaint associations are primarily being created for use in the pick lists for the Assessment, Medication fields. In the S chief complaint pick lists, these items have RFE’s (Reason for Encounter) in the front of the description. Using these special RFE-chief complaints when documenting will result in pick lists acting smarter.
In this generation of SOAPware, only the first RFE/Chief Complaint entered into the S triggers actions elsewhere.
If a SMARText item type already within a pick list has a usage count above zero (from the Location Ranking Rule, above), then more usage count points may be added if that SMARText item is in the same system (i.e. Respiratory, Cardiovascular, etc.) as the Chief Complaint (or RFE).
If the SMARText item in the list has an identical correlation to the chief complaint item, then even more points are added. For example, if the chief complaint or reason for encounter is a follow up for hypertension, then the SMARText items to indicate a diagnosis/assessment of Hypertension will be in the top of the list when the Assessment field is active. Similarly, when in the Medication field, medications for hypertension will come to the top of the list when the Medication field is active. To see an actual demonstration of this action, review the bottom half of this page.
Pre-Assingning the Order of Pick Lists via Usage Setter
This is how to create a pre-set sequence in a pick list of its SMARText items via setting the usage count to high numbers.
For some types of pick lists, it is preferable for the items in the list to always appear in the same sequence, and it is preferable for them not to change their order or sequence based on usage or other factors. For example, you could set the SMARText item you want at the top of a list to have a usage count of 1000. Then, set the usage count of the ST you want to always be the second ST item in the list to be 999, etc. By setting the usage numbers at a high levels, and in a preferred numerical sequence, this will actually result in the same as turning off the usage sorting and fix the items in a list to be in a preferred order.
The button to bring up the Usage Setter dialog is the one that has 123 in the button, and is just to the right of the Cancel button in the screenshot above. 
In the screenshot above, the Usage for the Albuterol Inhaler is being set to 1000 so that it will always be at the top of the list until some other medicine is used somewhere over 1000 times.
In the F11 and Shift + F11 pick lists, the Usage Setter button is in the lower left of the dialog as seen below.
The ability to reset the usage count for a SMARText item is useful in other ways. For example, if a SMARText item is used in the wrong area, by accident (e.g. a medication was inadvertently entered into Assessment), the user could reset the count to zero, thus removing it from the pick list (unless they put a check in the Unused option described previously).
After review of this page, answer... How do I...
- show and hide unused SMARText items?
- determine what type of SMARText items have usage points added to pick list items in which fields?
- explain the points added to the usage score based on location in the SMARText search list and in Quick Access List?
- prevent medication SMARText items from being in lists for Assessments and visa-versa?
- find and use the chief complaint SMARText items that help the pick lists function better?
- determine which fields’ pick lists can be improved by entering a chief complaint?
- fix the items in a pick list to always appear in the same sequence/location?
- make use of the Usage Setter?
- prevent a medication item inadvertently used once in the Assessment field from showing up in the Assessment field’s pick lists in the future?
