How to use custom fields

Custom fields need to be created before they can be associated with a patient. For instructions on how to do this, review our How to create a new Custom Field article.

Field types

Custom fields are typed. When a field is created in the Custom Fields Administration screen, it is set to one of the following types, which controls the kind of value you record against a patient:

Date
Yes/No
Number (whole number or decimal)
Text

There is no dropdown or list type for custom fields. If you need a list-style field, that is the separate Coding feature, which shows in the patient header. Custom fields also cannot be made mandatory.

Adding a New Custom Field to a Patient

Go to the patient's Clinical Summary tab.
Select Manage in the bottom right section.
In the Custom Fields Manager screen, select the custom field to be added.
Choose the value for the custom field and select Set.
Once all required custom fields have been added, select Close.
The custom field/s will now display in the Clinical Summary screen.

To remove an existing custom field from a patient, select Clear. It will now display the user who deleted the custom field and what date it was deleted.

Viewing Alerts for Custom Fields

A custom field only raises an alert when the Alert User checkbox has been selected for that field in the Custom Fields Administration screen and the patient has a qualifying value recorded. A couple of things affect whether the alert shows:

Yes/No fields only alert when the value is set to Yes.
The alert only shows while the value is within the field's valid-from and valid-to dates, set on the field definition.

Turning Alert User on for a field re-checks the alert across every patient who has a value for that field, so alerts can start appearing for existing patients once the setting is enabled.

Booking Form

When the Alert User checkbox has been selected in the Custom Fields Administration screen, an alert will be displayed in a red box in the booking form.

If there is more than one custom field for a patient, the user can view the full Custom Fields Manager screen via the '...' icon.

Diary

When the Alert User checkbox has been selected in the Custom Fields Administration screen, in the diary, the booking for that patient will display a colour gradient.
To view the alert, you can hover over the booking in the diary.