Customizing OpenEMR for your practice involves leveraging its flexible features to tailor the system to your specific needs. Here’s a guide on how to customize OpenEMR:

Customizing Demographics Fields

1. Accessing Layouts: Go to Admin > Forms > Layouts to modify the Demographics form. This allows you to customize user-defined fields to store any relevant data.
2. Modifying Fields: Change the label of a user-defined field to match your needs. For example, you can rename it from "User Defined" to a more specific term like "Patient Preference.".
3. Saving Changes: After making modifications, save them and verify the changes by editing a patient’s demographics screen.

Customizing Issue Types

1. Accessing Issue Types: Navigate to Admin > Forms List to edit issue types. This feature helps categorize health problems and treatment categories.
2. Adding Custom Issue Types: Create new categories by entering details such as the issue name, plural form, and style. This helps tailor the system for specialty practices.
3. Configuring Issue Display: Use the "Order" field to determine the display order of issues on the Issues page.

Customizing Patient Record Fields and Forms

1. Modifying Patient Dashboard: You can add or remove tabs and fields under the Patient Dashboard > Demographics by accessing Admin > Layouts.
2. Creating Custom Forms: Use layout-based forms (LBFs) to create additional forms that meet specific practice needs. This might require collaboration with a developer for more complex forms.
3. Integrating Custom Forms: These forms can be integrated into the system to auto-populate data from the EMR, reducing manual entry.

Building Custom Reports

1. Accessing Reporting Tools: OpenEMR allows you to create custom reports using its reporting features. This helps in generating insights tailored to your practice’s needs.
2. Designing Reports: Follow a step-by-step guide to build reports that extract specific data from the system, aiding in decision-making and practice optimization.

Key Takeaways

• Flexibility: OpenEMR is highly customizable, allowing practices to tailor it to their unique workflows.
• Layout-Based Forms: These forms enable extensive customization of patient records and additional forms.
• Issue Types: Customizing issue types helps organize health problems and treatments effectively.
• Reporting: Custom reports provide valuable insights into practice performance.
By leveraging these customization options, practices can optimize OpenEMR to enhance operational efficiency, improve patient care, and meet specific regulatory requirements.