Text Macros

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You can search and refine the list of macros displayed on the My Text Macros and Text Macros pages using the search and filter fields at the top of the page. For example, you can filter the list to display only the macros used in the Physical Exam section of the encounter by a specific provider.

1. Display the My Text Macros or the Text Macros page.
• My Text Macros page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Text Macros.
• Text Macros page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Exam, click Text Macros.
2. Search macros — Enter the full or partial name of a text macro.
   
3. User — Select a username from the menu.
4. Filter by Section — Select one of these encounter sections or note fields:
   • All — Display all text macros for the selected user.
   • HPI, Physical Exam, Review of Systems, or Assessment and Plan — Display all text macros configured for the selected encounter section.
   • Patient Instructions or Discussion Note — Display all text macros configured for the selected text field (used in the Assessment & Plan section).
   • Action Note — Display all text macros configured for action notes in document tasks.
   • Patient Note — Display all text macros configured for the Note to Patient field in lab and imaging results.
   • Patient Case — Display all text macros configured for the Case Description field in patient cases.
5. To change your search terms, click clear.

You can create text macros for use with athenaClinicals and athenaOne for Hospitals & Health Systems.

1. Display the Text Macros page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Exam, click Text Macros.
2. Click Create New Macro to add a new macro.
   Additional fields appear.
3. Shortcut — Enter a name for the macro (2-50 characters with no spaces). This name will appear in the list of macros available for use.
4. Available sections — Select the encounter section or note field where the macro should appear, or select All to make the macro available in all macro-enabled fields.
   Note: You can select Patient Case to configure text macros only for the Case Description field in patient cases.
5. Expansion text — Enter the reusable text.
6. Users — Select the providers who can use the macro.
7. Click Add.

You can edit, delete, or copy an existing macro using the icons next to the macro.

You can add a drop-down menu to a text macro to create a menu of selectable options. Configuring the drop-down menu to default to null (or a blank selection) is not supported and can result in lost information.

Note: This syntax was created by athenahealth and is not part of standard HTML code. For information about supported HTML coding for text macros, see Supported HTML.

1. Display the My Text Macros or the Text Macros page.
   • My Text Macros page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Text Macros.
   • Text Macros page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Exam, click Text Macros.
2. Click Create New Macro to add a new macro, or click the edit icon next to the name of an existing macro in the list.
   The text macro fields appear.
3. Shortcut — Enter or edit the name of the macro (2-50 characters with no spaces).
4. Available sections — Select the encounter section or note field where the macro should appear, or select All to make the macro available in all macro-enabled fields.
   Note: You can select Patient Case to configure text macros only for the Case Description field in patient cases.
5. Expansion text — Enter the reusable text. To include a drop-down menu, enter the menu options in braces, for example:
   Patient has abnormalities on {{brain|cervical|thoracic|lumbosacral}} MR imaging.
   
   To preview how the macro displays in the exam, click Preview.
   
   Note: Configuring drop-down menus to default to null (or a blank selection) is not supported in athenaOne syntax and could result in lost information.
   
6. Users — Select the providers who can use the macro.
   Note: This field appears on the Text Macros page only.
7. Click Save.

The Manage My Text Macros page is the only page where you can subscribe to and unsubscribe from a text macro.

These options are not available on the Text Macros page.

1. Display the Text Macros page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Exam, click Text Macros.

2. Filter by User – Select the provider whose text macros you want to see.

3. Click to subscribe to a text macro. Click minus to unsubscribe.
   

1. Display the Encounter Plans page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — History/Intake, click Encounter Plans.
2. Click Create New Plan.
3. Encounter plan name — Enter a short, descriptive name for the encounter plan.
4. Users — Click All to make this encounter plan available to all providers in your practice, or click Selected to make the encounter plan available only to the providers that you select from the list.
5. Specialty — If your practice uses the multispecialty feature, click All to make this encounter plan available to all specialties in your practice, or click Selected to make the encounter plan available only to the specialties that you select.
   Note: Verify that the encounter plan is not associated with both specific providers and an entire specialty. In this case, the encounter plan is available only to the selected providers, not the entire specialty.
   
   You can use encounter reasons, chief complaints, templates, and order sets that belong to specific providers or specialties when you create practice-wide encounter plans; warning messages appear to help ensure informed choices.

Encounter Plan Triggers

6. Reasons for visit — Select the reasons that will activate the encounter plan from the list.
7. Follow-up diagnoses — Enter the appropriate set of follow-up SNOMED diagnoses that require particular templates, diagnoses, or orders as part of the current encounter.

Encounter Plan Actions

8. Structured Templates — Select the templates to activate for the encounter reasons or follow-up diagnoses used in the encounter plan.
9. Saved Findings — Select the saved findings to activate for the encounter reasons or follow-up diagnoses used in the encounter plan. For each set of saved findings, the list includes the section of the encounter where you saved the findings: History of Present Illness (HPI), Physical Exam (PE), and Review of Systems (ROS).
   Note: Saved findings appear in the encounter plan only for the provider that created the saved finding.
10. Text Macros — Select the macros to activate for the encounter reasons or follow-up diagnoses used in the encounter plan. You can add only section-specific macros to encounter plans, including HPI, ROS, and PE Notes, and Assessment & Plan, Discussion Notes, and Patient Instructions.
    Note: Any rendering provider that uses this encounter plan can use any macro available in the plan, even if the provider cannot access the macro otherwise.
11. Diagnoses — Select the diagnoses to activate for the encounter reasons or follow-up diagnoses used for the encounter plan.
12. Diagnoses and Orders Detail — Add orders to associate with the diagnoses. You can also select ICD-10 codes to associate with the SNOMED diagnoses.
13. Click Save.

You can create and use text macros in the following macro-enabled fields.

Assessment & Plan section

• Notes
• Assessment note
• Diagnosis-level assessment (4000 characters maximum)
• Patient Instructions
• Discussion Notes
• Note to provider
• Internal Note

HPI section

• Notes field (4000 characters maximum)

Review of Systems section

• Notes field

Physical Exam section

• Notes field

Documents

• Action Note field (3500 characters maximum; plain text only; no HTML code)

Lab and imaging results

• Note to Patient field

Patient Cases

• Case Description field (plain text only; no HTML code)

Character limit for some macro-enabled fields

 

Macros and most macro-enabled note fields do not have a character limit with these exceptions:

• The Diagnosis-level assessment field in the A/P section and the HPI template note in the HPI section have a 4000‑character limit.
• The Action Note field for documents has a 3500‑character limit.

A macro that exceeds the character limits in those fields cannot be used.

Important: Do not copy and paste text from MS Word documents or similar text editors into any text macro. Such text contains hidden characters that do not render properly.

 

You can enter a period (".") followed by the shortcut name to search for previously saved content.

After you enter a period (".") in a macro-enabled field, a list of macros appears. As you continue to type, the list updates to match your search criteria. This list includes the most frequently used macros at the top. Macros that you have never used appear alphabetically.

In addition, the list of macros that appears in the search results list corresponds to:

• Username
• Encounter section (for example, HPI)
• Patient age
• Patient gender

Within text macros, you can format text and create fields to select or enter data. This allows you to maintain consistency while customizing the details for each patient.

Supported formatting options

 

Use only supported HTML tags and athenaOne syntax when formatting text and creating fields in athenaOne templates, forms, letters, and text macros. Other coding is not supported and will be automatically removed over time to prevent potential problems.

 

Note: If you are not familiar with HTML coding, please contact the CSC by selecting Support > Create Case or Call in the Main Menu.

Supported HTML tags

Not all HTML tags are supported. You can use the following HTML tags to apply these formatting options:

 

Format	HTML Tags	Example Code	Example Output
Bold	<strong>, <b>	<strong>Urgent</strong>	Urgent
Italics	<em>, <i>	<em>Patient chart</em>	Patient chart
List	<ul>, <ol>	<ul><li>Last name</li><li>First name</li><li>DOB</li></ul>	• Last name • First name • DOB
Line break	<br>	athenahealth<br>311 Arsenal St.<br>Watertown, MA<br>	athenahealth 311 Arsenal St. Watertown, MA
Paragraph	<p>	<p>At athenahealth, we are building a healthcare ecosystem.</p> <p>We strive to make healthcare work as it should.</p>	At athenahealth, we are building a healthcare ecosystem. We strive to make healthcare work as it should.
Table	<table> is the full table. <tr> is a table row. <td> is a cell within a row. <th> is a header cell within a row.	<table><tr><th>First name</th><th>Last name</th></tr><tr><td>Jane</td><td>Doe</td> </tr><tr><td>John</td><td>Smith</td></tr></table>	Note: The table scrolls horizontally if the column widths exceed the page size.
Non-breaking space	&nbsp;	<p>1&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;3</p>	1   2   3

 

Supported athenaOne syntax

You can also use syntax that is specific to athenaOne to create the following types of fields:

 

Type of Field	athenaOne Syntax	Example Code	Example Output
Dropdown	{{1|2|3}}	Patient will come back in {{1|2|3|4}} weeks for a follow-up.	Patient will come back in 2 weeks for a follow-up.
Date	{{DATE}}	Pain started on {{DATE}}.	Pain started on 10/01/2019.
Time	{{TIME}}	Injection given at {{TIME}}.	Injection given at 10:05 AM.
Date Time	{{DATETIME}}	Completed at {{DATETIME}}.	Completed at 10/02/2019 3:45 PM.
Default Date Time	{{DATETIME|MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM AM/PM}}	Complete by {{DATETIME|12/31/19 5:00 PM}}.	Complete by 12/31/2019 5:00 PM.

 

Notes:

• athenaOne may display text macros differently on the Text Macros and My Text Macros pages than in the note fields where the text macros are used.

• Configuring drop-down menus to default to null (or a blank selection) is not supported in athenaOne syntax and could result in lost information.

 

For instructions on creating a drop-down menu in a text macro, see To create a drop-down menu in a text macro.

 

Best practices

 

Follow these best practices when formatting text and creating fields in athenaOne templates, forms, letters, and text macros.

 

Best Practice	Reason	To Resolve Issues
Use only supported HTML tags and athenaOne syntax	Unsupported coding is not recognized by athenaOne and will not work as expected.	Remove or replace any unsupported coding.
Ensure all HTML syntax have opening and closing tags  Exception: A line break <br> doesn't require a closing tag.	Some commands require an opening and closing HTML tag to render properly.	Add any missing opening and closing HTML tags.  Example: Close each paragraph HTML tag (<p>) with a corresponding </p> tag. (A <p> tag that isn't closed adds extra spacing.)
Check that you coded only one break for each new line	Using both the <br> tag and pressing the ENTER key results in two line breaks.	Remove extra line breaks in the HTML code. Example: Remove any returns that are after a <br> tag.
Limit the use of HTML bold tags (<strong> and <b>) in long text macros.	When the macro is used in the Diagnosis-level assessment field or the HPI template note, the <strong> and <b> tags may cause the macro's character count to exceed the 4000-character limit.	Remove any <strong> and <b> tags that are not essential.

 

Fields that do not support formatting in text macros

 

The following fields do not support formatting in text macros:

• Action Note field in documents
• Case Description field in patient cases
• Note to provider field in orders
• Internal Note field in orders

 

Why do I see HTML code in my note or description?

 

You may have used a formatted text macro (that is, a text macro that contains HTML code or athenaOne syntax) in a field that does not support formatting. Since the field is unable to recognize and translate the code into a format or field, it displays the code like any other text, making it visible in your note or description.