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American Diabetes Association

Education Recognition Program - Chronicle Diabetes

Chronicle Walkthrough - A guided tour for diabetes educators


Introduction

These instructions represent a typical flow through Chronicle. This is intended as a very brief introduction to the major sections of Chronicle. There is much greater detail provided in the Chronicle User Manual, which you can find here:


https://erp.diabetes.org/docs/dv.php?p=ADA_CD_User_Manual


Also, please note that every page of Chronicle has a Help link at the top right of the page, and every pop up window has a Help link at the top. Clicking any of these Help links will display useful information and instructions relevant to the task that you are working on. Be sure to consult these Help links if you are unsure about some feature of the system. For a complete demonstration of many of the features within system, a taped Chronicle Diabetes webinar is available on the DiabetesPro web site:


http://professional.diabetes.org/Recognition.aspx?typ=15&cid=84040


Demo version of Chronicle

A demonstration version has been set up to allow educators to practice using Chronicle without making modifications to their actual live site. The demo site contains some sample patient and class data, and you can practice adding sample patients, classes, and other information. Note that all of the data in the demo site is reset every night, so anything you enter will be erased. Also, no actual patient data should ever be entered in the demo site. This demo site can be found at this address:


https://demo.chroniclediabetes.com/


Access to the demo site is provided by a temporary username and password. You can request this information by clicking the link on the demo site's login page and following the instructions. Once you've logged into the demo site, you can step through the instructions below to test out various aspects of Chronicle. Keep in mind that the demo site can be used by multiple educators who are all entering and modifying data, so the instructions below might be slightly different from what you see in the demo site.


Overview

A new patient has been referred to you for education. You manually contact this patient (e.g. by phone), determine a time for her education, and set up the patient in an upcoming class in Chronicle. You then generate a welcome letter confirming the DSMES session and requesting she complete an initial patient self-assessment (PSA). After the patient completes the PSA you review the information. After the education class you document the class as well as patient specific goals, clinical data, and medications.


Setting up the new patient

  • Click on the Patients tab near the top left of the page. If you do not see a list of patients that means you are viewing specific patient's record. Click the Return to Patient List button in the upper left to view all of your patients.
  • Click on the Create New Patient button near the top left of the page.
  • Fill in as much information as you have. Fields marked with a red dotted line under the field are required. Click Save Changes.
  • This will add the patient to your site and will open the patient's record. The various sections of the patient's record are accessed via the gray tabs down the left side of the page. You will be on the General Information page of the patient's record.


Viewing other patients

  • Click the yellow Return to Patient List button in the upper left.
  • The patient that you just added is listed in the Patient List, which is sorted alphabetically. If you do not see the new patient you can search for him by typing his last name in the search box and hitting return. Or you can use the Patient Filter in the left navigation bar. From the drop down select Sort by recent creation date and your new patient should be listed at the top. To return to the normal alphabetically sorting, click Clear Filter in the Patient Filter box.
  • Click on a patient's listing to open the patient's record.
  • You will be on the General Information page of the patient's record. You can view the various pages of the patient record by clicking the tabs on the left side of the page (e.g. DSMES Assessment, Health Status, etc.). Click the Edit pencil above any section to edit that section's information.
  • For each page of the record, be sure to visit the Help link at the top right of the page for more detailed information.


Setting up a class

  • To add a person to a class, you'll first need to create the class. A class represents one or more patients meeting for one or more educational sessions. So if you have 10 patients who will be meeting four times over the course of a month, that is considered one group class with four sessions and 10 patients on the roster.
  • Click on the Education tab at the top of the page. You will see a list of existing classes, along with basic information about each class.
  • To begin creating a new group class, click the yellow Create New Group Class button on the left side of the page to bring up the window.
  • Enter a name for the class. Examples could be "Newly diagnosed" or "Friday AM". Choose a name that you will logically associate with this class. Enter the Class Type and Education Format and click Save Changes.
  • Begin by adding the general class information by clicking the Edit pencil link above the Class Information box. Enter the Location, Language, instruction methods and any materials you are using, and then click Save Changes.
  • Each class must have one or more sessions.. Click the Add Session link above the Class Sessions box to bring up the entry window. Enter a name for the session. Choose a name that you will logically associate with your class session. For example, "Welcome and Intro", "Pumps and Meters", or simply "Class 1". You do not need to include the date in the name since the system will automatically display the session dates. Enter the other required information and click Save Changes. Repeat this process for each of the session that will comprise the class.
  • Above the Class Roster and Attendance box, click Update Roster to bring up the patient selector. In the left Recently Added Patients list find each patient that will be in the class and click on the patient to move her to the Current Roster list. When you have selected all the patients that will be in the class click Save Changes. If there are patients that will be in the class by haven't been added to the system yet, you can add them at a later time.
  • Click the Lesson Plan tab on the left site of the page to view the class's educational lesson plan. Click the Edit Lesson Plan link. For each educational topic that will be address during the class, click the check box to the left of the topic under the appropriate session column. You can check multiple boxes for a topic if it will be taught during multiple sessions. (Note, completing the Lesson Plan can be done after the education has occurred.)
  • At this point the class is set up.


Creating Welcome letters for class patients

  • After the class has been set up you can create a welcome letter that can be sent (via U.S. mail) to each of the patients to give them initial information and invite them to complete their online initial patient self-assessment (PSA).
  • Return to the main class list by clicking the Return to Class Listing button in the upper left.
  • In the listing row for the class you created, click the Generate Letters link on the right side.
  • For Step 1, select the letter you would like to create from the drop down list. A recommended letter is the Default - Welcome Letter.
  • For Step 2, select the patients you would like to receive the letter. By default, all of the patients in the class are selected. If there are any other patients that you would like include, click on the patient's name in the left column to add them to the right column (the recipients list). To remove someone from the recipients list, just click on her name in the right column. When the recipients list is correct, click on Preview Letter.
  • You will see a preview of the letter(s) that will be created. If this looks correct, click Download Letters, which will prompt you to download the resulting Microsoft Word file to you computer. Once the letters file is on your computer you can open it in Microsoft Word, edit it as necessary, and print the letter to send to the patients.

Creating and editing letter with the Letter Manager

  • From any Letter Generation Wizard window, or from the Launch Letter Manager button at the bottom left of a patient's record, you can use the Letter Manager to create and edit your letters in the system.
  • To begin editing an existing letter, select the letter from the Choose a letter to load drop down list at the top of the wizard. That will load the letter template in the main text area. Alternatively, you can click New Blank Letter to start from scratch.
  • Edit the text of the letter using normal text editing steps (type, delete, etc.). To format text, select a section of text and use the formatting bar directly above the main letter area to change the style, justification and formatting.
  • To insert a data field (e.g. current date, patient's name, etc.) that will be replaced when the letter template is merged with patient data, start by positioning the cursor where you would like the tag to go. Next click on the Insert Custom Tag menu and then select the tag you would like from the menu. This will insert a yellow tag into the letter, which will be replaced with the corresponding data when the actual letter is generated.
  • A letter can be renamed (e.g. change the name of the letter as it appears in the Select Letter dropdown menu) by clicking the Rename button. To create a new letter based on an existing letter, first select the existing letter and then click Duplicate and give the new letter a new name. Perform any edits to this new letter and save it when done. Clicking Preview will generate a downloadable version of the letter in the Microsoft Word format.
  • When you have finished making changes, click the Save button, and then click Close Letter Generator in the lower right corner.


Documenting a class (after education has occurred)

  • After you have conducted the DSMES class you can document it by opening the class record. First click on the Education tab on the top of the page to see a list of all existing classes. Click on the class that you would like to document.
  • On the General Information page of the record, the Class Roster and Attendance table lists each patients' attendance. Each colored column represents a specific class session as listed in the Class Schedule section. By default all patients are marked as being in attendance (ATT) at each session.
  • To update the attendance, click the Update Attendance link to bring up the Update Class Attendance window. To change a patient's attendance status at a session, click the dropdown list under the respective class session and change the appropriate value. Repeat this until all patients attendance is correct, then click Save Changes.
  • To document the time each educator spent with the patients, click Update Educator Time. Check the box next to each educator that participated in this class. Enter the minutes that each educator spent with each of the class sessions. Repeat for each of the educators. Click Save Changes when complete. Note this Educator Time section of the class record is optional and is not used to calculate time for future ERP Application submissions. All ERP Application submission data is calculated from the lengths defined for each of the sessions listed under the Class Sessions.
  • Next you need to document each patient's pre assessment and post evaluation for each of nine topics. Under the navigation menu on the left side, under the Patients heading, click on the first patient's name to expand the list, and then on the Education heading just below their name. Each of the topics that were defined in the class's Lesson Plan will be active on this Education form. Click on the Edit Education link. For each topic area, check the appropriate Pre Assessment and Post Evaluation value, and enter any comments. Then click Save Changes.
  • Click on Edit Identified Barriers and Edit Support Plan and enter the information.
  • Note the information on the Follow Up tab (under the patient's name) is entered when follow up is performed (e.g. three or six months post DSMES), so that can be left blank at this time.
  • Follow this process of documenting the education pre assessment, post evaluation, barrier and support plan for each patient in the class. Finally, you can add any additional information in the Class Notes section.
  • At this point the class documentation is complete.