Y Technology, Inc.

SoapDish Table of Contents

Welcome to SoapDish™, software for the health care professional. SoapDish is a note system and patient tracker designed for the Palm Computing® Platform. Be sure to view the following files for any last minute additions or changes.

This documentation describes Version 1.0 of WaitingRoom and SoapMH. It was last updated 12/29/99.

SoapDish, WaitingRoom, and SoapMH
Copyright © 1999-2000 by Y Technology, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

This documentation
Copyright © 1999-2000 by Y Technology, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Contact Information
E-mail: info@ytechnology.com
Web: http://www.ytechnology.com

Disclaimer of All Warranties
This software and documentation are sold "AS IS" and without warranties as to performance of merchantability or any other warranties expressed or implied. Because of the various hardware and software environments into which this program may be placed, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. The user must assume the entire risk of the program. Any liability of the seller will be limited exclusively to product replacement or refund of purchase price.

Other Disclaimers
Names used in the examples that follow are fictional. Any resemblance to real world persons is coincidental.

Trademarks
SoapDish™, SoapMH™, WaitingRoom™ are trademarks of
Y Technology, Inc.

Palm Computing is a registered trademark of
Palm Computing, Inc.

Other brand and product names are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Please read the license agreement (sdlicense.txt) before using SoapDish.

Introduction
SoapDish is currently tailored for mental health care professionals. If you're in another specialty and would like SoapDish support, please drop us a line at info@ytechnology.com. We aim to support the health care industry.

Here's what SoapDish Mental Health Edition (SoapMH) does:

  • track patient demographics such as name, age, marital status, and insurer.
  • maintain a log of every patient visit, tracking their symptoms, the severity, and medications.
  • generate a soap note based on your log entries. The narrative is created in the Palm Memo Pad and can be fleshed out on the desktop or with MS Word.

The goals of this product is to:

  • offer a way to measure patient health over time.
  • offer documentation for insurance companies

System Requirements:

  • Palm OS 3.0 and up
  • 55k of memory for the application. Memory for data is small, but varies. As an example, given 512k free, you can store 50 patients and log 30 visits per patient.

WaitingRoom™ and SoapMH™
Two programs make up the SoapDish system: WaitingRm and SoapMH. WaitingRoom is the application that tracks patient demographics while SoapMH stores the data from patient visits.

SoapMH comes in two flavors: SoapMH and SoapMH Lite. They are identical except that the Lite version is free of charge and is limited to approximately 25 combined patient sessions. If you need to store more than that, you can purchase SoapMH, which can store as many patients as your handheld's memory will allow. More information on purchasing can be found at the end of this document.

Both flavors come with the WaitingRoom application; it imposes no limit on the number of patients your handheld can store.

Note that SoapMH depends on WaitingRoom and will not run unless WaitingRoom is installed. The dependency goes further: should you remove WaitingRoom from your Palm device, thereby deleting all your patients, the SoapMH session data will also be deleted.

If, however, you delete SoapMH and leave the WaitingRoom application alone, the session data will be deleted but the patient data will remain intact.

Upgrading Software
When upgrading any of the software, for example going from SoapMH Lite to the retail version, do not delete the software on your handheld. Doing so will also delete your data. Instead, simply install over the existing software.

Security
WaitingRoom and SoapMH's security is as strong or as weak as your handheld's built-in security. In other words, like Palm's built-in applications, patient records can be hidden from view by marking them private, but there is no underlying encryption.

For better security, you can always "turn off and lock" your device when you're done, but the tradeoff is the inconvenience of entering a password every time you power up your Palm. You'll find the "turn off and lock" option in the Palm's "Security" application.

WaitingRoom User Guide

Adding a Patient
Using WaitingRoom is not too different from using Palm's built-in applications such as the address book. On WaitingRoom's main screen, you can create a new patient, load an existing patient, and look up a patient. You can also view and edit categories.


WaitingRoom main form.

Tapping the "New" button will create a new patient. Tapping on "Doe, John" will allow you to edit that patient's demographic data:



WaitingRoom edit patient form.

Field Description
Last Name Patient last name is limited to 20 characters.
First Name Patient first name is limited to 20 characters.
DOB

Date of Birth. There are two ways to enter this information: using graffiti or using a calendar view where you point and tap.

A valid date spans from 1/1/1904 to 12/31/2031. If you enter a birthday in the future, WaitingRoom will just warn you but let you proceed.

Sex Male or female.
Ethnic Ethic group of patient.
M. Status Marital status.
Education Grade completed. While the popup list lets you choose between grades 6, 9, 12, and 12+, you can write anything you wish in the field as long as it fits into 3 characters.
Insurer The popup list provides a handful of the most common insurance companies. You can also write in any company name as long as it fits into 15 characters.
Ins. ID The patient's Insurance ID. Enter up to 15 letters and numbers.
SSN The patient's social security number. Not every patient will have a social security number, but this field can be used as a patient ID. Enter up to 15 letters and numbers.

Using Categories
The default categories include "Active" and "Inactive." If you cover for a colleague, you can use categories to manage that information. Just add the colleague's name to the category list and store the patient record there. Alternatively, if your practice takes you to different locations -- private office, clinic, hospital -- you can use categories to track your patients by location. Note that the Palm Operating System limits you to 15 categories.

Deleting a Patient
You can delete a patient from this form by tapping the menu button (lower left button on Palm's silk screen area). Select "Record | Delete..." and a dialogue box will ask for confirmation. If you delete the patient, not only will his or her demographic information be purged, but any sessions you have previously recorded for that patient will be purged as well.

There is no archival facility (yet) for WaitingRoom. This means that there is no way to recover a deleted patient.

Launching SoapMH
To start a diagnosis, tap the "SD->" or the SoapDish button. This will launch the SoapMH application. Think of this as a speed button. Another way to launch the SoapMH application is from the menu "Run | SoapMH". In the future, you will be able to run other related applications from the menu as we make them available.

SoapMH User Guide

Diagnosis
When you start a diagnosis, you'll see something like the following screen:



SoapMH main form.

The "<-WR" button at the bottom is a speed button that returns you to the WaitingRoom application. You can also return by using the menu "Run | WaitingRm". In the future, you will be able to run other related applications from the menu as we make them available.

The figure above has four prior sessions. Tap on any session to view the data, or tap the "New" button to begin a new session. New sessions will start out with data based on the last session. Thus, session five would be created based on the data in session four.

 


SoapMH Symptoms

Along the bottom of the symptom form, you'll find four classes of symptoms:

  • Mood
  • Anxiety
  • Psychosis
  • Dementia

The current class of symptom will be displayed in the title. If you tap the title, you can get a quick reminder of the current session number.

In the figure above, Mood is selected and symptoms related to Mood are displayed (Lo Energy, Sadness, Insomnia, Suicide). You can add, delete, or change the symptom labels to suit your practice. This is discussed in a later section.

The checkbox is used to indicate which symptoms are present in your patient while the popup list provides a number to indicate the severity of the symptom. The severity codes were drawn from DSM-IV Case Book by Spitzer et al. and are as follows:

Severity Code Meaning
0
 unspecified
1
 mild
2
 moderate
3
 severe
4
 severe with psychosis
5
 partial remission
6
 full remission

The dotted lines on the right are empty fields where you can jot a quick note of up to 15 characters per line. These notes are optional and will appear in the generated soap note.

The Meds popup list will present common medications that your patient may be using. Meds appended with a "(g)" indicate that it is generic. This list is context sensitive. That is, if you are viewing Mood symptoms, the medications presented will be related to Mood disorders. If you are viewing Anxiety symptoms, the medications list will have meds related to anxiety disorders. Of course, some meds address both classes, so there will be some overlap.

You can select more than one medication. If the meds you select fill up more than two lines, scroll buttons will appear allowing you to continue adding. You'll need to use Graffiti if you want to add dosage information. You can clear the meds field by selecting "<none>" from the popup list. Not all possible meds can be included in our popup list; in those cases, you'll need to use Graffiti.

Customizing Symptom Labels
Although we have tried to capture the most common symptoms, not all practitioners would agree with our list. You can add, delete, or change the default list. Keep in mind that if you work in a group setting, you should all agree on a standard symptoms list. In the future, SoapMH will allow IR beaming, and exchanging data between SoapMH applications that have different labels will render your information meaningless.

To rename a symptom label, just tap on its name. A dialog box will appear allowing you to write in a new name.

To delete a symptom label, tap on its name. In the dialog box, delete the text and tap "OK".

To add a symptom label, you first need to reveal the available slots. Use the menu "Options | Show Empty Labels":



Show and hide empty labels

Tap on the label "<empty>" and rename it to something meaningful. If you wish, you can hide the empty labels when you're done. Note that you are limited to eight labels per symptom class.

Deleting Sessions
SoapMH allows you to delete the current session or a range of sessions. Be warned that there is no archival facility (yet). Once you delete a session, there is no way to recover it.

To delete the current session, pull down the menu. Select "Record | Delete Session..." and you will be asked for confirmation. After you delete the session, SoapMH renumbers its remaining sessions so that there are no gaps in its numbering sequence.

To delete a range of sessions, you'll need to go to the SoapMH main form. Tap the "Done" button to get there. Pull down the menu and select "Record | Delete Range...". A dialogue box will appear and allow you to enter a starting and ending session number. Deletions are inclusive, so deleting sessions two through four will delete sessions two, three, and four.

Creating a Soap Note
SoapMH can gather data you've entered to produce a SOAP note in your handheld's Memo Pad application. From the SoapMH Symptom Form, pull down the menu and select "Record | Create Memo...".

By default, the SOAP note is created in the Memo Pad's "unfiled" category. If you've created a "SoapDish" category, the note will go there instead. Observe the spelling and capitalization of "SoapDish".

Here is a sample note created for the patient John Doe:

Doe 12/27/99 5:16 pm

Session 4: 12/22/99, 6:54 PM

SUBJECTIVE:
The patient, John Doe, is a 55 year old married White male.

OBJECTIVE:
mild Lo Energy (worse in a.m.)
moderate Insomnia

 


ASSESSMENT:

PLAN / MEDS:
Paxil

FOLLOW UP:

The more data you record in SoapDish, the more useful the SOAP note will be. Run HotSync to transfer your notes to the Palm Desktop. From there, you can add more details. Note that PC users can also drag and drop the memo into Microsoft Word.

Buy SoapDish
For information about purchasing SoapMH, visit http://www.ytechnology.com.