making soapnotes: overview

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Posts and Forms

You can post a simple soapnote in less than 2 minutes and be done with it.  The more powerful soapnote templates and calculators are first created and tested as Forms and then released in Posts that are published on the site.

Posts

“Post” refers to the published soapnote page on the web.  This includes the Form, as well as the output box with its functions (copy, print, and save), any background information in the Template Summary,  and all the extra stuff soapnote adds in automatically (like comments, ratings, and favorite-ing buttons).  If the text is all boilerplate and doesn’t require any user input, a simple, Post-based soapnote is all you need (a Form isn’t required).

Forms

Form-based soapnotes are a little more complex.  Making a Form and then publishing it as a Post are two separate processes.  By “Form” refers to the part of the page that takes the user input.  It’s also called a webform.  Forms aren’t visible to website visitors until they are posted.  Forms allow you to get user input and do calculations.

Getting started making soapnotes

To save you time, there are a few suggestions that I have before you dive in.

  • Have a plan – making a soapnote is like a reverse engineering process.  Start with good clinical documentation and work backwards.
  • Start small – try a few small templates before you try to put together the grand unifying medical calculator.
  • Save your work early and often.
  • There probably is a sweet spot for the proportions of user input versus boilerplate.  One biased opinion is that there should be a lot more than 50% boilerplate and a lot less than 50% user input.

    • Please feel free to email us if you have any questions!