Work and Personal Restrictions

One way to keep personal work restrictions private is to enter these data in the “traditional” method, via the Work/Patient Restrictions section of SYSTOC.

This section appears on the Inj/Ill Visit screen and on the Treatment screen. In both places, individual restrictions are selected from a list that was previously defined. Each one is assigned a Type of either W (Work) or P (Personal). Personal restrictions appear on the portion of the Discharge Summary Report for the patient. Work-related restrictions appear on the report for the patient and company (and in the Injury detail view of iSYSTOC, which provides injury data to companies via the Internet).

But that’s not the only place where this information can be entered. The Work Capacity Notes section of the Treatment screen also accommodates work restrictions. Why are there two places for the same data, on the same screen? When we incorporated PDF forms into SYSTOC, we needed a place in the software to save work restrictions as free text, the same way work capacity notes are entered on the Tap2Chart form. Work capacity text entered on the form is saved in the Work Capacity memo, and can be edited from the memo if desired. However, the more usual approach is to enter data exclusively from the PDF form.

When the Work Capacity information is entered via the PDF form, there is no way to separate work restrictions from personal ones. So all the information entered will appear in the Work Restrictions section of the Employer’s copy of the Patient Discharge Summary Report. Accordingly, we suggest that physicians confine themselves to work-related restrictions when they are working in the PDF form. If they wish to provide a personal restriction, they can do so by adding a generic order, as described in the Discharge Instructions section below.

You can use both the “traditional” and “free text” methods of data entry for work restrictions together. If you do, the “traditional” work restrictions will appear after the Work Capacity Notes Memo on both the patient and employer copies of the report. However, we don’t necessarily recommend using both, and suggest that your clinic choose one method, based on the preferences of your administration and physicians.