Physical Examination

The Physical Examination is common to all the healing arts. It is necessary to know many aspects of the patient’s physical status in order to determine the best course of care and treatment. Sometimes a Physical Examination uncovers a serious issue that requires immediate crisis care. On other occasions it lets the doctor know the contraindications for certain modalities of care. In some instances, the Physical Examination provides a key to expanding the practice.

The Physical Examination window (figure 23) opens upon clicking the  button. Upon opening the Physical Examination window today’s current date is entered in the Date Field drop down box, and the entries from the previous examination are displayed. On the initial examination, each of the data fields is blank. On subsequent visits, only those items that have changed need to be modified, unless there has been a major change. There are several tabs for different aspects of the Physical Examination. The tabs are Vital Signs, Postural/Mental/Physical, Head, Heart, Lungs, and Growth Chart.

NOTE: All fields in the Physical Examination window are optional from the perspective of the ChiroSuiteEHR/ChiroPadEMR program. Depending on the practice’s involvement with Medicare or other insurance programs, or the requirements of State laws and Board regulations, it is likely that entries in some fields are required by those entities.