AngelTrack's Enterprise PCR allows full customization of the values in all NEMSIS dropdown lists.
The Enterprise PCR for EMS allows you to add new picklist values to any of its NEMSIS dropdown lists, to meet whatever business or compliance requirements you face.
AngelTrack can report them to your trauma registry in the standard format for custom values.
State Custom Picklist Values
If your state trauma registry publishes any custom picklist values, AngelTrack will import them at the same time as it imports your state's custom fields list. This happens during AngelTrack server startup, and can be performed again whenever you wish, using the Custom EMS PCR Fields Importer.
This capability is necessary for compliance, and so is built in to AngelTrack's EMS Core license; it does not require the Enterprise PCR add-on license.
To learn more about that, please visit the Custom EMS PCR Fields Guide.
County Custom Picklist Values
If you imported a StateDataSet document from your county to implement their custom datafields, AngelTrack also imported their custom picklist values, if any, into the PCR for you.
At any time you can repeat that process, and re-import your county's StateDataSet, to pick up any new datafields or picklist values. When you do so, please carefully review the "Source" option, to make sure give AngelTrack an accurate answer of where the StateDataSet document came from.
This capability is necessary for compliance, and so is built in to AngelTrack's EMS Core license; it does not require the Enterprise PCR add-on license.
To learn more, please visit the Custom EMS PCR Fields Guide.
Creating Your Own Picklist Values
You may create your own custom picklist values for most of the NEMSIS-standard picklist datafields in the EMS PCR. (A few picklist fields are unique to AngelTrack and serve special purposes, and cannot be so extended.)
To do so, follow these steps:
- Login to AngelTrack with Captain or Administrator privileges.
- Go to the Settings page, and click on the Custom EMS Picklist Values item.
- Use the dropdown-list at the top to select the PCR datafield you wish to extend.
- You will see the datafield's existing list of choices appear in the grid.
- Click the add icon
to begin a new item. - In the popover, input the user-friendly text for the new item.
- For the "Reports itself as" choice, select the NEMSIS standard choice which best matches the meaning of the new item. It probably will not be an exact match, but pick the closest one.
- The "eCustomResults.01" field you can leave it blank, to let AngelTrack automatically generate a unique value.
Click "save", and observe your new value appear in the list.
You cannot create new picklist values that report themselves as a Null Value (such as "[Not recorded]") or as a Pertinent Negative (such as "[Patient refused]").
Enterprise PCR Add-On License Required
Except as noted above for compliance requirements, the ability to add custom items to the PCR's picklists is part of the Enterprise PCR, which is an add-on license for AngelTrack. It is not part of the base product. To learn more, please visit the Enterprise PCR Guide.
What is "eCustomResults.01"?
Every custom picklist value must have an identifier for eCustomResults.01. The identifier is used internally in a NEMSIS XML document to link a custom result (i.e. your custom answer for a picklist) back to the NEMSIS datafield that it extends.
The identifier can be anything as long as it's unique, so it's best to let AngelTrack generate it for you, unless you are specifically required to match someone else's custom-results format, for the benefit of a downstream data consumer such as a billing agency.
Deactivating and Reactivating
You may freely deactivate and reactivate your custom picklist values whenever you wish, without impacting existing data. Inactive values remain in AngelTrack forever; they simply cease to appear as choices for new reports.
You can also deactivate any of the NEMSIS standard values from the PCR, and you can reactivate them again later, as necessary to match your documentation requirements and caseload.
You cannot deactivate the NEMSIS standard values for "[Not recorded]", "[Not applicable]", and "[None]".
Vials Tracking
AngelTrack's vials-tracking system is bespoke, not part of the NEMSIS specification, and so cannot be extended by this system.
The vials tracking system includes its data within AngelTrack's NEMSIS XML output, using eCustomResults nodes in a format emulating the format expected by most state trauma registries.