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OpenVista is a mature product rich in features and functionality. In medication ordering and management, the physician order entry application CIS, and its VA counterpart, CPRS are useful and attractive to physician users. The pharmacy workflow support, however, has an unappealing and generally inefficient user interface. The user must operate in the text-based, command and menu-driven environment, with many non-standard VA terms and processes. The menu-and-prompt user interaction system drives a complex and labyrinthine feature set, yet still lacks some fundamental private sector functions, such as medication pricing and billing. These weaknesses in OpenVista are critical barriers to acceptability in the pharmacy.
Intended to fill these gaps, OpenVista Meds is Medsphere’s graphical user interface (GUI) pharmacy application built on the mature medication management functionality integral to OpenVista. Meds 1.0, now in production, provides a multitasking GUI that enhances pharmacy workflow and serves as a framework for further development. Terminal sessions are presented in a tabbed workspace, allowing for concurrent actions under a single login. These “OpenVista Classic” sessions are an improvement on the character-based product and provide access to the entire pharmacy feature set.
Also introduced in the first release is the Pharmacy Dashboard, a system of "gauges" that monitor patient records for certain events, alert when such events occur, and launch the option that addresses the event.
To follow will be more detail on existing features and discussions of work in progress, with opportunities for community input.
