Design
Always create a design on paper first. Decide on the information to record, what Field Type would best achieve this and where this will be positioned on your Custom Screen.
Consider future requirements, e.g. Labs; while only two may be used now there may have more in the future. Therefore it would be wise to use a Combo Box (not an Option Group) as this can easily accommodate additional entries without the need to redesign the Custom Screen field placement.
Tab Order
Add fields in the order they should be tabbed through, since the tab order is set to the order the fields were created and cannot be altered. If additional fields will be added in future, add Label fields while building the screen but do not enter any label text. These will be blank fields not displayed when the Custom Screen is used. These can be changed into the appropriate field type in the future to accommodate changes. These blank fields can also be used to enter blank lines into a custom screen to space the fields and avoid it looking crowded. Another trick for doing this is to skip line numbers; for example, if you had a block of fields in lines 0 to 6, and wanted a gap to separate the next block of fields, start the numbering again at line 8.
Treatment Planning
It can be difficult to manipulate treatment plans when large custom screens are attached to services. Consider creating a set of services specifically to hold the custom screens. These can be added to the Course of Treatment when it is time to complete the custom screen and not before. To easily locate and recognise a custom screen service, create a separate Service Category ‘-Custom Screens’ to list these.
Bulky Custom Screens
There is a limit to the number of fields allowed on a custom screen. Split large custom screen designs into two or more parts and attach these to separate Services.