Today’s tip is about exponentially increasing the speed with which you can find a patient name. You already know that you can start typing a patient name—first name or last name, it doesn’t matter—and Ascend will automatically create a list that will narrow down as you type. Believe it or not, there is a faster way.

Here’s how to do it. Once you’re in the patient search box, instead of typing out the whole name of the patient you are searching for, just type the first two letters of one name—first or last—then a space, and then the first two letters of the patient’s other name.

For example, if you wanted to locate a patient named Francisco Alvarado, just type “fr al” in the search field. Ascend will look through your patient database and find all patients with names starting with “Fr” and “Al”. You can then select the patient you want from this much shorter list of results.

Additional Information

• You don’t have to worry about capitalization. Use all caps, all lowercase, or a mixture of the two. You’ll get the same results either way.