SSNAP allows teams to add custom fields to their proforma. This is a great resource for local data requirements, and local audits. The high functionality even allows validations to be entered on these questions, ensuring high quality data.
It is important you have thought clearly about the questions you are inputting. Ensure that you consider the added functionality of adding answer options and validations prior to adding additional questions to the webtool. If they are entered incorrectly they cannot be amended and questions will have to be re-entered.
Only Lead Clinicians and Second Lead contacts have the ability to add custom fields. If you are not a Lead Clinician or second lead contact you may wish to work collaboratively to add custom fields.
If you are lead or second lead for your hospital, this option will appear in your ‘Clinical’ drop down menu once you are signed in at www.strokeaudit.org
It is very important to ensure you have selected the correct team that you are designing custom fields
for. Only teams that you are registered for will appear in this dropdown menu.
Click 'Add custom field' to add a new field. If ‘all teams’ is selected, the field will appear for every team you are registered for.
The below page should then appear.
Types
The ‘type’ denotes what type of question you are asking and how the answer options are presented. It is
very important to understand the differences between these types as they determine how the question
can be answered and how data will appear in the export. All questions have the ‘Required’ or ‘Active’
options. Required makes the field mandatory and you can activate and deactivate the custom fields with
‘Active’.
Select the type from the dropdown menu, remember each time you will need to click on insert, then edit the question to choose more options to construct your question and answer options.
Text – This a free text option where users can determine what to type into the box, this is useful when the range of answer options is too wide to define. Caution should be used as there is less validation when selecting this option. Width (px) refers to the width of the text box enter between 50 and 500, you may wish to determine how wide this looks on the webtool proforma.
Radio button list – This option allows users to select one option that best describes the answer to the
question, an example would be:
Patient first arrived on which ward:
MAU
ICU
Stroke Unit
Other
First type in the question and select whether the options should appear horizontally or vertically. Select if the question is required and tick to make the question active (if applicable).
Click on ‘Insert’, this will take you back to the Custom Field screen. You then need to click on ‘Edit’ to
enter the radio button options.
You can now click on ‘Add option’ (see below). Enter the option needed, be sure to have considered all
relevant options to the question you are asking.
The ‘Value’ allows you to enter the value that appears in the export for the selected option. For example Stroke Unit might be SU.
It is very important to ensure that values for separate options are separate, clear and distinct. You may also want to follow a convention (eg three characters long).
Drop down list – If the values you want to be entered correspond with a set list, a dropdown menu may be appropriate. An example of the dropdown list is choosing the question type itself. Only set options are available. Such as Text/Radio button list etc. The menu on the right is an example of a drop down list on the webtool.
Once again you must not only choose the answer options that appear in the list but also the value that appears in the export.
Numeric – This option is for questions that should only have a numerical value. For example, weight, days, hours, milimeters etc. You can set the number of decimal places (maximum of 3) and also maximum and minimum values.
Date – This option is appropriate for asking about dates, times can also be entered by asked as separate questions. A date box will appear but they can also be entered manually in the following format dd/mm/yyyy
Time – Times can be used for specific timings. They also have a time box slider that appears but can be entered manually in 24 hour clock as such ‘23:00’.
Check Box – Each question input on the custom fields section represents a column in the export. For this reason each check box represents a column and all options must be entered separately. This will then appear as a “TRUE” or “FALSE” depending if the box is ticked or un-ticked.
Do not use this function if you only need one option selected, if you have a Yes/No question please either use a dropdown menu or radio buttons. It will be much easier to analyse!
All custom fields will appear in section 9 of the audit proforma on the webtool.