Forms facilitating primary care documentation

Documentation is a time-consuming but vital component of patient care. As health care providers function under increasing time constraints, well-designed forms can help simplify and improve the documentation process. Patient record forms can help clinicians identify essential points of the history and physical examination and can provide anticipatory guidance. One classification system frequently used by primary care providers is the evaluation and management (E/M) code system. E/M codes are a subset of the Current Procedural Terminology codes developed by the American Medical Association to standardize the terminology used to describe medical and surgical services. This article presents one documentation system that primary care providers may find effective in their documentation efforts.