On occasions you may need to send a quick screenshot of the patient record or a template or report to our Support Team or another organisation. One of the considerations when creating a screenshot is to ensure that any Patient Identifiable Data (PID) is not included. Some practice staff are not fully aware of how to safely achieve this. Most people are aware of the 'PrtScn' button on most keyboards but the risk is that when you use this it copies the whole screen (or multiple screens) which can still include any Patient Identifiable Data or other sensitive information.
When you use the 'PrtScn' function on the keyboard and add this to an email for example on the 'Picture Format' ribbon there is a 'Crop' option.
Once you have selected the area to crop clicking on the 'Crop' option again appears to remove the rest of the screen shot. However clicking on the crop function again allows the recipient to expand the cropped area to the full size screenshot and potentially see whatever else you had open on your desktop such as patient identifiable information. Because of the risk involved with a screen shot we recommend that you use the 'Snipping Tool'.
The 'Snipping Tool' is a useful tool included with Windows 7 or 10.
Windows 7
In the search box bottom left of the task bar start typing snipping and you will very quickly find it.
And this is how it looks when opened.
Windows 10
In the search box bottom left of the task bar start typing snipping and you will very quickly find it.
And this is how it looks when opened.
In either version of Windows to take a screen shot you click on 'New' and the first thing you will notice is that the screen goes opaque. Using the mouse, select with the mouse button and drag across the area that you want to copy. If you are not happy with the outcome you can click on 'New' and try again. Once you have your screenshot you can either right click and copy it into an email or a document or you can 'Save As' or click 'File and 'Save As'.
