Timer

The MCMP-PAT has a timer that can be used to monitor the amount of time spent abstracting information for each patient. The label to the right of the timer button indicates the total number of hours, minutes and seconds the user has spent on that patient. The timer button (item #12 in parts of the main form) enables the user to manually start and stop the timer. This is useful if the user wants to add abstraction time to the total time spent on a patient but there are no pending changes to be saved.

The timer is turned on when:

The user makes changes to the patient's information (e.g. changing a value in a drop down list or text box).
The user clicks on the timer button while the timer is off.

When the timer is on:

The timer icon color is green.
The Patient List (item #10 in parts of the main form) will become unavailable. Users won't be able to select another patient.
The Patient Sort List (item #11 in parts of the main form) will become unavailable. Users won't be able to change the sorting order of the patients.
The Save and Cancel buttons and menu items will become available.
Most menu items will become unavailable.

The timer is turned off when:

The user saves the changes.
The user cancels the changes.
The user clicks on the timer button while the timer is on.

When the timer is off:

The timer icon color is red.
The Patient List will become available.
The Patient Sort List will become available.
The Save and Cancel buttons and menu items will become unavailable.
Most menu items will become available.

The timer will continue to run even if other forms or windows are being shown. For example, if the user started the timer and brought up the Log Viewer window, the timer will still continue to run.

The timer is disabled when the user that is currently logged on has been assigned a read-only security level. A user with a read-only security level is prevented from changing any patient information. Since the timer updates the patient's total time, this is made unavailable to such user.

The total time spent on each patient is updated when the user clicks on Save or Cancel after making the initial changes and also by clicking on the timer again to stop it. If the user tries to close the application and the changes were not saved, the user will be prompted to save or cancel the changes. Saving or discarding the changes at this point also stops the timer and updates the patient's total time. The total time is also automatically saved every 30 seconds. This is a precaution for situations where the user is not able to click on the Save or Cancel button and the application is terminated due to system error.

Modes
While in the main form of MCMP-PAT, the user may either be in Browse mode or Edit mode. Browse mode indicates that there are no pending changes to be saved. In this mode, the list of patients is enabled and the user may select a patient from the list. Edit mode indicates that changes were made and were not saved or discarded yet. The user automatically enters the Edit mode if the patient's information is changed. The timer behaves differently in each mode. When in Browse mode, the timer may be started and stopped anytime. The timer will be on until the patient's modified information is saved.

Timer Action	Browse Mode	Edit Mode
Started	The list of patients is disabled. The time on the selected patient starts to accumulate.	The timer is automatically started once the user enters the Edit mode by changing any patient information.
Stopped	The list of patients is enabled. The time spent on the selected patient is updated.	The timer continues to accumulate the time while in Edit mode and it is automatically stopped when the patient's information is saved or discarded.