How to take a screenshot for PCIT support
If PCIT support has requested a screenshot of a problem, we need an image of the affected area of the screen. Often this might be so our support technicians can see the alert or part of a template that is on your screen. Although the patient ID may subsequently be useful to the investigation, patient details on any provided screenshot are not necessary any may break confidentiality rules.
We recommend the following method for capturing parts of the screen:
- Press the combination of Windows key + Shift + S to launch the Windows Snipping Tool.
- The screen will turn grey and 4 options appear at the top.
The option on the left allows users to draw a rectangle of a selected part of the screen. Rectangle snip is the best option to crop the relevant part of an alert, popup, error message without including patient identifiable information. - Holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse from one corner of the area to the diagonally opposite corner, then release the mouse button.
- Having captured the area, a Snipping Tool popup will appear in the lower right corner of the screen. Click on this to see a preview of the captured image.
For capturing red box alerts, we would also like to see the text that appears when the mouse hovers over the alert. Only press Windows key + Shift + S once this alert is shown on the screen.
If capturing some patient identifiable information is unavoidable, it is possible to draw over the screenshot. When viewing the captured image in Snipping tool, holding the left mouse button down makes it possible to 'draw' over any patient identifiable information. There are tool options at the bottom to change the colour or thickness of the line. See example below where Mickey Mouse's name has been covered by red lines. To minimise the amount of patient name showing, position the mouse over the alert icon (eg: red circle / yellow triangle) as the tooltip aligns itself directly above the mouse position.
Once you are happy, press Ctrl+C and then go back to your email message to PCIT support and press paste (Ctrl+V).
Saved screenshots are saved on your Windows profile under \%username%\Pictures\Screenshots\. We recommend you delete any images containing patient identifiable information (since they don't save with the annotations) after they are no longer needed. Your organisation's policy may already require you to do this.
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