Creating or editing encounter templates

🎞️ View video tutorial: Creating encounter templates

If you routinely see the same condition and create similar encounter notes, you can use an encounter template to pre-populate the repetitive information. Encounter templates can also be used to ensure that encounter notes are uniform between providers.

Encounter templates can be configured to automatically populate a new encounter when a set presenting issue is used on the appointment. See Using encounter templates.

📌 Note: You must start the encounter from the appointment (see Starting an encounter).

Encounter templates can be configured to populate information from:

Default text.
The patient's chart, provider and location information (see Adding data variables to letter, message and encounter templates).
The patient's pronouns (see Adding data variables to letter, message and encounter templates).
Text and date prompts (see Adding instant variables to encounter templates).
Configured single and multi select lists (see Adding instant variables to encounter templates).
Configured Diagnostic codes, Billing items, Prescriptions, Forms and Qnaires.

📌 Note: The content added to the template can be edited or removed prior to signing the encounter. See Using encounter templates.

💡 Tip: You can also apply billing templates to an encounter in addition to any other templates already applied to the encounter.

⚠️ Important: To prevent losing your work, be sure to save your work regularly while building your encounter template. If you have a short timeout duration, we also suggest you change your timeout setting to eight hours while building your templates and then switch it back to something more reasonable when you're done. See Setting your personal timeout duration.

Steps

1. From the main menu, select Settings > Templates > Encounter, and the encounter section opens.

2. Under Default Diagnosis Template, make sure that the diagnosis standard for your account is correct (see Setting the default diagnostic template for your account).

3. To add a new encounter template, click Add Template, or to modify an existing template, select it from the list of encounter templates. The New Encounter Template or Edit Encounter Template window appears.

💡 Tip: If you want to update an existing template, to prevent breaking the original template, you can duplicate it and delete the original once you’ve finished (see Duplicating encounter templates).

4. From the General Tab, type your encounter template’s name in the Template Name field.

💡 Tip: When selecting a template to use, this is what the provider will see.

5. To link the template with presenting issues, click +Attach Presenting Issue. A window appears with all your presenting issues.

6. Search and select a presenting issue you want to associate your template with.

📌 Notes:

To create a new presenting issue, click + New Presenting Issue. For more information, see Creating presenting issues.
To attach another presenting issue, click +Attach Presenting Issue again and follow the same steps.

7. Click the Encounter Sections tab, and a new tab opens showing all the encounter sections.

8. By default all the sections are minimized. Click on a section title to expand it.

📌 Note: Click the section title again to fold it.

9. Use the following table to create the content of your encounter template.

Section	Description
Qnaires	Attach a Qnaire to be completed with a patient during the visit. Click +Add Qnaire. From the list of Qnaires, select a Qnaire you want to add. 💡 Tips: To add another Qnaire click +Add Qnaire again. To delete a Qnaire, click the trash can icon next to it.
History and Examination	Type any free text you would like to populate in the History or Examination sections. If required, add Instant Variables, they can be configured to insert: Single and multi select lists Text and date prompts For more information, see Adding instant variables to encounter templates. If required, add Data Variables. They can be configured to pre-populate patient, location or provider information. For more information, see Adding data variables to letter, message and encounter templates. 💡 Tips: To add a link to a website, type the URL and press Enter. To add an image, you must be using a Windows computer: Open your image. Take a screenshot of your image. Right-click the screenshot and copy it. Right-click the area in your template where you want to add your image, and select Paste. Format your text with the formatting tools: Bold, italics, strike-through, underline. Tables. Text indents and text alignment. Bullet points. 💡 Tip: To stop the bullet points, click the bullet icon again.
Assessment	The Assessment section acts the same as the History and Examination sections (see above). You also have the ability to include a diagnosis. Click Add Diagnosis. In the search field, search and select your code. To delete a code, click the red X. These diagnosis codes can automatically be added to billing or the patient's Medical History.
Prescriptions	Create a default prescription. Click +Add Prescription. The Prescription Dialog window appears. Using either +Add Medication or my favorites, and create the prescription as you normally would. For more information, see Creating prescriptions. Click Save. To delete a prescription, click the trash can icon next to it.
Forms	Include any required forms. Forms are added to the Attachments section of the encounter. Click +Add Form. From the list of forms, search and select a form. 💡 Tips: To add another form click +Add Form again. To delete a form, click the trash can icon next to it.
Billing	If you use the same billing codes for certain appointments and/or presenting issues, you can add them to your encounter templates, saving you time. For example, for a well-baby visit, you could add the assessment and immunization codes. To add a private bill: 1. Click +Add Private, the New Bill window appears. 2. Complete all required fields. For more information, see Creating a private bill. To add a provincial (insured) or third party bill: 1. Click +Add Insured. The Edit Billing Item window appears. 2. Complete all required fields. For more information, see our province specific help articles: Third Party PEI Ontario British Columbia Alberta TELUS Health eClaims (Ontario) 📌 Note: You can only add billing codes from your Default Billing Item Template. To change this, navigate to Settings > Billing.
Follow Up Qnaires	Include follow up Qnaires that are automatically sent to the patient at a set time after the encounter is signed. To schedule Qnaires: Click +Add Follow Up, and a New Scheduled Qnaire window appears. Complete the required fields. For more information, see Creating scheduled or follow-up Qnaires. Click Save.

10. When you are finished adding all the required content to your encounter template, click Save.

11. Refresh your browser; your template is now ready to use. For more information, see Using encounter templates.

Updated September 7, 2023