Release Notes: 20th March 2018 (iteration 316)

 

New features, existing feature enhancements, and bug fixes are included in the product update released 20^th March 2018. The new features in this release include the ability to turn a patient note into an alert and the ability to skip forward quickly through the Calendar. The Quick Exam and Imaging modules have all received enhancements.

Patient Information

Enhanced Patient Notes with Alerts

Patient Notes have been modified in two major ways.

1. Instead of just one large note area, you may now add as many notes as your wish. This allows you to keep a history of past notes entered. Multiple notes will be sorted by date, with the most recent at the top of the stack. Each note can have a maximum of 5000 characters, which is hundreds of words.

 

2. You may turn a note into an alert by assigning it a Notification Page. On the right hand side of the note you will find the Notification Pages options. You can select an entire category like “Financial” or you can open the drop down menu and target a specific page for the note.

 

When you visit a notification page, you will see the note as an alert in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. The format is the same as for appointment notifications.

 

Some other things to know about patient notes as alerts

• After a notification appears on the screen, it does not disappear when you navigate away from the page. It “sticks” so you can see your notes without losing your workflow. The note stays visible until you dismiss it.
• If more than one note is assigned to the same page, when you go to that page, all the assigned notes will appear. The newest note appears at the top of the stack.
• To remove a note from a stack of notes, click the X. The note will stay hidden for the remainder of this session; it will reappear the next time you log in.
• If you intend to show your screen to the patient, you can temporarily hide the notes. Just click the minimize button before you share your screen. When you’re ready to see the notes again, click the maximize button.
• Patient notifications share screen real estate with appointment notifications. When both are present, appointment notifications appear beneath the patient notifications; when they are minimized, they appear side by side.
• When you are done reading the notifications for this patient, you can close the entire stack. When you do, no alert messages will appear for the remainder of this session.

The key to effectively using patient notifications is to set them up to appear only where they are relevant and necessary. To turn an alert back into a regular note, just remove the checks from the Notification Pages area. 

Calendar

Schedule Quick Advance

The Calendar has been enhanced to will let you move more easily to future dates. At the top of the calendar are new buttons:

 

1. The Today, Day Forward and Day Back buttons, along with the pick calendar (the dropdown), have been moved to the left and center of the Calendar.
2. The date you are currently viewing has moved to the line below the buttons.
3. The 1 w button moves you forward one week. Click twice to move two weeks, etc.
4. The 1 m button moves you forward one month. This is a calendar month rather than 28 or 30 days, so if today is the twelfth and you move forward a month, you are on the twelfth again. Click three times to jump forward three months, etc.
5. The 6 m button moves you forward six months. Click twice to go out one year.

Show Only Business Days

A new view option has been added. In the Calendar click the View dropdown. There is a switcher called

Show only business days.

When you turn this option on, two things happen.

1. The Calendar will no longer display days which are not part of your location hours, as configured in Settings Location Hours. This switcher setting is specific to the computer, not the user.
2. When you quick advance using the 1 m or the 6 m buttons and the calendar date falls on a date you are closed, the Calendar will actually go to the next business day after that.

  

Clinical

Image Peek and Image Age

Image Peek and Image Age functionalities have been added to the Quick Exam tab (previously this was available only in the Chart). The Image Peek button becomes active when you select a tooth with an related image. The Image Age shaded buttons and accompanying legend behave just as they do in the Chart. Note that the button appears as a tooth icon for small resolution screens.

  

Reporting

Provider A/R Totals

You will find a new report found under the Home menu called Provider A/R Totals. This report shows how effective your collection efforts are. From this report, you can view total accounts receivable, total production, total collections, and a ratio of collections to production. You should run this report and review it with your staff at least once a month, although some consultants suggest running this report weekly, or even daily.

This report includes providers with no transactions or a zero balance in the date range, as long as they have a beginning balance. This report has replaced the Provider Account Receivables report that was previously located in the Power Reporting module.

Day Sheet Report

The Day Sheet Report (under the Home menu) has been enhanced to allow you to select multiple providers before running the report. Select the providers by dropdown or by typing the name. The report now sorts alphabetically by provider last name. The Day Sheet General report has been removed from the Power Reporting module.

  

Imaging

You can now place the entire template (for example an 18-shot FMX) in the larger viewing area so it becomes easier to see the relationship among the individual images. In the upper right corner is a new button to make the view switch. This builds a single, high-resolution image preview, which means you can pan and zoom within the viewing area. This update also supports integration with the Sopro SOPIX Sensor and Sopro PSPIX Scanner for OSX.