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Diabetes Educators Calgary Charting Guidelines

Clerical

Clerical Processes

To quickly search for a word, hold ctrl+f, then type your word and hit enter. Or scroll through and read all the headings below.

To contact booking clerical as a group:

  • EndoMetab.Booking@albertahealthservices.ca
  • CGY RRDTC DIABETES EDUCATOR SCHEDULING
  • CGY RRDTC ENDOCRINOLOGY SCHEDULING

Appointment Details

To find the details about who booked an appointment, when it was done, and if there were changes made:

  • Find the appointment in the patient’s appointment desk
  • Double click on the appointment to open the details

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Booking an Intake Appointment (SMG only - pilot)

For SMG, new non-urgent diabetes educator appointments booked for Aug 1 and beyond, will be scheduled for a 45 minute Intake appointment, with either

  • Irina Ciornei, or
  • Chris Lineker, or
  • Stacie Johnson

as part of a 6 month pilot. Search for the visit type “Virtual – New 30”. Please indicate “Intake” in the appointment notes. Search for available times by using only the 3 educators listed: Irina, Chris and Stacie. You will need to modify the appointment length to 45 minutes.

 

Following the Intake appointment, the Intake educator will schedule a 60 minute appointment with the nurse and 60 minutes with the dietitian.

Booking Assessments

  • Find appts for the full program e.g.
    • CGY SMG Endocrinology DIP   -or-
    • CGY SMG Diabetes Educators  -or-
    • CGY RRDTC Diabetes Educators  -or-
    • etc
  • Specify the visit type desired and the department
  • Choose the earliest date you want
  • Click "Auto Search"
  • The first available option will show. If not appropriate, check the box "Multiple Solutions", and if necessary, keep clicking "next" on the bottom of that screen until you find an acceptable one. 

Change Appointment Details

Examples of details you may want to change: change department or change visit type to virtual

  • In the top red toolbar, click on the appointment desk icon     
  • Find, select and click the patient name (it should be defaulted, if the appt was highlighted in the first place)
  • The Appt Tab opens
  • Highlight the correct appt 
  • At the bottom, click “Change Appt” 
  • Update the details as required.
  • Choose a change reason, e.g. Error
  • Accept, and click buttons per usual when booking an appt

External (Outgoing) Referrals

External referrals are those that are sent to a service that is not using Connect Care, e.g. ophthalmology. When a provider sends an external referral, it goes by fax, and the record goes to WQ 5. For details, please see this Quick Start Guide for Outgoing Referrals.

Clerical staff attaches notifications (i.e. receipt of referral, appointment booked, etc) from the "referred to" service to the record in WQ 5, and informs the referrer. To summarize the process of informing the referrer:

  • Locate the referral in WQ 5.
  • Click In Basket Msg on the Referral activity toolbar.
  • Select the Referred by Provider speed button to fill the appropriate provider in the To field
  • Enter an appropriate subject and message (e.g. referral receipt notification)
  • Click Send

The provider will receive an In Basket message in the Referral Message folder, with a link to the referral and attached notifications.

Follow-up Requests

  • Please instruct MDs to use one of these methods to enter requests for clerical to book a follow up (Clerical staff do not have the option to enter verbal, email or inBasket requests for patient appointments into the FU workqueue):
    1. On the Wrap up tab > Enter Follow Up elements during an encounter
    2. If after the fact, make an addendum via Chart Review > Encounter > (right click on the visit and choose Addend) 
    3. Or from inBasket  See detailed instructions here. From above the patient lab results in inBasket choose > More > New Enc > Orders Only > (under orders tab) Disp & CC.
    4. Or if no contact, use: Create New Encounter > Orders Only > Orders tab …Disp & CC. (similar instructions to option above)

MD Follow ups - Add referring MD

When scheduling follow up appointments for physicians, the referring doctor needs to be entered every time. The field is found in "Appt Details" when scheduling the appointment (see screenshot below).

Appointment Details

Miscellaneous

Printing Labels

  • Open patient Appointment Desk 
  • At the top right, choose Printing > Print Forms (leave it defaulted to what is there)
  • Click Accept 
  • Print forms screen appears. Choose what is needed (checkbox on left) e.g. AHS pt label or AHS ADT Mailing
  • Click 'Print All Selected'

Referral Entered in CC, To be Booked in eScheduler

  1. The CAT Nurse triages the referral and indicates that the patient will be seen at a non-CC site. For details see this page.
  2. Booking staff
    1. Checks the CAT shared drive > 5. CONNECT CARE REDIRECT TO ESCHEDULER folder for referrals that need to be transferred to e-scheduler
    2. Creates a waitlist
    3. Adds a sticky note/comment saying that “this is referral has been added to e-scheduler”
    4. Moves referral to e.g. 3. CAT 2022 JULY-DECEMEBER [appropriate data range] and creates a patient folder as per usual

Send a Chart Note for a Clinician

Clinicians should be sending their own chart notes from within the chart. If, occasionally, you you are asked to send a note for a clinician:

  • If you are in InBasket working through a request, click the patient name, at the top of the details, click Review Chart. 
  • When chart opens, click Chart Review > Notes. 
  • Click once on the note to be sent. 
  • Click "Route" above. 
  • Search for the clinician to route it to (or add in details manually if required). If a CC user, route via inBasket. If not, route via fax. 
  • Be sure to note "done" for the item in your inbasket. Refresh. It will disappear from the inBasket list. 
  • If you want to verify the note was sent, visit InBasket > Sent (or Completed). 

Smart Phrases (Clerical)

The first time that you use a specific Smart Phrase, add it to your list of available phrases:

  • Go to 'Smart Phrase Manager' > 'SmartPhrase Lookup' (find SmartPhrase manager by using search tool top right of Epic green bar)
  • Uncheck the box 'Search Only Phrases I Can Use First' at the bottom of the search screen
  • Search for the phrase you want to add (see the table below). Select the phrase, then click Accept.
  • In the Sharing area, click 'Add Me'

To use a Smart Phrase, type .DCCC____, e.g. ".DCCCClericalRefStatUpdate". Note that as you start typing, options will pop up, and you can double-click the one that you want.

Smart Phrase List

NameDescription
DCCCClericalRefStatUpdateTo send referral status update - use with Blank Letter Template .
DCCCUnableContactPtLetter to the patient when unable to book assessment.

Unable to Contact Patient for Assessment Appointment

  • From the workqueue 3, click EDIT triage 
  • Click Reject
  • Reject Reason: Pick from drop down menu e.g. Unable to contact patient
  • In the free text box , please write your communication with doctor  – what you want to say. e.g "Attempted to reach 3 times for assessment; we are declining this referral. Please re-refer if the patient becomes available."
  • Referral will automatically go to WQ # 4  
  • Go to WQ #4 and Under 'Notification' review the letter :
    • Edit if necessary  (The text you wrote in step 4 will be in the letter)
  • Check Recipients 
  • Finalize

Visit Types (VT)

IMPORTANT: Unless a visit type is VIRTUAL, the system will send reminder calls for patients to attend in person.

  • Virtual VTs include both telephone and Zoom appointments. 
  • Appointment notes specify whether the appointment is telephone or Zoom.

See below for a list of Endo Metab visit types (VTs) used, indications for when to use each one, and the default length. Note that not all visit types are available in every department - e.g. MDs will do a 30 minute appointment for a new patient in DIP, but we don't use that VT for new patients with a diabetes educator.

Visit Types