Results Cover Letters

athenaClinicals

This page allows you to assign custom lab result cover letters to departments in your practice.

 

Any department that does not have a result cover letter assigned to it uses the default form specified for "All" departments.

 

On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Forms and Letters, click Results Cover Letters

 

 

  1. Display the Results Cover Letters page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Forms and Letters, click Results Cover Letters.
  2. Click Add new.
    Additional fields appear.
  3. Departments — Click Selected to display the list of departments in your practice.
  4. Select the departments that should use the custom cover letter.
  5. Clinical Paper Form — Select the custom cover letter from the menu.
  6. Click Save. The department and cover letter name appear in the list of Existing Results Cover Letters.

 

 

athenaOne provides a clinical paper form, called the Results Cover Letter, as the default cover letter when you print lab results for mailing.

 

Whenever you print normal lab results, this cover letter also prints automatically. The cover letter includes information contained in the Patient note field.

 

 

The Results Cover Letter form includes the patient address information, so you can configure the form to work with window envelopes. The size of your practice letterhead determines how the address information should be positioned on the form, so you may need to adjust the form for your practice.

 

 

 

You can create custom cover letters using the Clinical Paper Forms page and then assign them to specific departments using the Results Cover Letters page. Any department that does not have a specific custom result cover letter assigned to it uses the default Results Cover Letter form, which is specified for "All" departments.

 

After you assign a custom cover letter to a department using the Results Cover Letters page, the custom cover letter is printed in place of the default Results Cover Letter when you print lab results from that department.

 

The Existing Results Cover Letters list on the Results Cover Letters page shows the departments that are configured to use a specific results cover letter, other than the default cover letter. If a department does not appear in this list, it means that the department uses the default form (the Results Cover Letter on the Clinical Paper Forms page).

 

 

 

Abnormal lab results cannot be submitted by mail due to the time lag for postal mail. athenahealth recommends that your practice use our athenaCommunicator ResultsCall service, or rely on phone calls from the staff or provider, to notify patients of abnormal results.

 

 

 

Provider workflow

  1. When athenaOne receives a lab result, it is assigned to the appropriate provider's Clinical Inbox.
  2. After reviewing the lab result and determining that it is normal, the provider adds the desired patient note or selects a note template.
  3. The provider then selects "Notify Normal — By Mail" in the document actions at the bottom of the page.
  4. The lab result is assigned NOTIFY status and is usually assigned to practice staff (depending on the practice's task assignment overrides).

Staff workflow

  1. From the Clinical Inbox, the staff member clicks the linked number under the Lab / Imaging column.
  2. In the list of tasks, the staff member clicks the lab result in NOTIFY status.
  3. The staff member clicks the print link at the top right, on the same line as the document title, to print the cover letter and lab result.
    Note: Only the print link at the top right will print the cover letter.

In the consolidated view, click the print all link at the top right, on the same line as the document title.

  1. The staff member then places the letter in a window envelope for mailing.