User Guide — Encounter Preparation (Intake and Exam Prep)

athenaClinicals

You can start preparing documentation, diagnoses, orders, and point-of-care tests for an encounter before the patient checks in.

Note: The encounter preparation feature does not work for departments that have the Appointment Workflow Bypass enabled or for appointments assigned to non-person providers.

 

You can access the encounter preparation workflow by selecting a future appointment and then clicking Go to Intake Prep or Go to Exam Prep, located in the green action menu on any patient briefing.

  • You see the Go to Prep options only when you access the patient briefing from the Clinician home page and the appointment is assigned to a provider with a specialty.
  • You can begin encounter preparation as soon as an appointment is booked.

Having trouble accessing this workflow?

See Troubleshooting: Cannot access encounter preparation for some appointments.

 

 

  1. In the schedule on the clinician home page, click a future appointment.
  2. Click Go to Intake Prep or Go to Exam Prep.
  3. Document as you would in an encounter.
    Note: You cannot sign orders, enter vitals and measurements, or close the encounter. See Actions unavailable in encounter prep mode for more information.
  4. In the Prep Note section (found in the Reason for Visit section), enter any notes or reminders to yourself and other clinical staff.
  5. Click Done with Intake Prep or Done with Prep.
  6. Modify the documentation as needed during the encounter.
    When the encounter begins, the data converts to active encounter documentation and can be modified as needed during the encounter.
  7. After an encounter has been prepared, you will see the appointment marked PREPPED in the schedule.

    Hover your cursor over PREPPED to see who last prepared documentation and when.

 

Important: If the appointment is moved or cancelled without being rescheduled, the prepped documentation is deleted. If the appointment is rescheduled, the prepped documentation moves to the rescheduled appointment.

 

 

 

While entering encounter preparation information, you can add notes, reminders, and instructions in the Prep Notes section for yourself and other clinical staff to see during the encounter. You can continue to add and edit notes up until the Intake stage is complete. This section appears in the Review step of an Exam and in the Reason for Visit item of the Intake checklist.

 

 

 

 

These actions can only be completed during the encounter:

 

 

  1. From the Clinician home page, go to the schedule.
  2. Click a future appointment.
    athenaOne opens the patient briefing.
  3. Click Go to Intake Prep.
    The intake checklist appears, and the patient banner indicates that you are working in Intake Prep mode.

  4. Document sections as you would during an encounter.
    Note: The checkmarks next to the Intake checklist items do not appear in Intake Prep mode. athenaOne marks items in this checklist as reviewed only during the encounter.
  5. Enter any notes and reminders in the following fields in the Prep Note section (located in the Reason for Visit item of the Intake checklist). Both Intake and Exam notes are visible during the Intake and Exam stages of the encounter.
    Note: Any notes that you add in this section are visible only to your practice. The notes are not included in the audit history or in Chart Export. 
    • Intake — Enter notes, instructions, and reminders for the person performing intake.
      Note: After you mark the Intake stage as Done, you cannot edit these notes or add additional notes in this field.
    • Exam — Enter notes and reminders for the person performing the exam.
      Note: After you mark the Intake stage as Done, you cannot edit these notes or add additional notes in this field.
  6. Click Done with Intake Prep.
    Note: When the Intake stage of the encounter begins, the data is converted to active encounter documentation and can be modified as needed during the encounter.

 

  1. From the Clinician home page, go to the schedule.
  2. Click a future appointment.
    athenaOne opens the patient briefing.
  3. Click Go to Exam Prep.
    The stages of an encounter appear in the patient banner, and the patient banner indicates that you are working in Intake Prep mode.

  4. Document sections as you would during an encounter.
    Exception: You cannot sign orders or close the encounter.
  5. Enter any notes and reminders in the following fields in the Prep Note section (located in the Review step of the Exam). Both Intake and Exam notes are visible during the Intake and Exam stages of the encounter.
    Note: Any notes that you add in this section are visible only to your practice. The notes are not included in the audit history or Chart Export
    • Intake — Enter notes, instructions, and reminders for the person performing intake.
      Note: After you mark the Intake stage as Done, you cannot edit these notes or add additional notes in this field.
    • Exam — Enter notes and reminders for the person performing the exam.
      Note: After you mark the Intake stage as Done, you cannot edit these notes or add additional notes in this field.
  6. Click Done with Prep.
    Note: When the Exam stage of the encounter begins, the data is converted to active encounter documentation and can be modified as needed during the encounter.

 

 

Before cancelling or moving an appointment, do the following to prevent losing any documentation that the provider has prepared for the appointment:

  1. From the Clinician home page, go to the schedule.

  2. Check if the appointment is marked PREPPED.

  3. If the PREPPED flag does not appear, you can cancel, reschedule, or move the appointment as needed.
  4. If the PREPPED flag appears, try to reschedule the appointment.
    Important: If the appointment is moved or cancelled without being rescheduled, the prepped documentation is deleted. If the appointment is rescheduled, the prepped documentation moves to the rescheduled appointment.

 

 

 

 

Yes, Exam Prep is available until the Exam stage begins.

 

 

 

Yes, you can add to or edit the Intake and Exam notes while Intake is in progress; however, the person performing intake will only see the note if they refresh the page and are on the Reason for Visit checklist item. After the Intake stage is complete, you cannot edit these notes or add additional notes in these fields.

 

 

 

If the appointment is rescheduled, the documentation you have prepared moves to the rescheduled appointment. If the appointment is cancelled or moved, the documentation you have prepared will be lost.

 

 

 

Yes, adding a Reason for Visit triggers the same accelerators as it would during the Exam stage.

 

 

 

Yes, all workflow accelerators available during the Exam stage of an encounter are also available when working in Exam Prep mode, but they are not available in the Intake and Exam fields of the Prep Note section.

 

For more information, see User Guide – Speed Up Your Clinical Workflow with Accelerators.

 

 

 

If you go to another page before clicking Done with Intake Prep or Done with Prep, athenaOne saves your changes and indicates that the appointment has been prepped in the schedule on the Clinician home page. When you're ready to finish prepping this appointment, simply select the appointment and click Go to Intake Prep or Go to Exam Prep to continue your documentation work.

 

 

 

Yes, you can seamlessly switch between using Encounter Preparation in athenaOne app on your mobile device and in athenaOne on your desktop. This lets you prepare for encounters however it's convenient for you. If you begin preparing an encounter on your mobile device, you'll see that the appointment has been prepped when you view the schedule on your desktop. You can then resume using Exam Prep mode to finish prepping the appointment.

 

 

 

athenaOne alerts you when another user has made conflicting changes to the document that you are working in. When you click Save, the Multi-User Conflicts page appears. You determine the best version of the document to keep, and the document is updated accordingly.

 

 

Both User A and User B click the Orders/Rxs/Auths work queue of the clinical staff Inbox and notice that patient John Brown needs a renewal of his recent prescription.

  1. User A clicks John's order in the worklist to open it.
  2. User A clicks the prescription document # link to open the document view.
  3. User A updates the prescription document as follows:
    1. Medication to Renew — User A selects ranitidine 300 mg capsule.
    2. Sig — User A selects 1 capsule.
    3. Prescribed Qty — User A enters 5.
    4. User A clicks Save.
  4. User B opens John's prescription renewal order at the same time as User A and clicks the prescription document # link to open the document view.
  5. User B updates the prescription document as follows:
    1. Medication to Renew — User B selects ranitidine 300 mg capsule.
    2. Sig — User B selects 3 capsules.
    3. Prescribed Qty — User B enters 3.
  6. When User B clicks Save, the Multi-User Conflicts page appears.
    The Multi-User Conflicts page displays the prescription renewal that User A saved, as well as the prescription renewal that User B was in the process of saving. The differences in the renewals are highlighted.

  7. If User B determines that her version of the prescription renewal is valid, she clicks the Yours option. If User B decides to accept the prescription renewal made by User A, she clicks the Theirs option.
  8. User B clicks OK.

 

 

 

 

Cannot access encounter preparation for some appointments

You cannot access encounter preparation if:

  • Problem: Your department has the Appointment Workflow Bypass enabled.

    Reason: The encounter automatically enters the Checkout stage on the day of the appointment; therefore, the Intake and Exam stages are omitted from the encounter and thus unavailable for encounter preparation.

    Workaround: n/a

 

 

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