User Guide — Visit Overview (all roles)

This workflow provides your practice with several important capabilities:

Visibility into patient status, location, and stage of encounter throughout the workflow
Efficient hand-offs between front desk staff, clinical staff, and providers
Behind-the-scenes measurement of data
Common workflow and consistent athenaOne user interface across the five patient workflow stages:

Check-in
Intake (athenaClinicals)
Exam (athenaClinicals)
Sign-off (athenaClinicals)
Checkout

Patient Encounter Stage 1 — Patient check-in

The 5-Stage patient encounter workflow starts when you click a patient name in the Today's Appointments worklist or in the appointment schedule on the non-clinician home page. The Appointment page appears with the basic appointment information in read-only format and a link to Cancel or Reschedule Appointment. The Appointment page functions as the starting point for the 5-stage patient encounter.

Click Start Check-in to begin the check-in process.

On the Check-in page, click the appropriate link under "Insurances": click Update this policy or add new to access the Add/Update Policy Details page or the Add Policy page.
Ask for the patient's insurance card and click the add new link or the Update this policy link at the bottom of the Quickview page (under "Insurances") to add or update the patient's insurance information in the Policy Details page.
On the Check-in page, you can collect the copay and any other payment the patient owes. (athenaOne prompts you to open a time-of-service payment batch if this is your first payment of the day.)

At check-in time you can also:

Edit the appointment information
Confirm or edit the insurance information
Change or add patient demographic information

Click Done with Check-in to complete the patient check-in process and move on to the next stage in the 5-stage patient encounter.

Patient Encounter Stages 2, 3, and 4

If your practice uses athenaClinicals, the patient encounter workflow includes the Intake, Exam, and Sign-off stages of the 5-stage patient encounter. You can customize your encounter forms and map them to appointment types and to the stages of the encounter.

Patient Encounter Stage 5 — Patient checkout

Checkout is the 5th and final stage of the 5-stage patient encounter.

When you click the Checkout stage link, the Checkout page appears. You can also display the Checkout page by clicking a linked patient name (status 2) in the Today's Appointments worklist or in the appointment schedule on the non-clinician home page, or by clicking an appointment link in status 2 from the patient Quickview.

The best practice is to complete all checkout stage actions before the patient leaves the office.

Checkout stage for athenaCollector only

In the Checkout stage, the patient encounter header shows that Check-in has been completed and that the current state of the encounter is Ready for Staff.

The Initial view of the Checkout page has two tabs: Patient and Claim: Charge Entry.

The Patient tab allows you to perform checkout tasks such as follow-up appointment scheduling, creating referrals, creating chart checks, and printing receipts.

The contents of the Patient tab vary with the appointment. Only headings with information, input fields, and links relevant to a given appointment appear on the Patient tab, but the list of possible headings includes:

Appointment Notes
Scheduling
Miscellaneous
OB Episode
Orders
Portal Access
Letters
Print Forms
Charge Entry
Collect Patient Payment
Receipt

Use the Charge Entry tab to enter charges and create the claim.

Checkout stage for athenaClinicals only

The patient encounter header shows that Check-in, Intake, Exam, and Sign-off have been completed, and that the current state of the encounter is Ready for Checkout.

The Initial view of the Checkout page has two tabs: Patient and Claim: Billing.

The Patient tab allows you to perform checkout tasks such as follow-up appointment scheduling, creating referrals, creating chart checks, and printing receipts.

The contents of the Patient tab vary with the appointment. Only headings with information, input fields, and links relevant to a given appointment appear on the Patient tab, but the list of possible headings includes:

Appointment Notes
Scheduling
Miscellaneous
OB Episode
Orders
Portal Access
Letters
Print Forms
Charge Entry
Collect Patient Payment
Receipt

Use the Billing tab to review the billing information.

If an unscheduled patient arrives needing care

For a new patient — Display the Patient Registration page: On the Main Menu, click Patients. Under PATIENT REGISTRATION, click New Patient Registration. Enter the essential information, including the patient insurance, if available. After you save the registration, the Quickview page appears. On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Create Walk-in Appointment to display the Schedule Appointment page.

For an existing patient — Locate the patient's Quickview page using the Find patient tool, located at the far right on the Main Menu. On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Create Walk-in Appointment to display the Schedule Appointment page.