4. Adding New Patients and Accounts
4.1. Introduction
Before patients can be scheduled or procedures can be posted, you need to add the patients and their family account(s) to Partner. This section will guide you through a basic procedure for adding a new patient and a family account. The procedure is simple: try to find the patient, check the new patient list in case they were added earlier today, add the patient, and then add the family if they are new to your practice. Read below to learn the details of each step.
When do you add patients? You might need to add a patient when you try to schedule them and find they are not in your system. Or perhaps you are posting hospital charges for a newborn and know that "Babyboy Smith" has not yet been added to Partner. Whatever job you are performing, you will start by trying to find a patient.
4.2. Add a Patient, then Add the Account
Attempt to Find the Patient
Before you can add a patient, you must make certain that the patient is not already in the Partner system. You may already be searching for the patient in checkin, sam, or some other program. If not, run notjane and enter the first few letters of the patient's name. If the patient has already visited your office, they should be in the system.
Check the New List
If the patient was added to the system earlier today, they will be listed on the "New List." Press [F1 -- Check New List] from the search results screen if you can't find the patient:
Press [F1 -- Create Patient]
If the patient does not appear on the New List, and you are satisfied that you searched by the patient's real name, press F1 to begin creating a new patient.
Fill Out Basic Patient Information
Fill in each field, pressing Enter or Tab to move from field to field.
In the "Born" field, you can type the birthdate in many different formats; "082401" will be translated into August 24th, 2001. The "Physician," "Status," and "Referring Physician" fields are look-up fields. In a look-up field, you can use an abbreviation or enter an asterisk (*) to view a list of possible entries.
Follow Your Office's Standards Some medical practices do not assign a primary care physician. Some practices have rules for how to record a patient's full name. Other practices assign certain Status Flags for new patients. You should follow the standards that your practice uses when entering data.
Fill In the Four Custom Boxes
The four boxes below the patient's basic information are customizable. Your office may use them for a special purpose.
Press [F7 -- New Cust Account] to Assign an Account
You must tell Partner who the custodian and guarantor accounts are for this patient. The patient's family account may already exists in Partner, or you may need to create a new family account. In either case, press [F7 -- New Cust Account] to start the process.
Find Existing Account or Add a New Account
Enter the name of the family with which your new patient lives.
If the family already exists in Partner, you will be brought back to the notjane screen and the account you selected will be listed under the "Patient Lives With" and "Send Bill To" sections. If you can not find the account and you need to add it to Partner, press [F1 -- Check New List].
Then, if the account is not on the New List, press [F1 -- Create New Account] just as you did for the patient in the steps above.
Fill Out Account Information
If you are adding a new account to Partner, fill out the family name and basic information.
When you are finished adding account basics, press [F1 -- Save] to save the new account and assign it to your new patient.
Review Custodian and Guarantor, Change if Necessary
After selecting or saving the patient's custodian account, you will return to the notjane screen. You will see your chosen family assigned as both the Custodian and Guarantor account.
If necessary, you can now select a different family as the guarantor account by pressing [F8 -- New Bill Account]. At any time, now or in the future, you can press [F7 -- New Cust Account] to change the patient's custodian family.
Add Other Information
Press Page Down to view the other pages of the notjane program. For example, you can add major diagnoses and allergies as well as any important notes about the patient. You can also press [F2 -- Imms] to enter the patient's immunization history.
Press [F1 -- Save]
Once you are finished entering patient information, press F1 to save and quit. You are now ready to schedule the patient, post charges, or perform other functions.
| Two Methods |
|---|---|
As shown above, you can add a patient and Partner will guide you through adding or selecting the patient's gurantor and custodian accounts as you create the patient. However, if you are entering a whole family that has never before visited your Practice, you may find it faster to add the family account first and add patients during that process. |