When a patient calls, or walks in the door, or sits down with a coordinator, information is your best friend. So much information is available in the patient Overview page that many of the most common questions can be answered without having to look anywhere else.  Summary information about appointments, insurance, account balances, recare plans, treatment plans, and medical alerts are all presented on a single page. In addition, each screen element is a navigation device, which means getting more detail is only a click away.

To open the patient Overview page:

1. Locate the patient. From any page, start typing in the patient search bar. As you type, the list of possible matches narrows. Matches will be found in first, last and preferred names.

2. When you see the name you want, click it. The patient’s Overview page opens.

Some of the things you can do on this page include:

• Locating a patient’s appointments. You can locate a patient’s past, future, and recare appointments from this patient’s record. Then, if you need to, you can view any of those appointment on the schedule, or create a new appointment. Click the Appointments block for more information.
• Updating a patient’s insurance information. Head straight into the patient’s insurance information by clicking the Insurance block. From the Benefits button you can update the required and met deductibles and maximum and used benefits.
• Entering patient notes. You can view and enter notes into a patient’s record that are specific to that patient, such as to record notes regarding a conversation with that patient. This is also a great place to record personal information about the patient, for example about their family or hobbies.
• Adding patient pictures. Click on the patient’s picture or icon. You can add a picture to a patient’s record from an image file on your computer, or from your computer’s camera.
• Reviewing medical alerts. As needed, you can customize the medical alerts attached to patients. Click the Medical Alerts block to add an alert or to change the category, description, importance level, and/or status of an existing alert.

Additional Information

• If you leave the Patient Information Bar expanded, it provides a shortcut back to the patient Overview screen no matter which area of Ascend you are in.