Working with Contact Notes

Contact reasons for manual notes

If a contact note has been generated by Bp Premier or added by a user from a clinical function, such as Reminders, Followup Inbox, or Correspondence In or Out from the patient record, that contact note will be linked to the source item, such as a reminder or an investigation result. See Bp Comms from the patient record for more information.

If you view an existing linked contact note and click Add, the new note will also be linked to the original document or record. This allows your practice to view the entire contact note history for an item from initial contact to resolution without needing to search for followup notes. The contact reason for all associated notes is set to the same reason as the first note and cannot be changed.

However, if a user manually adds a contact note through the global contact notes screen (View > Contact notes) or from patient demographics, a note does not have to link to a specific record. The contact note reason can be a general reason or any custom reason created in Setup > Configuration > Lists.

Example

A staff member runs a clinical reminder mail merge for annual health checkups and prints a batch of reminder letters, which are sent to patients. When Bp Premier generates the reminder letters, a contact note of reason 'Reminder' is automatically created and linked to the reminder item.

A patient receives the clinical reminder letter and calls the practice to arrange an appointment. From the Followup Reminders screen, a staff member selects the reminder and clicks Contact notes to view the contact history. The contact history will show the contact note created by Bp Premier for the reminder letter. The appointment is booked and the reminder actioned.

However, the doctor is ill that day and the appointment must be rescheduled. A staff member calls the patient to rebook. After rebooking, the staff member opens the contact history for the reminder again, clicks Add, and adds a new contact note with comments that the appointment had to be rebooked due to provider illness.

The second contact note will also be of reason 'Reminder' and will be linked to the original reminder. The contact attempt no. will be incremented to '2'.

Contact methods for manual notes

The following standard contact methods are available for notes where staff have manually contacted the patient and are manually adding a contact note: 

  • Face to face
  • Email

Selecting 'email' would indicate the staff corresponded with the patient using email outside of Bp Premier.

Which screen should I use to manage contact notes?

The table below summarises which screen to use depending on what you want to do:

I want to...

I will go to...

Search contact notes for the whole practice

From the main screen, select View > Contact notes, and use the filters to limit the notes shown.

Search contact notes for a single patient

From the main screen, press F10 to open the Patients List. Select a patient and click Contact notes.

Create a new general contact note

Press F2 to search for the patient and open their demographics. Click Contact NotesAdd.

or

From anywhere, press F10 to open the Patients List. Select a patient and click Contact notesAdd.

Follow up an existing general contact note

From anywhere, press F10 to open the Patients List. Select a patient and click Contact notes. Select the note and click ViewAdd.

Create a new contact note related to a clinical function

Open the Bp Premier function: Follow up Inbox, Follow up Reminders, Correspondence in, Correspondence out, Investigation reports, Clinical Images. Select the record item to associate and click Record note.

Follow up a contact note related to a clinical function

Open the Bp Premier function: Follow up Inbox, Follow up Reminders, Correspondence in, Correspondence out, Investigation reports, Clinical Images. Select the record item with the existing note and click Record note. Click Add to create a new linked note.