Patient intake and encounters

A patient may return for more than one visit. The Clinical Coordinator keeps the patient’s identity, patient number, contact phone and assigned clinician on the patient record, then creates a separate encounter for each care episode. Each encounter carries its own visit type, assigned clinician, planned time, actual start, actual end and status. The team can follow what happened on a particular visit without replacing the patient’s earlier history.

For a patient who arrives after a scheduled visit, the coordinator confirms the patient record and advances the encounter from Scheduled to Arrived. When care begins, the encounter moves to in progress and gets a start time. A later review uses the same encounter as the point of reference for clinical notes, observations, specimens, dispensations and service charges. The Business Overview page gives the team a quick view of encounter intake and current operational state distribution.

• Patient identity. The patient number and display name identify the person across separate encounters; consent status remains on the patient.
• Encounter state. Scheduled, Arrived, in progress, awaiting review, Completed and Cancelled distinguish where a visit stands.
• Clinical assignment. The encounter’s clinician names the person connected to that episode of care; dated care-team access is maintained separately.

Agree how the team finds an existing patient before creating another identity and who may correct a patient number. Define when a planned visit becomes an arrived encounter, who records the actual start and end, and which role moves a case to awaiting review or Completed. Keep the visit type vocabulary small enough for reliable reporting. Decide how cancelled encounters retain their history and how a same-day return is represented as a separate visit.

The Clinical Coordinator has entry access to patients and encounters. Licensed Clinicians and Clinical Reviewers can read encounters under their configured roles. During the pilot, check a patient’s consent status and the clinician assignment before sharing the record with the next person. Use the roles page to agree any further access policy.

Start with a patient whose record already exists. Create a scheduled encounter, then record arrival and the start of care. Confirm that the coordinator can find the new encounter and that the clinician can open its patient context. Add a clinical note and an observation to this encounter, then verify that neither appears under an earlier visit. Move the current visit to awaiting review and let the Clinical Reviewer inspect the linked evidence. Close it with an end time only after the team has agreed who records that final change.

Repeat with a cancelled visit and a return visit. The earlier records should remain intelligible: one patient identity, separate encounters and an explicit status on each. If the team imports historical visits, reconcile patient numbers and encounter IDs before opening current care work.

• Arrived encounters — Visits currently arrived, in progress or awaiting review, with the assigned clinician visible.
• Encounter timing — Visit states with recorded start and end times.
• Encounter state board — A status view for finding visits that need the next handoff.

Follow patient intake to encounter completion and review the record definitions.