Some offices use the Orders ability to track patient communication as the records cannot be deleted. Orders are also great for patient communication as they can be assigned to other users in the office if action is needed to resolve the patient's problem.
There are 6 filters within the Orders Ability. Office, Provider, User, Type, Status, and lastly the Patient Selector. Usually the best practice is to have the Office, Provider, and Type set to "All." The user filter will normally be set as your username unless you want to look at another user's to do list. Selecting "All Open" in the status will display all of the open orders for the selected user.
Click the green plus to make a new Order. If a patient is not already selected, MacPractice will prompt you to select a patient. Next, select Patient Communication in the Order Type drop down box. If this option is not available, watch the Orders Setup video to learn how to add items to this list. You might also want to organize the Order with the Provider, Office, and Incident.
You will notice that the only required field is the short description. The short description is important as it will be displayed in the patient's Clinical tab. After you have added a short description, save the record and move to the Notes section of the Order.
Add any notes about the communication into this field. Once the note has been completed, select the user that will take the next action on the Order. Select a due date for the item and save the record using the Edit menu or the keyboard shortcut, Command S. If you assigned the Order to another user in the office, the Order will disappear from your view as you save the record. The item has now been placed into the appropriate User's queue within MacPractice. If you would like to confirm that the order was saved correctly you can simply change your filter presets at the top of the Orders ability to view another user's queue.
As the item is passed through the office each user should add additional notes to the Order. You will notice that as Orders are moved, the notes section will continue to grow. Each entry will display the date and time as well as the user that made the notes/edit.