You can check patients into your practice either as patients arrive (to maintain an accurate picture of your practice’s activity) or at the beginning of the day (to anticipate the day's events).
When you check a patient into the practice, Cornerstone* software:
• Adds the patient to the Census List
• Gathers basic patient and client information, such as client ID, client name, patient name and patient ID
• Gathers information for the Check-In Report (which Cornerstone prompts you to print after checking a patient in)
Before You Begin
• Set up your in defaults (Controls > Defaults > Practice and Workstation > select Check-in from the menu on the left).
• Set up your Check-in Print Options defaults (Controls > Defaults > Practice and Workstation > , select Check-in > Check-in Print Options from the menu on the left).
• Set up the reasons for visit that your practice uses (Controls > Reason for Visit).
• Set up the rooms your practice uses (Lists > Room).
• Set up a record for the patient in Cornerstone (Lists > Patient).
To check a patient into your practice:
1. Do one of the following:
• On the Census List (F3), select Check-in.
• On the Patient Clipboard, select the client, and then right-click on the patient’s name in the Patient list and select Check-In.
• Click the Check-In/Out toolbar button.
• On the Activities menu, select Check-In/Out.
The Patient Check-in/out window appears.
Chapter 7: Patient Check-In and Check-Out
Patient Check-in/out window
2. Depending on how you accessed the Patient Check-in/out window, the client and patient
information may already be displayed. If not, enter the Client ID and press TAB, and then enter the patient ID and press TAB.
Tip: At any time, you can click the Vital Signs/Weight button to display the weight entry dialog box for the patient. Here you can enter a current weight and, if desired, click the add more Vital signs link to open the full Vital Signs entry and viewing window. Note that the button displays in red/yellow as an alert if at least one vital sign (other than weight and body score) has not been entered for the patient within the past 10 days.
3. Verify that the Staff ID is the staff member who will see this patient. If necessary, type the staff ID or press F2 to search for and select the staff from the Staff List.
4. Under Reason for Visit, select a Primary reason for the patient’s visit. If desired, select a secondary reason from the Secondary drop-down list or type a different secondary reason in the field. (Note that a primary reason must first be specified in order to activate the secondary reason field.) 5. Select the Room where the patient is located or will be assigned.
6. If applicable, select a Ward and enter a Cage name.
7. Select a Status. (The status may be set to <None> until the patient is Ready to go home.) 8. If your practice uses patient referrals and this is a referral recheck visit, select the Referral Recheck
check box to keep track of referral sales. (The sales amount from this visit will be included in new referrals’ totals, unless this option is selected.)
9. Specify if this is an Inpatient or Outpatient check-in.
Note: If Inpatient is selected, upon check-in the patient is automatically added to the Whiteboard as a hospitalized patient that is waiting for patient orders to be added.
10. Type any Additional notes you want to print on the Check-In Report.
Chapter 7: Patient Check-In and Check-Out
11. Enter any comments to display as an alert in the Alert notes box. These comments will display when the patient’s record is accessed and are not part of the patient’s permanent history. They will be deleted when the patient is checked out.
12. In the Documents area, specify any documents to print upon check-in (in addition to the Check-In Report). In the Doc ID field, enter the document ID by either typing the ID or pressing F2 to search for and select a document from the Document Template List.
13. In the Weight entry area, do the following:
a. Verify the Date to associate with this weight entry (defaults to today’s date) and change if necessary.
b. In the Weight field, enter the patient’s current weight.
c. Verify the Unit of measure and, if necessary, select a different unit of measure from the drop-down list.
d. If the Body Score vital sign has been activated in your practice’s Vital Sign List (select Lists >
Vital Signs/Weight), the Body score field is available. If the patient’s body score is known at this time, you can select the applicable value/description from the drop-down list.
14. The Check-in Date and Time default to the current date and time. Change the date and time, if necessary.
15. Click Check-in to check the patient into the practice.
16. Depending on your Check-in Print Options default settings, a Check-In Report may print
automatically or a message box may display, asking you to print a Check-In Report. Click Yes if you want to print the Check-In Report.
You can reprint a Check-In Report for a patient at any time. This report prints information based on your check-in defaults.To print a personalized travel sheet when you check in a patient:
1. On the Patient Check-in/out window, enter all check-in information as usual, and then click the Travel Sheet button. The Travel Sheet Print dialog box appears.
Note: You can access the Travel Sheet Print dialog box without checking in the patient by selecting Lists > Travel Sheets and clicking Print.
Chapter 7: Patient Check-In and Check-Out
Travel Sheet Print dialog box
2. From the Travel Sheet Description list, select the travel sheet(s) to personalize.
3. If desired, in the Enter travel sheet heading field, enter a personalized heading for the travel sheet.
4. In the Include client/patient heading box field, select Yes to include client and patient information, such as patient’s age, weight, sex, the reason for visit and client address, on the travel sheet. Select No if you do not want to include this information.
5. If the client is not selected, in the Client field, enter the client ID by either typing the ID or pressing F2 to search for and select the client from the Client List.
6. If the patient is not selected, in the Patient field, enter the patient ID by either typing the ID or pressing F2 to select the patient from a list of the client’s pets.
7. In the Select types of items to print field, deselect any item type you do not want to include on the travel sheet.
8. In the Include prices on travel sheet field, choose whether or not to print prices on the travel sheet.
9. By default, travel sheets include blank lines so that staff can include notes and additional services on the travel sheet. If you do not want to include these lines select No in the Leave additional services and notes field.
10. Specify the Number of copies to print.
11. Click Preview if you want to view the travel sheet before printing.
12. Do one of the following:
• Click Print to print the travel sheet to the assigned printer and exit.
• Click Close to exit without printing.
Chapter 7: Patient Check-In and Check-Out