Starting an encounter

Start an encounter for an attending patient from the Waiting Room, or manually start an encounter for a patient who is not on-site. You can then use the Clinical Records  to record patient information and end the encounter when you've finished..

Start an encounter - patient present

This method is for doctors attending patients in person from Zedmed's Waiting Room. 

When a patient arrives, reception updates them to Attend in the Appointment Book and they then appear in the Waiting Room. When a doctor uses the Admit option on a patient in the Waiting Room, the patient's information opens in Clinical Records.

By default, the Waiting Room shows patients who have not been billed sorted by the time they arrived at the practice. Once a patient has been billed by reception, they will disappear from the Waiting Room. 

To start an encounter from the Waiting Room:

1. From the Reception tab, select Clinical Records.
   The Clinical Records screen will open.
2. Select Waiting Room from the top menu.
3. Right-click the patient and select Admit.
   The patient's information will open in the Clinical Records screen and the encounter will automatically start.
   You can now use the clinical modules and record information, and end the encounter when you have finished.
   Timer - when the encounter starts, the Duration timer will appear. You can pause the encounter, and if you stop the encounter, you can start it again by selecting Continue Encounter, and update the notes if it's the same day.
   

Start an encounter - patient not present

If a patient is not present, you can manually open their information in Clinical Records,  start an encounter and make updates. This is useful for surgeons wanting to review or update a patient's information.

To manually start an encounter:

1. From the Reception tab, select Clinical Records.
   The Clinical Records screen will open.
2. Select Open Patient.
   The Find patient dialog will open.
3. Enter search criteria, like the patient’s Family and First Name (can be the first 3 letters) or DOB. 
4. Select Find or press the enter key to run the search.
   The Patient Selector screen will open with the search results.
   For more information, see the Find a patient article.  
5. Double-click the patient in the search results.
   The patient's information will open in the Clinical Records screen.
6. Select the green play button in the History View to start the encounter.
   The Current Encounter section and modules will open and you can now record information and end the encounter when you have finished.