Flows/Create an encounter

flowclinicalCARE 3.0+

Clinical

Concepts

Patient

Encounter Care team Condition Allergy & Intolerance Observation Diagnostic Report Service Request Specimen Consent Clinical Notes

Questionnaire Response

Flows

Search for a patient

Register a patient View a patient's profile Update patient details Manage patient identifiers Manage patient tags Mark a patient as deceased Manage patient users View a patient's appointments and tokens Create an encounter Update encounter details Assign an encounter location Manage the encounter care team Manage encounter departments Manage encounter tags Discharge a patient Complete an encounter

Restart an encounter

References

Patient

Encounter Care team Condition Allergy Intolerance Observation Diagnostic Report Consent Notes Specimen Service Request

Questionnaire Response

Overview

This flow describes how to create an encounter for a patient at a facility. You can start the encounter from the patient page or from an appointment.

Pre-requisites

• The patient is registered in Care, and you have opened the patient at the facility.
• If you start the encounter from an appointment, the patient has a booked or checked-in appointment at that facility.
• You have the permissions listed below.

Permissions

Permission	Access
Can Create encounter	Lets you create an encounter for a patient at the facility. Administrator, Doctor, Nurse and Facility Administrator have this permission.

📝 Note

If you do not have this permission, Care does not show the action.

Steps

1. Open the encounter form

You can open the form from four places.

From the patient page. Open the patient at the facility. Select the Create Encounter quick action. Keyboard shortcut: e.

From the patient's Encounters tab. Open the patient. Go to the Encounters tab. Select Create Encounter. This action appears when the patient has no encounter yet.

From an appointment, with Start Consultation. Open the appointment page. In Quick Actions, select Start Consultation. Keyboard shortcut: 1. Care opens the form with the status set to In Progress. Care also links the encounter to the appointment. When you confirm, Care moves the appointment to In Consultation.

📝 Note

If the appointment already has an encounter, Start Consultation does not open the form. Care moves the appointment to In Consultation. Care then opens the existing encounter on its Overview tab.

From an appointment, with Create Planned Encounter. In the same Quick Actions panel, select Create Planned Encounter. Keyboard shortcut: 2. Care opens the form with the status set to Planned.

The form is titled Initiate Patient Encounter. Below the title, Care shows "Begin a new clinical encounter for" and the name of the patient.

2. Complete the form

Complete the fields in the order they appear.

Component	What it captures
Date and Time (required)	The date and the time the encounter starts. You can pick a future date only when the status is Planned.
Type of Encounter (required)	The kind of care the patient receives. Select one tile. See the tile list below.
Status (required)	The state of the encounter. Choose In Progress, Planned or On Hold. These are the only statuses you can set at creation.
Priority (required)	How urgent the encounter is. Care preselects Routine. For the full list, see Encounter.
Tags (optional)	One or more tags that your facility configured for encounters.
Departments (required)	The departments that look after the patient. Select at least one department. Departments control who can see the encounter.

Each Type of Encounter tile carries a short description.

Type of Encounter	Description
Inpatient	Patient is admitted to the hospital.
Ambulatory	Patient visits for outpatient care.
Observation	Patient is under observation.
Emergency	Mark as emergency if immediate attention is required.
Virtual	Virtual/telehealth consultation.
Home Health	Care provided at patient's home.

📝 Note

Which encounter types you can choose, and which type Care preselects, depend on your deployment's configuration.

3. Save the encounter

Select Create Encounter. The button shows "Creating…" while Care saves the encounter. To close the form without saving, select Cancel.

If Care shows an error, correct the entry and save again.

Message	What to do
Future date is only allowed for planned encounters	The start date is in the future, but the status is not Planned. Move the date back, or set the status to Planned.
At least one department is required	Select a department. The Create Encounter button stays disabled until you select one.
Patient already has maximum number of active encounters (5) in the facility	The patient already has the maximum number of open encounters at this facility. Close one of them, or continue in the existing encounter.
Encounter already has an associated booking	The appointment you started from already has an encounter. Open that encounter instead.

📝 Note

The maximum number of open encounters per patient at a facility depends on your deployment's configuration. The default maximum is 5.

Expected Outcome

• Care shows the message "Encounter created successfully".
• Care opens the new encounter on its Overview tab.

Clinical

Concepts

Patient · Encounter · Care team · Condition · Allergy · Observation · Dx Report · Service Request · Specimen · Consent · Notes · Q. Response

Flows

Search · Register · Profile · Update · Identifiers · Tags · Deceased · Users · Appointments · Create Encounter · Update Encounter · Location · Care Team · Departments · Tags · Discharge · Complete · Restart

References

Patient · Encounter · Care team · Condition · Allergy · Observation · Dx Report · Consent · Notes · Specimen · Service Request · Q. Response

Related

• Concept: Concepts/Encounter
• Reference: References/Encounter

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