Adding and Tracking Orders Comments

The Orders Comments Tracking option enables you to add comments for any order type throughout the order lifecycle. For example, you can enter comments about whether a patient attended a scheduled appointment, if one test in a group of tests needs to be rescheduled, or if certain issues regarding an order have been reviewed with the staff. The system captures who added the comment and the time it was added. This provides a real-time log of order actions from initial creation to final result.

You can access and add comments for lab, radiology, and immunizations orders. When adding comments for an order, you can select whether the comments should be used for tracking or sign-off purposes.

You can access, view, or add comments when performing any of the following Order processing actions:

• Creating or updating a lab, radiology, or immunizations order.
• Viewing order information for an individual patient on the Orders Summary tab.
• Working with multiple patient orders on the Orders Management order control on a custom practice template.
• Adding comments for the provider to view before signing-off an order.
• Viewing order results on the Results tab.
• While working with lab, radiology, or immunizations orders, you can also view comments from the NextGen® Adaptive Content Engine, PAQ, and other applications. The origin of the comments is indicated on the Sign-off and Tracking Comments window by Source. For example :
  • View order comments entered in the NextGen® Adaptive Content Engine Order Management template.
  • View sign-off comments entered in the PAQ.

    If the PAQ Copy Signoff Comments preferences are enabled, any PAQ comments entered for a document or image result that is linked to a lab or radiology order are copied to the Sign-off and Tracking Comments section for the order in the Orders module. The source is identified as PAQ.

    If the same image or document is linked to multiple order panels or panel components, the signoff comment is copied only once to the linked order to avoid duplication of the same comment.

    For more information, go to the NextGen Healthcare Success Community, and download the Workflow Module Guide for NextGen® Enterprise EHR.

• When entering comments for an order, you can select My Phrases (comments originally created in the NextGen® Adaptive Content Engine) and send comments to the appropriate work group by selecting Save & Task.