Searching For Patients Or Visits

• A healthcare provider searches for a patient visit to add it to her list before she sees a patient. She can search from the Patient List tab (Add Patient(s) on the Actions drop-down list), or from the Patient Search tab.
• A physician who is providing a consult for a colleague looks up information for a patient who is not on his patient list. The provider uses the Patient Search tab to easily find the patient.
• A provider in a supervisory role wants to look up information for a patient who is assigned to one of their staff, in order to review some charges and then modify them. Using the Patient Search tab, the provider has access to all the patients on the census list.
• Administrators, who do not have a patient list of their own, need to review patient information or charges for billing purposes. The administrators can find the patient using the Patient Search tab.
• An administrator or provider who wants to verify that a patient or visit has not already been registered in their source ADT/Registration system, before they manually register a new patient, or manually add a new visit to an existing patient can look up the patient on the Patient Search tab.

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Access Restrictions to Patient List, Patient, and Visit Search

• The setting below determines whether or not you have access to the Patient Search tab. Admin - User - Patient List - Allow Patient/Visit Search
• The setting below determines which Patient Lists you can find and view. Admin - User - Patient List - Restrict Patient List and Relationship Lookup To
• The setting below (for Level 0/1/2 users only) determines which Patient Lists you can find and view based on only the Restrict Patient List and Relationship Lookup To setting or a combination of Restrict Patient List and Relationship Lookup To setting and the Manage and View settings of a Patient List. Admin - User - Patient List - Override Patient List View and Manage Permissions
• The setting below determines which patient visits you can select. Admin - User - Patient List - Restrict Patient Lookup to
• The setting below determines whether or not you have access to clinical data items, such as “reason for visit”, medications, lab results, test results, clinical notes, etc. Admin - User - Patient List - Can View Clinical Results (Web Only)
• The setting below determines how much charge information you can view (and possibly edit) on both the Patient List and Patient Search tabs. Admin - User - Charge Capture - Set Patient List Charge View Access

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Overview of Patient List, Patient, and Visit Search

• Using the Patient List Search Option
• Using the Search for Patients Option
• Using the Search for Visits Option

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Using the Patient List Search Option

• Select the patient list from the Select a Patient List drop-down in the Search by Patient List section of the screen and then click the Run Patient List Search button next to the selected Patient List to display the list of patient visits in the lower half of the screen.

1. Enter the following search criteria:
   • Select a department label from the Department drop-down to display patient lists where the “owner” is in the selected department, and then click Search .
   • Enter either the name of the list, current user’s alias name, owner name, the Description text or source list names of Included in Views field.
2. Select the patient list, and then click Select Patient List button. You are returned to the Patient Search window.
3. Click Run Patient List Search button next to the selected Patient List. The bottom portion of the screen displays the patients that match your search criteria. If a patient has more than one visit that matches your criteria, each of those visits is listed.

• Click the Details icon to review a patient’s demographic, visit, charge, or clinical information.
• Click on one or more patient visits to select them, and then click the Add to Patient List button to select the patient list(s) that you wish to add the patient visit(s) to. If you need to search for a patient list, click the search link.
• Click on a patient visit to select it, and then click on the Actions drop-down and select Add Charge to enter a new charge.
• Click on the patient visit(s) to select the visit(s), and then click any of the following buttons, if available, based on your permissions:
  • Edit - to edit demographic or visit data
  • Cancel Visits - cancel a visit
  • Add to Patient List(s) - add a visit to a patient list
  • Reassign Visit(s) - reassign a visit to another provider or service
  • Compare - compare a visit to a patient list’s criteria
  • Verify - verify a non-verified patient and the visit
  • Create Visit - manually add a visit to a patient

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Using the Search for Patients Option

• To use the Search for Patients option, enter data in one or more of the Patient Search Criteria fields and then click the Search for Patients button. All patient records that match the criteria you entered in the Patient Search Criteria fields are displayed in the results area at the bottom of the screen. If you entered data in the Visit Criteria fields it is ignored.

• If you don’t see the patient you want in the results, click the Add Patient button to manually register a new patient.
• Click the Details icon for a patient in the results to review that patient’s demographic, visit, charge, or clinical information.
• Click on a patient in the results to select it, and then click on the Actions drop-down and select Add Charge to enter a new charge.
• Click on a patient in the results to select it and then do any of the following:
• Click the Create Visit drop-down to manually add a visit to the patient
• Click Edit to edit the patient’s demographic information
• Click Verify to verify a non-verified manually created patient.
• Click Clear Criteria (located just above the search results section) to clear the criteria fields and start over.

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Using the Search for Visits Option

• When using the Search for Visits option, you can enter data in any of the Patient Search Criteria and/or Visit Search Criteria fields, and then click the Search for Visits button. All visit records that match the criteria you entered are displayed in the results area.

• Click the Details icon to review the patient’s demographic, visit, charge, or clinical information.
• Click on one or more patient visits to select them, and then click the Add to Patient List button to select the patient list(s) that you wish to add the patient visit(s) to. If you need to search for a patient list, click the search link.
• Click on a patient visit to select it, and then click on the Actions drop-down and select Add Charge to enter a new charge.
• Click on the patient visit(s) to select the visit(s), and then click any of the following buttons, if available, based on your permissions:
  • Edit: To edit demographic or visit data
  • Cancel Visits: Cancel a visit
  • Add to Patient List(s): Add a visit to a patient list
  • Reassign Visit(s): Reassign a visit to another provider or service
  • Compare: Compare a visit to a patient list’s criteria
  • Verify: Verify a non-verified patient and the visit
  • Create Visit: Manually add a visit to a patient
• Click Clear Criteria (located just above the search results section) to clear the criteria fields and start over.

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Common Search Criteria Fields

• Patient Search Criteria Fields
  • Last: Enter all or the first few letters of the patient’s last name.
  • First: Enter all or the first few letters of the patient’s first name.
  • DOB: Enter the patient’s date of birth in your country’s standard format of either mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy, or use the Calendar button to select from a pop-up calendar.
  • Gender: Select a gender of (M)ale, (F)emale, or (U)nknown.
  • SSN: Enter a nine digit social security number with or without dashes. For example, 123-45-6789 and 123456789 are both acceptable formats.
  • MRN: Enter a medical record number with up to four leading zeros, or do not use leading zeros at all. For example, whether you enter 1234 or 00001234, the patients with the following MRNs are found: 1234, 01234, 001234, 0001234, and 00001234. If you enter more than four leading zeros, the system finds an exact match (0000001234 finds 0000001234), or any number of leading zeros up to four (0000001234 also finds 1234, 01234, 001234, 0001234, and 00001234).
  In some cases, a patient record can have more than one MRN, if that patient is associated with more than one facility in your source system. This can occur in a single-domain environment when MEDITECH is your source ADT/Registration system. In this case, you can use any of the patient’s MRNs to find them. Any displays that include MRN show all MRNs associated with the patient.
• Visit Search Criteria Fields
  • Visit Type: Select a type of visit from the drop-down list to view only visits of that type. The visit types are set by your organization and might include inpatient, outpatient, emergency room, recurring, and pre-registration.
  • Med Service: Select the medical service with which the inpatient visit or outpatient appointment is booked.
  • Visit Number: Enter a visit number to find the specific visit with that number.
  • Admit From and Admit To: For inpatients, enter a specific range of admission dates in your country’s standard format (either mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy), or select the dates from the pop-up calendars. To include inpatient visits that have been discharged, you must also check Include Past Visits.
  • Admit Date: For inpatients, enter a specific date of admission in your country’s standard format (either mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy), or select one from the pop-up calendar. To include inpatient visits that have been discharged, you must also check Include Past Visits.
  • Discharge Date: For inpatients, enter a specific date of discharge in your country’s standard format (either mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy), or select one from the pop-up calendar.
  • Admit in last N days: Limit the search results to recent inpatient admissions or outpatient appointments by specifying the number of days since they were admitted. For outpatient appointments, the appointment date is considered to be the admit date. Some of the common settings are:
  • Set to 0 to see inpatients admitted today (since midnight) or in the future. For outpatient appointments, this would include appointments today or in the future.
  • Set to 1 to see inpatients admitted yesterday, today, or in the future. For outpatient appointments, this would include appointments from yesterday (if Include Past Visits is checked), today, or in the future.
  • Set to 30 to see inpatients admitted within the last 30 days or in the future. For outpatient appointments, this would include appointments within the last 30 days (if Include Past Visits is checked), today, or in the future.
  • D/C in last N days: Limit the search results to include current inpatients and recently discharged inpatients by specifying the number of days since they were discharged. For outpatient appointments, the appointment date is considered to be the discharge date. Some of the common settings are:
  • Set to 0 to see the inpatients discharged today (since midnight), along with current inpatients. For outpatients, this would include appointments today or in the future.
  • Set to 1 to see the inpatients discharged yesterday and today, along with current inpatients. For outpatients, this would include appointments from yesterday (if Include Past Visits is checked), today, or in the future.
  • Set to 30 to see inpatients discharged within the last 30 days, along with current inpatients. For outpatients, this would include appointments within the last thirty days (if Include Past Visits is checked), today, or in the future.
  • Appointment Date: For outpatients, enter a specific appointment date in your country’s standard format (either mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy), or select one from the pop-up calendar. If you are searching for a date in the past, you must also check Include Past Visits.
  • Facility: Select the facility in which the outpatient appointment is booked, or in which the inpatient is located. In a single-domain environment, the Facility field is a simple drop-down list of facilities. In a multi-domain environment (i.e., when there is more than one source MEDITECH system), the Facility field displays of a list of domains, and indented underneath each domain is the list of facilities associated with it.
  • Unit: For inpatient visits, select the patient’s current nursing unit. Please note that you must first select a Facility, in order to view choices for the Unit field.
  • Visit Status: A visit can have one of these possible statuses: Active, Inactive, or Cancelled. By default (if you leave this Visit Status criteria blank, and also leave the Include Cancelled Visits criteria unchecked), both active and inactive visits are shown in the search results, while cancelled visits are not. If you wish to view only visits that have a particular status, select that status from the Visit Status drop-down.
  If you set the Visit Status criteria to any value, you are explicitly indicating that you want to see only visits with that status. As a result, the Include Cancelled Visits checkbox has no effect (checking or unchecking it does not impact the results).
  • Provider Types: There may be several fields for various types of providers on your screen. For example, your institution might want to use Admitting, Scheduled, and Attending providers as selection criteria. Simply enter all or part of a provider’s last name in any of these fields. Only those visits which have a matching provider name of that type are found.
  • Include Cancelled Visits: By default, this checkbox is unchecked, and cancelled visits are not included in the search results. Therefore, if you wish to see cancelled visits (that also match any other criteria that you selected), then check this box.
  Please note that there is a difference between checking this Include Cancelled Visits checkbox versus setting the Visit Status criteria to “Cancelled.” When you set the Visit Status criteria to “Cancelled,” you are choosing to see only those visits that are cancelled (and that also meet your other criteria). Whereas checking the Include Cancelled Visits checkbox means that you wish to see cancelled visits in addition to non-cancelled visits, that meet your other criteria.
  If you set the Visit Status criteria to any value, you are explicitly indicating that you want to see only visits with that status. As a result, the Include Cancelled Visits checkbox has no effect (checking or unchecking it does not impact the results).
  If your source system is MEDITECH^®, there are two different activities that can result in a cancelled visit in the Commure Pro system. The first, as you would expect, is the act of cancelling a visit in the MEDITECH system. The second, is the act of editing the visit type, date, or time of a visit in the MEDITECH system. When any of these elements are edited in MEDITECH, the end result in the Commure Pro system is two visits: the original visit, which is marked as cancelled, and a new visit containing the updated information.
  • Include Past Visits: Leave this box unchecked so that visits whose end date is earlier than today’s date are not included in the search results. If you would like to see past visits, check this box.
  A visit’s end date is based on the Current Visit: End Date associated with that type of visit (see Defining the Attributes of Commure Pro Visit Types for more information on this field). Typically, the discharge date is considered the end date for visits that have admit and discharge dates (such as inpatient visits), while the scheduled date is considered the end date for visits that have only a scheduled date (such as outpatient appointments).
  • Show Only Mergeable: If your organization has implemented the patient merge feature, then the Show Only Mergeable checkbox may be available as a search criteria on this screen (this field can be enabled via an XML customization). Leave this box unchecked so that all visits (both those that can and cannot be merged) are included in the search results. To see only those visits that can be merged with other visits, check this box.
• Miscellaneous Search Criteria Fields
  • Non-Verified Patients: If your organization allows manual creation of non-verified patients, then the Non-Verified Patients field may be available as a visit search criteria on this screen of the Patient Search tab (this field can be enabled via an XML customization). A non-verified patient is a patient who has been manually registered and has not yet been verified.
  On the Patient List tab, this criteria is not visible on the visit search screen that appears after selecting the Add Patient to List option from the Actions drop-down list.
  If your organization has enabled this field, you can use it as part of your search criteria. The options include:
  • Blank: Leave the field blank (no option selected) if you want to include all patient visits in the search. This includes patient visits that were manually registered and not yet verified, patient visits that were manually registered and subsequently verified, and authenticated patient visits.
  • Exclude Non-Verified Patients: Select this option if you do not want to see any non-verified patient visits in the results list.
  • Show only Non-Verified Patients: Select this option if you want to see only non-verified patient visits in the results list. You could use this option to find all the non-verified patient visits in the census list, so that you could verify them all at once using the Verify button.

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Adding Patient Visits to Patient Lists from the Patient Search Tab

1. Click the Patient Search tab and locate the patient visit(s) by either
   • Searching by Patient List (see Using the Patient List Search Option)
   • Searching using the Patient Search and/or Visit Search Criteria fields (see Using the Search for Visits Option)
2. Examine the search results: – If the patient visit(s) you want are listed:
   1. Select all of the patient visits that you want to add to your patient lists by clicking on the rows containing their names. You can also click Select All at the top of the list to select all of the patient visits in the results window.
   2. Click the Add to Patient List button to display the Add to patient list window, and then either:

• Select the patient list(s) from the Select a Patient List drop-down and then click outside the drop-down list to return the Add to patient list window.
• Search and select the patient list(s) if the patient lists you want are not available from the Select a Patient List drop-down by clicking the search… link to display the Search for patient list(s) window where you can:
  1. Enter one of the following search criteria:
  • Select a department from the Department drop-down to display patient lists where the “owner” is in the selected department, and then click the Search .
  • Enter either the name of the list, current user’s alias name, owner name, or information in either the Description or Included in Views field.
  2. Select the patient list, and then click Select Patient List(s) button.
  3. Click outside the drop-down list to return the Add to patient list window
• Select patients lists from both options - the Select a Patient List drop-down and the search results using search…
  3. Click the Add button in the Add to patient list window to add your selected patient list(s) and one of the following actions happens:
• The Add Patient(s) Results window displays stating you have successfully added the visits if all the selected patient lists have only one source list associated with each patient list, and then closes.
• The Add Patient(s) Results window displays if you selected a sublist, and the patient(s) already exists on a sublist under the same Assignment list. You can choose Reassign to confirm you want to reassign them to the new sublist, or you can click Close to keep them on the current sublist.
• The Add Patients window displays if you selected a view with multiple source lists as one of your patient lists. Choose what source lists you wish to have the selected patient visit(s) added to, and then click Add to Patient List(s) button. The Add Patient(s) Results window displays stating you have successfully added the visits if all the selected patient lists have only one source list associated with each patient list, and then closes.
  Only patient visits that meet the time-based criteria of the patient/source list(s) will be added to those patient/source lists and only to the patient/source lists where you have add/remove permissions. If any patient visit fails to meet the time-based criteria, a message will appear stating what visit did not meet what criteria and for what patient/source lists.
  • If the patient you want is listed but not the particular visit, you can add a visit to the patient:
  1. Select the patient by clicking on the row containing the patient name.
  2. Click the Create Visit button in the top right corner of the results section and then select the type of visit you want to add (for example, inpatient, outpatient, or ER).
  The manual registration screen opens. Notice that the top portion of the screen containing the patient’s demographic information is already filled in.
  3. Enter the patient’s visit information in the lower half of the screen. The information displayed on this screen varies based on the type of visit you are adding, as well as your organization’s specific requirements.
  4. Click the Add Patient to List(s) drop-down and select the patient list(s) where you want to add the visit in any of the following ways:
• Select the patient list(s) from the Add Patient to List(s) drop-down and then click outside the drop-down list to return the manual registration screen.
• Search and select the patient list(s) if the patient lists you want are not available from the Add Patients to List(s) drop-down by clicking the search… link to display the Search for patient list(s) window.
  1. Enter one of the following search criteria:
  • Select a department from the Department drop-down to display patient lists where the “owner” is in the selected department, and then click the Search .
  • Enter either the name of the list, current user’s alias name, owner name, or information in either the Description or Included in Views field.
  2. Select the patient list, and then click Select Patient List(s) button.
  3. Click outside the drop-down list to return the manual registration screen.
• Select patients lists from both options - the Select a Patient List drop-down and the search results using search…

• The Add Patient(s) Results window displays stating you have successfully added the visits if all the selected patient lists have only one source list associated with each patient list, and then closes. The Patient Search screen re-appears with the previous search results displayed.
• The Add Patients window displays if you selected a view with multiple source lists as one of your patient lists. Choose what source lists you wish to have the selected patient visit(s) added to, and then click Add to Patient List(s) button. The Add Patient(s) Results window displays stating you have successfully added the visits and then closes. The Patient Search screen re-appears with the previous search results displayed.
  Only patient visits that meet the time-based criteria of the patient/source list(s) will be added to those patient/source lists and only to the patient/source lists where you have add/remove permissions. If any patient visit fails to meet the time-based criteria, a message will appear stating what visit did not meet what criteria and for what patient/source lists.
  • If the patient you want is not listed at all, you can manually register the patient and add a visit in one step:
  You might see the following message: “No Visits Found. Create a new visit from the search criteria by clicking on one of the visit types below.” The message is followed by a list of visit types. In this case, you can either select a visit type from this list, or click the Add Visit button described below.
  1. Click the Create Visit button in the top right corner of the results section, and select the type of visit that you want to add (for example, inpatient, outpatient, or ER).
  The manual registration screen opens.
  2. Enter the patient’s demographic information at the top of the screen, followed by their visit information in the lower half. The information displayed on this screen varies based on the type of visit you are adding, as well as your organization’s specific needs.
  3. Click the Add Patient to List(s) drop-down and select the patient list(s) where you want to add the visit in any of the following ways:
• Select the patient list(s) from the Add Patient to List(s) drop-down and then click outside the drop-down list to return the manual registration screen.
• Search and select the patient list(s) if the patient lists you want are not available from the Add Patient to List(s) drop-down by clicking the search link to display the Search for patient list(s) window.
  1. Enter one of the following search criteria:
  • Select a department from the Department drop-down to display patient lists where the “owner” is in the selected department, and then click the Search .
  • Enter either the name of the list, current user’s alias name, owner name, or information in either the Description or Included in Views field.
  2. Select the patient list, and then click Select Patient List(s) button.
  3. Click outside the drop-down list to return the manual registration screen.
• Select patients lists from both options - the Add Patient to List(s) drop-down and the search results using search…
  4. Click the Add and Save button to save the visit information, and then add it to the selected patient list(s).
• The Add Patient(s) Results window displays stating you have successfully added the visits if all the selected patient lists have only one source list associated with each patient list, and then closes. The Patient Search screen re-appears with the previous search results displayed.
• The Add Patients window displays if you selected a view with multiple source lists as one of your patient lists. Choose what source lists you wish to have the selected patient visit(s) added to, and then click Add to Patient List(s) button. The Add Patient(s) Results window displays stating you have successfully added the visits and then closes. The Patient Search screen re-appears with the previous search results displayed.

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Comparing a Patient Visit to a Selected Patient List

• Patient and Visit Details- shows the patient status relative to the list, and details about the visit.
• List Details - displays the name, type (List, View, or Assignment), and owner of patient list.
• Time-Based Criteria - displays if the patient visit meets any of the time-based visit types properties.
• Filter Criteria - displays any filter criteria that patient visit meets unless the visit fails to meet the Time-Based Criteria.
• Link to see the complete properties of a patient list.
• For Views only, if a View is composed of only Lists, these Lists display in a column next to the patient list properties.

• Enter the information to search for a patient visit using criteria from either the Search by Patient List section or the Patient Search Criteria and/or Visit Search Criteria, and then click the Search for Visits button.
• Examine the search results, and then select the patient visit (will highlight) that you wish to compare to a patient list from the search results.
• Click the Compare button at the bottom of the search results. The Compare patient to list window displays.
• Select the patient list that you wish to compare the patient visit against by either:
  • Selecting the patient list from the Select a Patient List drop-down which displays your list of favorited patient lists and then click outside the drop-down list to return the Compare to patient list window.
  • Search and select the patient list(s) if the patient list you want is not available from the Select a Patient List drop-down by clicking the search… link to display the Search for patient list(s) window where you can:
  1. Enter either of the following search criteria:

  Select a department from the Department drop-down and click Owner to enter a list owner name and display patient lists where the “owner” is in the selected department.

  Enter either the name of the list, current user’s alias name, owner name, Description text or source list names for Included in Views field.

  2. Select the patient list from the list results, and then click Select Patient List button.

5. Click the Compare patient to list button. The Compare patient to list window displays patient demographic data, such as patient name, age, sex, and MRN, and shows what properties the patient visit meets () or doesn’t meet (). At the top of the window, you can see at-a-glance whether or not the visit is Displayed in List, Meets List Criteria, and if the visit was Manually Added or Manually Removed. The patient must have a patient visit that meets one of the Time-based criteria and then the Filter criteria (if any) of the patient list or of one of the patient lists in a View. The visit must belong to a facility to which you have access rights (you do not see visits to facilities that you do not have access rights to). You may see a patient visit that does not meet the patient list properties, if the visit was manually added. The Compare patient to list window includes messages to inform you if other visits do not display on the patient list, because they do not qualify to be on the list or that you do not have access to them. Additionally, you can also do the following:
   • If a visit has been manually added or manually removed (in Patient and Visit Details section), you can hover over the checkmark icon to see who performed the action and when.
   • Select Show List Properties link to display all the criteria of the patient list.
   • For a View composed of only Lists, select one of the Lists that make up the View to compare the patient to this specific List.
6. Click OK to exit the Compare patient to list screen and return to your patient list.