In the single-note setup, each patient has one clinical note field per consultation, which you can keep updating as the visit goes on. In the multiple-note setup, you can add several separate notes for the same patient in the same consultation, each with its own clinical note type, so the notes can be filtered and sorted in the patient history. See Write Multiple Clinical Notes Per Patient in One Consultation.
For outpatients and home calls, the single-note setup applies when Multiple clinical notes for outpatients and home calls is not selected in Settings > General > Clinic location > Clinic location settings. See Clinical Notes Settings, Clinical Note Types, and Clinical Note Templates.
Note: For inpatients, multiple notes are always enabled if your practice uses hospital mode, regardless of this setting.
You can add clinical notes on the consultation page, in the text field under Clinical note. The latest version of the note is shown in the field.
New consultation page: The timestamp above the field shows the time of the last edit and the user who edited the note. To view the edit history of the note, select the timestamp. To print the clinical note, select Print above the field.
Old consultation page: The timestamp link under the field shows the time of the last edit and the user who edited the note. To view the edit history of the note, select the link. To print the clinical note, select the print button above the field.
By default, the clinical note is saved with the current date and time, but you can also manually select a different date and time. If you have the required permissions to edit clinical notes after the consultation has been finalized, you can also change the date and time later, for example, if you want to finish your clinical notes after the consultation and want the date and time to match the consultation date and time.
Note: In the single-note setup, you cannot delete clinical notes.
Single Notes in Multi-Patient Consultations
When you have more than one patient in one consultation, you can write notes that are saved to each patient's clinical history.
Note: Multi-patient consultations are available on the old consultation page only. If you are using the new consultation page, this option is not yet available there.
In multi-patient consultations, the All patients field is shown by default under Clinical notes. Writing notes in this field creates an entry for all patients on the consultation.
If you want to write a note for a specific patient only, select the patient from the Select patient drop-down list in the right-hand side sidebar. Another clinical note field opens for the selected patient.
Each clinical note field in a multi-patient consultation has its own edit history, which you can open from the link below the field.