Goodbye, summer rush, hello, fall rush. Patient visits don’t seem to be slowing down, and most of us are (still) pressed for time. When appointment books are full, even small efficiencies in practice workflows can make a big difference.
We talk a lot about ways to use your practice management software to ease the pressure.
Let’s look at 5 tools in Instinct that can help you stay organized (and save you some time) in your busy workflow.
💙 Code Status
In Instinct, you can easily set a patient’s code status (eg, DNR) from the Status Board. Better yet, you can add emoji to make your code status (or even your patient/account alerts) easily recognizable from any view in Instinct.
In the example below, we’ve used the colored heart emoji to make specific codes easily recognizable in the treatment view. You can do this too! When editing your code status abbreviation, just open your emoji keyboard to add.
Pro-Tip: If you’re on a Windows computer, press the Windows logo key + . (period) to open the emoji keyboard. On a Mac, press control + command + space.
You can select a code status for a patient in the front desk view.
Once you’ve selected the status, you’ll see the emoji you selected in the treatment view. For example, the green heart here indicates that this patient is on advanced life support.
🙋♀️ Assign to Me
The ‘Assign’ button is a great way to let your team know you are currently working with a patient, whether you’re performing treatments or taking the patient out for a walk. This does not block anyone from viewing the patient’s treatments/records, but it will help to avoid duplicate treatments.
Once you’re finished working on that patient and their treatments, unassign yourself.
You can find the Assign button in the 3-dot menu, next to the patient’s name on the Status Board. Just look for the ribbon icon. It’ll turn blue when it’s active.
Pro-Tip: If you forget to unassign yourself before heading home, any team member can unassign you so they too can communicate with the team that they are working on that patient.
✅ Ready to Admit and Ready to Go
There are quite a few communication goodies in the 3-dot menu! This particular feature is great for communicating between the front desk team and the medical team.
The Ready to Admit (gurney icon) and Ready to Go (blue ribbon icon) options are powerful front-to-back visual communicators.
The admit button allows the medical team to communicate to the front desk that the patient is being admitted into the hospital.
The Ready to Go button lets the front desk team know that the patient has been cleaned up, has medications ready, and is ready for discharge.
Pro-Tip: Before clicking the Ready to Go button, the medical team can order up a discharge group right onto the treatment sheet.
🟧 Orange Note Bubble
Meet your new best friend. This little orange note bubble appears throughout Instinct when you add notes for your team members.
Add information about the patient, a treatment sheet order, or even your appointment notes. Team members can simply hover their pointer over the bubble to see your comment.
Notes like these enhance communication and make it easier to keep everyone on the same page.
👩⚕️Care Team
This feature allows other team members to keep track of who is actively involved in the patient’s care (eg, doctors, residents, nurses, interns, students).
Note: You can also see your new code status emoji here as well. 🌟
A few final tips…
Let me sum this up with a few key tips that I always share when I’m training someone in Instinct.
- Need more information? Just remember to hover. Slide your pointer over the assign ribbon or the orange note bubble to get more details.
- If you’re looking for options to take action, click on the 3-dot menu.
- Always err on the side of overcommunicating, so everyone knows what’s happening with a patient.
Instinct is here to help you provide the gold standard of care. Use these quick tools to help streamline communication with your team and enhance patient care.
Want to hear more quick tips for getting the most benefit from Instinct? Sign up for our next Instinct Academy!
Curious whether Instinct Treatment Plan or Instinct EMR is right for your team? Request a demo.