1 Tips & Tools
2 Appointments 1. How do I create a new tab for a specific group on the Appointments screen? Navigate to My Control Panel\Admin Console\Appointments. Click on the Appointment Groups tab at the top. On this screen you can create new groups and add users to existing groups. Remember to close and reopen the Appointments screen to view your changes. 2. Can a patient s appointment be cancelled or set to DNA (Did Not Attend) automatically if they don t turn up? Socrates can automatically set appointments to DNA if a patient does not arrive for their appointment. If turned on this feature is set to cancel the appointment after 90 minutes by default, but this can be altered to a different time to suit the practice in question. 3. I would like to be able to quickly identify appointment types on the Appointments Diary. Is this possible? Yes. You can colour code appointment types by going to My Control Panel Admin Console System Types Appointment Types. 4. Can I block off time on the Appointments Diary for more than one person at the same time? Yes. Go into Resource Availability on the left hand side and then into Availability Exceptions. Next in the HCP's list simply tick the box beside the HCP you wish to apply the exception to.
3 5. How do I quickly get into a patients chart from the Appointments Diary? Highlight the patient s appointment. Then click on View Consultation on the left hand side. 6. How can I check if a GMS/DVC patient has a valid card while they are making an appointment? On the create appointment screen click on their GMS number which will bring you to the latest GMS records on the PCRS website. You will then clearly see if they have a valid card or if it has expired. 7. How do I know who cancelled an appointment? On the appointments calendar select Cancelled in View dropdown. You can see all appointments here that were cancelled. If you double click on the cancelled appointment a window opens up and tells you the date it was created and the date it was cancelled and also what user created it and cancelled it. 8. How can I quickly view a HCP s appointments for an entire week? On the Appointments diary click on the button along the top named Work Week. You can then select a HCP in the drop down. This shows you the appointment diary for the selected HCP for the entire week. 9. Can I change the order of the HCP s on the All Professionals tab on the Appointments diary? Yes you can now change the order of HCP s within the All Professionals tab on the Appointments diary. To change this go to My Control Panel -> Admin Console -> Appointments and select the Appointment Groups tab. Select the user and then you can use the green arrow buttons to move the names up or down the list. Close and reopen the Appointments diary to view the new order. 10. Is there a quick way to add an availability exception? Click on Edit\Preferences at the top of the screen. On the Preferences dialog check the box Define Exceptions by Right click and Click Ok. Open the Appointments screen, right click on any time slot and the Availability Exception Manager window opens.
4 Waiting Room 1. How can I quickly find a patient in the waiting room? Click on any patient in the waiting room and start typing a patient s name. When you have entered the name or partial name press Enter on your keyboard to perform the search. Pressing Enter again will continue to search the list for the next patient that matches your search criteria. 2. I just want to see my own patients in the waiting room, is this possible? In the Waiting room if you click on Show My Queue you will only see the patients assigned to the logged on HCP. There is also a Preference you can set so this is selected by default each time you open the waiting room. 3. I accidently moved a patient in the Waiting room from Patients Expected to Patients Present. Can I move them back again? Highlight the patient in the Patients Present list and click on Expected along the left of the screen. This will move the patient back to the Patients Expected list. 4. Can I see who checked in a patient in the waiting room from Expected to Present? You can check this in the Visit History. When the patient is marked as Arrived they will also appear in the Visit History tab with a status of Arrived. Double click on the patient in the Visit History and you will see the date & time they were marked as Arrived, you will also see the name of the person that checked them in.
5 Consultation 1. In a patients chart, can I check if a drug was reprinted, and who did it? In the prescriptions section of the chart you can click on the button Audit. Then in the filters row click RePrint. This will display all drugs that have been reprinted for this patient, who reprinted it and when they did it. 2. When I have a Consultation open, how do I know if I am in Viewing mode or Editing Mode? Socrates now changes the colour of the Consultation header based on what mode you are in. If you are in Viewing mode, the header appears red, however if you are in Editing mode (after you begin or edit a previous consultation) the header appears green. 3. Is there a Spell Checker for the notes I type into Socrates? Socrates v1820 now has a spell checker facility for notes and will highlight all incorrect words with a red underline. You have the ability to turn off the spell checker in Preferences if you wish. 4. Can I quickly view family details from the Consultation screen? Click on Consultation at the top of the screen and click Family Details. You can see the other family members here and jump directly to the patient s family. 5. Can I see on the Consultation Summary screen if there are any tasks for this patient? Near the top of the Consultation summary screen a button now displays if the patient has any active tasks and if so, how many. You can click on the button to view the tasks. 6. Can I pin certain notes that I deem more important to the top of the list on the Consultation Summary screen? Click the star icon beside a note on the Consultation Summary screen, once the star is clicked the note is locked to the top of the list, no matter how many notes there are. You can pin more than one note.
6 7. I have added a Heartwatch visit by mistake, can I delete it? If you need to remove a Heartwatch visit simply highlight the visit and press Ctrl + Del on your keyboard. You will be asked to confirm you want to delete the visit, click Yes. 8. Will I get a warning when prescribing drugs to women who is currently pregnant? There is a new safe prescribing feature in version 1.8 of Socrates. When enabled, it warns you when prescribing certain drugs that may not be suitable if the patient has an active pregnancy in their chart. 9. How do I delete a note I added to a chart in error? Open the patients chart, Begin or Edit a consultation first, highlight the note in question and press Delete on the keyboard. You will be asked Are you sure you want to delete the selected note? Click Yes. 10. Can I delete a pregnancy added to a chart in error? If you have added a pregnancy in the Ante Natal section in error you can remove it by highlighting the pregnancy and pressing Ctrl + Delete on your keyboard. You will then see a dialog that asks for confirmation, click Yes to confirm. You can always view previously deleted items by clicking the checkbox Show Cancelled Visits. 11. Can I quickly print a patients Drug card from their chart? Open a patient s chart, go to the Prescriptions section and there is a link along the left labelled Drug Card. This allows you to print a Drug card for this patient without having to navigate to the Reports section. 12. Is there a way I can quickly search through a list of investigations to add to a patients chart? In a patients chart in the Investigations section, if you click on the list of investigations you can start to type the name of the investigation you are looking for and the list will filter based on the letters you type. 13. Can I restrict access to charts for certain users or groups of users? Go to Patient Maintenance\Open Patient. Search for the patient in question. On the Patient Details page click on the Chart Access link along the left. Here you can restrict users or groups of users from accessing this patient s chart.
7 14. How do I add a reminder to a patients chart? On the Consultation Summary screen you will see an Add Reminder link in the top right corner. This allows you to add a reminder for this particular patient. You can set it so this reminder appears every time you open the chart or only appears from a certain date. You can complete the reminder at any time. 15. How do I print a patients repeat prescriptions without going into their chart? Go to My Control Panel and then Prescription Viewer. Search for the patient in question and the system will display scripts that the doctor has already prescribed. Simply highlight whichever drugs you would like to print and then click on Print. 16. How do I create a note template so I don t have to type out common notes every time? If you go to My Control Panel/Admin Console/System types. Click on the Note Templates tab along the top. Here you can add new note templates or edit existing ones. You can also create note templates with an ICPC code and free text combined. 17. Can I create my own ICPC keywords? You can now create your own ICPC Keywords and place the appropriate ICPC conditions under this keyword. To access a list of ICPC Keywords go to My control panel -> Admin Console -> categories and templates -> ICPC Keywords. The list of keywords is displayed along the left and any ICPC codes assigned to that keyword will be displayed on the right. To search the list of keywords you can begin typing with the keyword list selected and it will start filtering the list to any keywords that begin with the text you enter. 18. A note in a patients chart was updated, can I see what the text of the note was before it was updated? If you highlight the note in question and click on the blue link Audit it will displays the text of the note before every update made to the note. It will also display who updated it and when.
8 Patient Maintenance 1. Is there a Batch Scanning Facility in Socrates? Give the helpdesk a call and we will enable the Batch Scan facility in Socrates for you. It allows you to scan dozens of pages at a time and then assign each page to the relevant patient. 2. Is there a way I can track certain investigations for a patient? In Baseline details click on the button Tracker. Here you can add an investigation that you want to track and see all previous results for this investigation in a grid format. It s useful if you want to reference this investigation quickly when completing a new Baseline details entry. 3. Are there any keyboard shortcuts to move to different areas within a patients chart? If you have a patients chart opened and Press F3 it will jump to the notes section, F4 to go to Immunisations, F5 for Prescriptions, etc. 4. Is there a quick way of printing a label when I create a new letter? Yes, In the Letters section of Socrates v1820 there is a button named Label which will print a label with the name & address of the person the highlighted letter is being referred to. 5. Is there a way I can get a list of all patients over a certain age with certain conditions for the Flu vaccine? Go to the patient reports section in Socrates and run the report Patients with multiple conditions. You can run this report for patient s between certain age groups and who have condition X and\or Y. This report also has a mail merge facility if you wish to send a letter to each patient. 6. How can I quickly identify diabetic patients in Socrates? Socrates now includes new audit tools developed in collaboration with the Irish primary research network. These tools can be found in the reports section under Patient reports - Custom reports. These reports help to easily identify patients who have Type I or Type II diabetes. These tools can also be used to claim internal CPD points and help generate standardised data for completing your practice audit.
9 7. If I have Skype installed on my pc, can I use it to call a patient number from Socrates? Socrates supports Skype integration. If you have Skype installed on your pc you will see a Skype phone action button beside the patient s phone number in Socrates. Click on this icon to call the patient. 8. Where can I view the visit history for a particular patient? If you go to Patient Maintenance -> Patient Summary and click on Visit History, you will see a history of all the patients Appointments, walkins, etc. 9. How do I find out when a patient was registered on the system? In Patient Maintenance, click on Patient Summary. After selecting your chosen patient you will see a Registered date under the Patient Details heading. 10. Is there a batch control facility in Socrates for my Immunisations? If you go to My Control Panel -> Admin Console -> Immunisations and click on the Shots tab, you can highlight an individual shot and add your batch information to that shot. This saves you having to enter this information every time you administer the shot and it also appears red to warn you when the batch is about to run out. 11. I have saved a scan to the wrong chart. Can I transfer it to the correct chart? Yes. Go to My Control Panel and then Document Management System. Highlight the scan that you want to move and then click on the Transfer/Copy button on the left hand side. Next select the correct patients chart and then click Save 12. I have a patient letter saved on my PC but it is not saved in Socrates. Is it possible to attach this to their chart? Yes. Go to My Control Panel and then Document Management System. In the top left corner of the screen you will see an Attach File button. When you click on this you will be able to browse to the location of the letter and attach it to the chart. 13. How can I get a list of all immunisation shots due on a particular date? Go to My Control Panel\Immunisation Viewer. Click on the Due tab at the top. You can select a date and view all immunisations due on that date.
10 14. Where can I view the history of a User Task? Open up the user task in Question. Above the Update & Close button you will see a small button, when you hover over the mouse over it you will see the text User Task History. If you click this button you will see the history of this user task, including any updates made to the task and the date/time they were made. 15. I added an Allergy or Drug Allergy to a chart by mistake, can I remove it? Begin or Edit a consultation, go to the Prescriptions section, highlight the Allergy or Drug Allergy and press Delete on the keyboard. A confirmation window will appear, click Yes to delete.
11 Accounts 1. I have added a charge or payment to the wrong patients account, can I delete it? In Patient Accounts if you highlight a charge or payment in question and press the Delete key on your keyboard then a Delete Transaction window appears. Enter a reason and click Ok. You can change the View dropdown to Audit to see a history of deleted transactions. 2. I am a Practice Manager and would like to know how to go about implementing computerised accounts in my practice? In Socrates it is very easy to quickly and easily implement your accounts in computerised form. Socrates supports personal, family and third party accounts, third party meaning clubs or companies for example. Firstly you must setup the correct charge types. Charge types are the list of charges that your surgery performs, for example Standard Consultation 45.00. To setup your list of charge types navigate to My Control Panel - > Admin Console - > System Types and finally then click on the Account Types tab. Once you have all your charge types setup, next you must setup your Payment Types and this can be done from the same screen. The only difference is when adding a payment type, ensure the Account Type drop down is set to Payment. Once you have your list of charges and list of accepted payment types in place, you are ready to begin using the accounts. Now you can implement the charging inside the consultation rooms or at the front desk. The benefit of implementing the charging inside the consultation rooms is the exact set of itemised charges can be inputted. So for example, a patient may have been booked in for an appointment for a Standard Consultation, however while in consultation room, a Standard Consultation and a Blood Test was performed, two separate charges. By implementing charging inside the consultation room, when the patient returns to the reception area after consultation, the administrative staff can see on screen all charges, and he/she can then say to the patient Ok Sir/Madam, I can see you owe X for the following charges. From here the admin staff can take payment and optionally print a receipt for the user. You now have computerised accounts fully implemented in your practice, you can then utilise all the accounting reports inside the Reports module of Socrates to get daily cash book reports, unpaid patient reports, patient account statements, all types of useful accounting information. 3. How do I set up Third Party / Company accounts so that I can charge them directly and invoice them as is necessary? In the top left corner of the application click on Accounts followed by Setup Third Party. On the following screen add the necessary details (such as company name, accounts manager, address etc.) and then tick the box for Third Party a/c. Once you have an account created you can make charges to it by clicking on Accounts (as described above) followed by Third Party Account.
12 Communication 1. Is there somewhere in Socrates I can store commonly visited web sites for quick access? If you go to Communication in Socrates you will see a tab on the extreme right of the screen called Web References. You can access your links here. To add new links to Web References go to My Control Panel\Admin Console\Categories & Templates and click on the Web References tab. 2. Can I see a history of instant messages I have sent to colleagues in the past? You can view a history of all your instant messages, to do this just open an instant message with Dr. X for example and click on the Message History button in the bottom left corner. You can filter the list to view only messages you sent or messages you received. 3. How do I send an SMS message to a patient? The first requirement is that you have an account with a specialized SMS company called esendex.ie Contact our help desk for a link to their sign-up page. Once the account is active you will be able to text patients from several areas including Communication, Investigation Viewer, and the Patients chart. 4. Can I see a record of all the SMS messages I have sent to a particular patient? Yes, if you go to Patient Maintenance and click on Patient Summary. Click on SMS history and you will see a list of all messages sent to that particular patient.
13 Lab Messaging & Referrals 1. I downloaded lab results but mapped the results to the wrong patient, can I delete this mapping so future results don t go into the incorrect chart too? Go to My Communication\Lab Messaging. Near the top left of the screen click on Patient Mappings. Search for the patient in question, select the patient by double clicking on the name and you will see the list of lab mappings for that patient. Click on the red X next to the mapping you want to delete. 2. Is there somewhere I can view a history of all the lab results I have imported? Go to My Communication\Lab Messaging. In the top left corner click on Import History. Enter dates for Lab date from and Lab date to and click Search. You can also search for CO-OP messages and Appointment messages using the tabs at the top. 3. Is there a way I can quickly review all my electronic results in one place after they have been imported? Simply go to My Control Panel -> Result Viewer and view the In Review results. You can filter the results based on HCP so you only see the results that apply to you. 4. I would like to know if Socrates supports electronic lab message downloading and importing into the patient s chart? Yes using Socrates, you have the ability to download and import electronic lab messages inside the software. One of the major benefits of lab messaging in Socrates, is you can download lab messages directly from the software, as Socrates has a feature called Healthlink Web Service Integration. Socrates connects directly into your Healthlink account and starts the import process, saying you multiple clicks and time. Once results are integrated into Socrates, they go to a special location called the Investigation Viewer, this location is designed as My Mail, showing the healthcare professionals all the results that have come back for them from the laboratory and which have not been signed off yet. From here the healthcare professional can sign off on results as they view them and even SMS the patient to let them know about their blood results that have come back. Once results have been reviewed, they are stored inside the patients chart indefinitely, and the healthcare professional can trend the results against previous results, graph results, print them and many other functions.
14 5. How do I avail of the Healthlink Web Service Facility in Socrates? The Healthlink Web Service allows complete automation of the lab download process inside the Socrates system. To avail of this system inside Socrates, you require to have your Healthlink account setup and the Healthlink security certificate installed inside your web browser. Contact the Socrates help desk and we will perform a simple setup task where we will link your security certificate to the preferences inside the Socrates system. From that moment onwards you do not need to perform the old manual download process which included the following steps: Open your Internet Browser Log onto the Healthlink Web Site and enter username/password and pin Download unprocessed results Save results to a folder Open up Socrates- Lab messaging module Browse to saved results folder and begin labs integration Utilising The Healthlink Web Service dramatically cuts down the steps and time required: Open Up Socrates-Lab Messaging Module Click Download With Healthlink and Enter Username/Password and PIN Note: Step 2 can be further simplified in Socrates v1.6, as you have an option to save your Healthlink account credentials, so no need to key in this information each time you perform the lab messaging integration process. 6. Can I electronically refer my patients for breast care from Socrates; I can do this on the Healthlink website? With the release of Socrates v1.6 in late March 2010, Socrates customers will be able to electronically refer patients from the Socrates systems to numerous hospitals in Ireland utilizing the Health link system. 7. Can I view all the Electronic Referral responses in one place? If you open the Result Viewer by going to My Control Panel\Result Viewer, you can click on the tab along the top named Referral response messages to view all the response messages. From this section you can print them, mark them as read or Assign a task for a patient. 8. How to print labels quickly? Open the patients chart (you do NOT need to begin a consultation) and hold Ctrl & I, the label details window will then appear and you can either click Fininsh or Enter (on keyboard), and your label will then print.
15 Clinical Management 1. Can I view all newly downloaded CO-OP messages in the one place? If you go to My Control Panel\Result Viewer and click on the COOP/Discharge Messages tab at the top, you can view all CO-OP messages here and complete them individually 2. Is there any way to automate the time consuming job of updating our medical card lists? In Socrates 2009, a breakthrough feature called the PCRS Importer which allows automatic updates of your GMS lists for you. To utilise this feature you require to be setup with the HSE using the Client Eligibility Suite, this system will allow you to check your monthly GMS panels, submit your STC forms online and a number of other useful functions. On this system, you can download your monthly GMS panels in PCRS format. This is a nationally standard GMS list format that comes from the HSE system. On the PCRS Web site, look for the link called "capitation drill-down". That gives you the appropriate link to start the download of your GMS list in PCRS format. Once you download this list to your hard disk, we will want to integrate the list directly into Socrates and Socrates can update it for you. So inside Socrates navigate to the Patient Maintenance section, once in there look towards the left hand side and you will see the PCRS Importer button. Click this button and it will launch the PCRS Importer facility. From this module you can load your downloaded PCRS list into the PCRS Importer and Socrates will update all your GMS lists in seconds!!! This saves hundreds of hours a year for practices with multiple GMS lists, having the ability to update your GMS list with the click of a button, is all about the automation improvements Socrates brings to your practice. PCRS Contact Information: If surgeries are looking to import their GMS Panel Listing into Socrates they need to phone the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) to get access to their web service so that they can download their GMS Panel. https://www.sspcrs.ie/certdownload. Contact the PCRS on Tel: 01 864 7145 for a registration form. Once your registration form is received you will be advised how to download a digital certificate and then you can access the services online. You can check patient medical card eligibility at www.sspcrs.ie/portal/checker/ or by sending an smsmessage with the card number and code letter to Tel: 087 909 7867. 3. Can I add a user added drug to Socrates? You can manually add new drugs to Socrates at any time. Go to My Control Panel\Admin Console\Drugs. This takes you to the Add User Drug screen. You can fill in the required fields and simply click Next & Finish to add the drug to the system.