Encounters: Patient Profile

Encounters are structured engagements that provide visibility into the past, present, and future meetings with the patient. This information related to the interaction includes:

• The meeting’s start date and time
• Billing and payment information
• Instructions for the care team during the meeting
• Notes and Assessments
• Dispositions 

This helps the care team gain a better understanding of what happened during the appointment.  Encounters contain all the necessary information payers require for insurance claims to be processed successfully.  They can be created via API; Automations configured in Designer; or manually from the Encounters menu, patient’s chart, and Calendar. 

The Encounters navigation view in the Patient’s Profile lists the Encounters based on their status of Planned, In Progress, Completed, and Canceled. Checking or unchecking the box next to the status will show or hide the Encounters with that particular status.

Encounters can also be shown based on their scheduled date.  The default view lists the Encounters scheduled for “All Time”.  By clicking on the calendar at the top of the Encounters Navigation view, users can filter Encounters by those scheduled for “Today”, “This Week”, “This Month”, or selecting a specific date range.

Another filtering option is via the Encounter’s payment status of “Paid”, “Partially Paid”, “Unpaid”, and “Not Available”.  All three options are “sticky filters” so the selections stay in place for the patient the user is currently viewing, but also any patient the user may navigate to until the filters are manually changed or the user logs out of the system.  Additionally, the Encounters can be sorted by Name, Date/Time, Member, Description, and Updated time.

When creating an Encounter manually, the user will click the orange “+ New” button in the top right corner.  A drawer containing a list of Encounter templates that the user can choose from will open.  Clicking on a template will open that Encounter type showing the date and time of the meeting (if it will be in-person, a phone call, or video), the care team member hosting the meeting, as well as instructions and special notes. Based on configuration, billing information can be added to the Encounter, too.

Clicking on an Encounter will display the details of the Encounter:

• Scheduled date and start time
• Assigned care team member
• Billing and Payments (based on configuration settings)
• Notes and Assessments
• Instructions
• Encounter Dispositions

The Notes and Assessments are forms attached to the specific Encounter that either need to be completed before the Encounter has been finalized, or have been added to the Encounter at a later date.  The Encounter Dispositions are customized fields indicating what happened during the Encounter or additional information needed for billing or reporting purposes.

To learn more about Encounters follow this link: https://welkinhealth.com/kb/feature-overview-encounters/

To learn more about creating Encounter Templates follow this link: https://welkinhealth.com/kb/encounters-and-dependencies/

More Questions?

If you have any questions, please visit the Welkin Health Knowledge-Base or contact your Implementation/CSM for more information.