Patient Memos are helpful reminders that can be added to a patient's demographics window to prompt you with a pop-up containing information relating to the patient. Although they can be created manually, most memos are automatically generated by Genie. This article will outline what some of the common patient memos that appear throughout Genie are and why these appear.
Before you begin
If you wish to see patient memos throughout Genie, you will need to navigate to File > User Preferences > General, and ensure you have an appropriate value entered in the 'Display patient memo for x seconds' box. This setting will dictate how long you have to view the Patient Memo when booking in an appointment. This will need to be entered in the individual user preferences of each user wishing to see patient memos.
Note: If you would not like to see the Patient Memo window appear in the Appointment Book, you can turn this off by entering 0 in 'Display patient memo for x seconds' box. This sitting is only applicable to the Appointment Book and not the Clinical Window. If you would like to turn this off for the Clinical Window, navigate to File> User Preferences and tick 'Do not show prompts window'
Check Medicare Number/Check DOB
When: Appears when opening the patient's Clinical or Demographics window.
Why: A pathology result has been linked to the patient file but the Medicare details or DOB on the result are different to what is recorded in the patient's Demographics. Please Note: There will be a warning at the time of linking the result to alert you of this discrepancy.
Solution: Confirm the patient's details are correct by performing a Verify Online from their demographics window or contacting Medicare, then making the necessary changes. Alternatively, you can notify the lab of the discrepancy so they can update their records.
When: Appears when opening the Demographics window or raising an invoice for the patient.
Why: The patient has an outstanding balance on their account that is higher than the amount set in Practice Preferences. You can review this setting by going to File > Practice Preferences, double clicking on the practice name, and selecting the Miscellaneous tab. On the right hand side of this window you will see a section titled 'Give me a warning if account...'
If an account is outstanding by more than the number of days entered, or the balance is greater than the amount entered, the 'Bad Debt' memo will appear in the demographics window/raising an invoice, and a $ symbol will be added next the patient's name in the appointment book:
Solution: You can increase the 'Balance is greater than ___' figure to stop warning for smaller amounts, or the 'Overdue more than___' to exclude more recent debts for which payment is soon expected.
When: Appears when raising an invoice for a patient.
Why: An invoice has already been raised on this day for this patient.
Solution: Check the patient's Account History for an existing invoice billed today.
When: Appears when raising an invoice.
Why: The patient has no valid referral in their demographics window AND the practice type is set to anything other than GP, Day Surgery, Podiatry or Other Allied Health.
Solution: Ensure there is valid referral entered for the patient, or change the practice type to one of those mentioned above via File > Set Practice Type.
Overdue/Recent Pathology Results
Overdue Results
When: Appears when opening the Clinical Record of a patient.
Why: This will automatically appear for patients who have a pathology request in the Investigations Audit 14 days or older.
Solution: You can run an Audit of Pathology Requests through Open > Investigations Audit and select the Audit button. If this does not remove requests you know you have received results for, you can delete the request from the list.
There are Recent Pathology Results
When: Appears when opening the clinical file of the patient.
Why: Will appear when there have been results recently linked to the patient.
Solution: Under the Clinical tab of User Preferences, in the Prompts section, enter '0' into the field next to 'Warn of pathology results received in the last:'.
When: Appears when making an appointment or when opening the Demographics or Clinical Record of the patient.
Why: The ‘Record in patient memo’ tick box was ticked when deleting an appointment for this patient. Note - custom text can be entered as the reason for deletion which will appear in the memo.
Solution: Delete the text from the Memo field in the patient’s Demographics window. To prevent it occurring again, ensure the ‘Record in patient memo’ box is unticked then next time an appointment is deleted – this setting will then be unticked by default.
When: Appears when opening the clinical window of the patient.
Why: There is no date (i.e. 00/00/000) entered into the Last Pap field in an active patient’s clinical window, or the date is older than 2 years. Only when the practice type (File > Set Practice Type) is set to General Practice or Obs/Gynae/IVF Specialist.
Solution: A date must be entered in the Last Pap field in the patient’s clinical window OR, if the patient is not a regular of the practice or is no longer required to be recalled for smears (e.g. due to a hysterectomy), tick the 'Don't Recall for Smears' tickbox (which will prevent them from appearing on the Overdue Smears recall list).
When: Appears when opening the Clinical Record of the patient.
Why: Will only appear when opening the Clinical Record on the patient's birthday (regardless of what date you have selected in the calendar).
Solution: Tick "Do Not Show Prompts Window" under the Clinical tab of File > User Preferences - this will of course prevent other prompts throughout Genie as well.Show Patient Memos in the Appointment Book
You are able to insert the patient's memo into the Notes field of the Appointment Book when an appointment is made. These notes are visible when in the single provider view.
Navigate to Appts > Appt Preferences. In the Main tab, ensure that Insert Patient Memo in Notes is ticked as below, then click Save.
Once this preference is ticked, the Patient Memo will appear in the Notes column of your Appointment Book.
Note: Ticking or unticking this option will only affect appointments added into the Appointment Book in the future. It will not affect existing appointments.
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