Contacts Tab

The Contacts tab stores contacts with or on behalf of a patient. Contacts take the form of letters sent/received, phone calls made, and email sent/received, if these features have been activated. Each time a contact is generated within EXACT, an entry will appear in the patients Contacts tab.

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Standard Features

• Phone Conversations can be listed with a brief description

• Letters Sent can be listed with a brief description

• The list can be filtered by Category.

EXDOC option

If the EXDOC document management module is installed, the following additional features are enabled:

• Phone conversations can be listed with extensive notes

• Letters sent can be listed and viewed

• Documents sent and received can be listed

• Patient documents can be imported and viewed

• Documents can be scanned with a TWAIN-compatible scanner.

EXDOC^e option

If the EXDOC^e document management module is installed, the following additional features are enabled:

• Sent email and SMS messages (such as appointment reminders) are recorded.

• From EXACT v11.8 the Contacts Tab features Reply and Forward buttons, as in the above image.

Presentation Manager option

When the Presentation Manager is installed, documents, letters, email messages and document templates can all be viewed, edited and printed in the Presentation Manager.

If the CTI module is registered, the Contacts tab will record call notes created when calls are received from patients and the patient file, appointments or patient transaction records are accessed.

TIP: Right-click a Contact record to see options. For example:

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Date Column: This displays the date the document was assigned when scanned into the patient file. This is generally the date the document was scanned or imported but can be changed at the time of scanning/importing to reflect the document creation date.

Type: The type of contact is indicated by the symbol displayed to the right of the date. A status tooltip displays when you hover your mouse cursor over SMS contacts.

Descriptions: Displays the description of the document.

Creator: The name of the person who created the document.

Category: The name of the person who created the document.

Contact List: If the Contact entry was generated from a Contact List, the Contact List name will be displayed here.

SMS Status: This column will display a brief explanation of the status of any SMS message that has been initiated to send to a patient, corresponding to whichever of the six SMS status icons is in the Type column.

Filed to Specialist: If a copy of a document was also sent or emailed to a specialist, their name will be recorded here (conversely, any communication with a specialist and also copied to the patient will be recorded in the Specialist's "Contacts" tab.)

Import: Import an existing document (EXDOC only)

Reply: Reply to a Contact (EXDOC^e)

Forward: Forward a Contact (EXDOC^e)

File: File the current document against a patient and/or specialist. This will open the following dialog:

View: The View button is used to view email messages, and is greyed out for other documents. To view other documents, double-click the item.

Source: Select Scanner (EXDOC only)

Scan: Scan Document (EXDOC only). Select this to open the Scan Type window: See Scanning Documents

Attach: Highlight a document on the contacts tab, then click this button to send the document as an email attachment to the patient (they must have an email address set up in their patient file). The button is greyed out and inactive until a document is highlighted.

Information: Opens a window for displaying and editing the contact information for the highlighted item:

Edit: Edits the selected Contact. Alternatively double-click on a Contact entry (editing of letters is available only if EXDOC is installed).
The document will be opened in the Presentation Manager if it is configured, otherwise it will open in Microsoft Word.
If the contact was an SMS the details will be displayed, but you cannot edit it apart from marking the message as read/unread.

Delete: Deletes the highlighted item.

Patient Phone Contacts can be created directly from the Patient File by clicking on the Phone button wherever it is visible.

To contact by phone

1. Highlight the patient to phone.

2. Click the Phone button to open the Call Patient window:

    

   NOTES:
   The example above shows the screen that is available if you have the EXDOC module registered. Without this module the Contact Notes section will not be displayed, though brief notes can still be made within the Description box.
   The phone number options displayed depend on which numbers are present in the patient’s file.
   The Dial button and phone numbers are displayed only if EXACT has been configured to dial outgoing numbers for you. See the Computer Settings section for more details.

3. Enter a description about the phone call and any notes if required. Any notes that you enter will be stored on the patient's Contacts tab against the date that you contacted the patient.

4. If you are calling the patient from a Recall List or Contact List entry, click the Mark as complete checkbox if no further contact with the patient is required. This will remove the patient from the list when you exit this screen by clicking the 'OK' button.

   If a patient is not marked as complete, reception will be prompted to mark them as complete when an appointment is made for them. This allows you to make further contact with the patients on the recall list at a later date if they don't respond to the first contact.

5. If dialling through the PC (with the required software and hardware), select the number to dial and click the Dial button to make the call.

   (Note that the numbers listed will depend on what has been entered in the patient's record - there may be any or all of the home phone, work phone, or mobile phone numbers).

6. If dialling manually and recording the call details (the notes entered above, and the date of the call), click OK. This will add an entry on the Contacts tab for the patient, with a handset icon in the Recalls column to indicate the contact type was a phone call.

EXDOC users can view/edit the additional notes entered by highlighting the entry then clicking the Edit button. Alternatively, double-click the Contact entry.

1. Open the patient record of the patient.

2. Click the Phone Button on the Patient Tool Bar; this will open the 'Contact by Phone' window.

3. Enter an appropriate description (i.e., a short phrase or sentence that summarises the phone call's purpose).

4. Enter the specific details of the conversation in the Contact Notes field (if available).

    

5. Click the ‘OK’ button to save the Phone Contact Entry. Your ‘Contacts’ tab should now look similar to the following:

   The Phone Contact will be listed with the existing Contact entries. The ‘Date’ and ‘Creator’ will be automatically entered from the user’s login information.

   EXDOC users can view/edit the additional notes entered by highlighting the entry then clicking the Edit button. Alternatively double-click on the Contact entry.