You can create a letter from a patient encounter to include information from your encounter in the letter. For example, create a sick note or referral letter right from the encounter to include your notes within the letter.
Before you save and send the letter, you can edit the letter to remove any encounter notes that are not needed.
💡 Tip: If you often write the same letter, create and use a letter template, and assign the template as your default referral letter. You can also customize your settings to prevent staff from editing your signed referral letters. For more information, refer to Assigning a default letter template to outgoing referrals.
Steps
1. In the patient chart, open the encounter from which to create the letter.
2. Create the letter using one of the following methods:
Scroll down to the Referrals section and click Add Letter. This enables you to modify the contents of your notes in the letter, such as to remove unnecessary information.
Scroll down to the Referrals section and click Add Referral. This copies the contents of your encounter in the letter without enabling you to edit the contents.
After an encounter is signed, in the top-right corner, click Letter.
A new letter window opens.
3. To create the letter using a template, in the top-right corner, click Template, select the one to use and then click Apply this template. For more information, refer to Creating letter templates.
💡 Tip: Before applying the template, choose where you would like the template to appear. Select Prepend (before) or Append (after) from the list in the top-right corner of the Select template window.
📌 Note: Once set, this is the default for all letter templates until you change it.
4. In the Recipient field, search for and select the recipient. You can search for a contact using their name, billing code, occupation, or facility name.
If a Referring Practitioner or Family Doctor is recorded in the patient demographics, they appear in the list when you select a recipient, enabling you to easily send them the letter.
💡 Tip: If you do not select a recipient, the letter is addressed to "To Whom it may concern".
5. In the CC field, search for and select the recipients to receive a copy.
📌 Note: The CC recipient is automatically added to the bottom of the letter. If your cover page template is configured accordingly, the CC recipient can also appear on the cover page. Refer to Creating cover page templates.
6. In the Letter title field, edit the title as required. If you added a presenting issue to the encounter, it appears by default as the title.
7. In the body of the letter, the encounter notes appear. Edit the text as required.
If the template you selected contains variables, they automatically pull information straight from the patient chart and appear underlined.
If the variable does not automatically populate with information and appears as a blue bubble, this means that the information is missing from the chart.
If a variable is a pink bubble, click it to select from a list of options.
8. When you are done, click Save.
9. Send the letter using one of the following options at the bottom of the letter:
PDF: Generates a PDF to print, fax, email, or download.
Signed PDF: Generates a PDF with your digital signature at the bottom of the letter to print, fax, email, or download.
📌 Note: You can add a cover page to your PDF document. Refer to Adding a fax cover page to a PDF Document.
Message: Attaches the letter in a new message to another user within your clinic.
Referral: Sends the letter to another provider as referral (internal to your clinic or outgoing to another location).
Print Signed: Prints the letter with your digital signature at the bottom of the letter.
Fax Signed: Faxes the letter to the recipient with your digital signature at the bottom of the letter.
💡 Tip: For information about configuring your digital signature, refer to Configuring signatures.
10. To send a copy of the letter to the patient by email, in the top-right corner of the letter, click Send to patient. In the generated PDF, click the Email icon. The patient's email address is populated. Edit the message, if required, and click Send.
Updated September 21, 2023