Presenting issues enable you to capture the patient's "primary reason for your visit" when they book an appointment using eBooking (if enabled for your clinic) and when you book appointments for patients in your schedule.
When you configure presenting issues (see Creating presenting issues (reasons for visit), you can link them to an encounter template and a Qnaire, enabling you to automate and auto-populate information within an encounter, depending on the reason chosen for the appointment and the patient's Qnaire responses.
For example, you define an "anxiety" presenting issue and you link it to your anxiety encounter template and Qnaire. You or the patient book an appointment and select "anxiety" as the reason (presenting issue). The patient receives the "anxiety" Qnaire prior to their appointment in the communication from your clinic (such as appointment confirmation and reminders) and fills out the Qnaire. Then, when a provider creates a new encounter linked to the patient's appointment, the "anxiety" encounter template is automatically loaded with the patient's responses to the Qnaire.
Presenting issues capture why the patient needs to see a provider, whereas appointment types define administrative information about appointments, such as length, who can book them, and their colour in the schedule (see Creating and modifying appointment types).
You use presenting issues as follows:
Patients booking appointments themselves using eBooking
If your clinic uses the eBooking feature and you have more than two presenting issues created, patients can be prompted to select the reason (presenting issue) for their visit as a part of the booking process. For more information, see Requiring patients to select an appointment reason when booking.
Scheduling appointments for patients
When you select a presenting issue in the appointment, any pre-visit Qnaires that are linked to that presenting issue are automatically added to all communication with the patient (such as appointment confirmation and reminders). To add a presenting issue to an appointment, select from the list of configured presenting issues.
Generating referrals
If you generate a referral from an encounter with a presenting issue, the presenting issue automatically populates the Reason for Referral. You can then filter referrals by presenting issues in order to gain insight into your waitlist. When you book an appointment from the referral request, the presenting issue is carried foward into the new appointment and any linked encounter templates and Qnaires are automatically loaded.
Updated June 11, 2021