When you are ready to close an encounter, you need to sign it. Signing the encounter locks its contents so they can't be unintentionally modified or deleted.
When you sign an encounter, the following actions can occur:
Vitals are saved to the Vitals section of the patient summary.
Prescriptions move to Active Medications.
Diagnosis are added to the Medical History.
Provincial and private bills show in the Visits dashboard.
Private bills appear in the Balance Due and Private Billing sections of the patient's chart.
Provincial bills appear in the Insured Billing section of the patient's chart. Depending on the province you bill from, signing the encounter may have other actions.
Signature variables in letters and forms are populated with the provider's signature.
📌 Note: A user can generate a signed letter or form on behalf of the provider.
Patient data variables update the linked data points in patient data. For more information, see Using instant variables and Using data variables.
Signing an encounter is different from saving; as you enter data during an encounter, your changes are saved every ten seconds. Auto-save, or manually clicking Save, does not interfere with your ability to modify the encounter record, including undoing changes.
Steps
1. At the bottom of the encounter record, click Sign, and your encounter is now signed.
📌 Notes:
If an error appears when signing an encounter, see Validation errors for some suggestions to resolve it.
If you need to unlock an encounter to edit it or add additional information, see Unlocking an encounter.
If an electronic signature box appears, this means you missed signing a prescription.
After you sign the encounter, an Addendums section appears near the bottom of the encounter. You can add notes to the encounter in this section without unlocking the encounter (see Adding an addendum to an encounter).
💡 Tip: You can add billing items to a signed encounter.
Updated September 11, 2023