Open Dental Forum

Hi all,

Recently started using OD. My question relates to the procedure order of entry in the Progress Notes Ledger.

For example, patient books appointment, comes in as emergency, PA is taken, extraction is done, and then provider writes the progress note next day. For provider notes we use a no fee code similar to N4117 with description Provider's Treatment Note.

On the ledger it appears as:

3/26/2013 Appointment
3/26/2013 intraoral - periapical
3/26/2013 Provider's Treatment Note
3/26/2013 19 extraction of erupted tooth or exposed root.....

Is there a way to reorganize the order of entry so that the Provider's Treatment Note appears at the end of all procedures entered for that visit?

3/26/2013 Appointment
3/26/2013 intraoral - periapical
3/26/2013 19 extraction of erupted tooth or exposed root.....
3/26/2013 Provider's Treatment Note

I know the note could be written directly on each procedure entry but for us it works best to have the provider write a note that covers all procedures completed on the visit.

Thanks in advance....

Have you thought about using the appointment's Note section in the lower left of the appointment edit window or a Group Note in the chart module on the procedures instead of using a no fee code for the provider's notes?
http://opendental.com/manual/aptedit.html
http://opendental.com/manual/procgroupnote.html

That way you don't have to care about what order they show, just open the appt or group note and you can see all the procedures that the note applies to. Group notes highlight the related procedures in the chart module as well.

Thanks. I'll give it a try and will post back questions....

Hi Jason,

Tried both options you mentioned. The Group Note works best in our case and almost perfectly for this purpose. Questions:

Is there a way to 1) rename "Group Note" to "Provider Note" and 2) could the note appear after all procedures (for the visit) in the Progress Notes ledger. As of now, it shows at the beginning when generally the note is created after the visit has ended and all procedures have been completed.

Thanks again....

Dr. S

The short answer to both of these questions is that they both will be feature requests, the second being the more complex due to the amount of things the progress notes section displays and orders.

For a more detailed look at how that section of the program is handled, I'd recommend looking at the section on this page titled order of rows in progress notes. http://www.opendental.com/manual/showtabchart.html That gives a better behind the scenes look at why the second request is more complicated.

For information on feature requests:
http://www.opendental.com/manual/featurerequests.html