Start a consultation and record the patient visit

In Neo, a consultation is the appointment visit record and invoice for the patient.

Using procedure templates help ensure consistently formatted exam notes and correct products and services are applied to the consultation record.

• See FAQs: Consultations and procedures for answers to common questions.
• See To add a billing message to a statement, invoice, or estimate to learn how to update your invoice or estimate templates. 
• If your practice is integrated with SmartFlow, see Send patient to SmartFlow to learn how to add a patient to the whiteboard.

Permission required: Edit Consultations 

Create a consultation from an appointment

1. Click Schedule.
2. Locate the patient appointment and click on it below the appointment status to view the appointment popover card.
3. Click Create Consultation.
   Tip: If you need to create an estimate for this visit, see Create or update an estimate.
4. From the Provider drop-down list, review or select the staff member seeing the patient. This is the consultation provider.
5. In the Description box, enter up to 150 characters to describe the visit for easy searching and viewing from the patient Consults tab. For example, itchy skin; annual exam; etc.
6. To view patient history, click the tab you want to view or click the arrow to open the Patient History panel. See View patient history from consultation for more information about the Patient History panel.
   
7. Enter the patient vital signs, as needed. See Enter patient vital signs for more information.
8. From the Procedure Templates drop-down, click the down arrow to search for and select a template in the list. See Add a procedure template for more information.
   Tip: For procedure templates you use most frequently, click the Favorites icon to the right of the template name. This will change the Favorites icon from white to gold ; and the template will now display at the top of your Procedure Templates list.
9. Enter your notes in the Notes box. You can use the formatting tools to update the note.  
   Note: When you click in another area of the consultation, notes will save automatically, and the Notes box will remain in edit mode. To put the Notes in view mode while you work in other areas of the consultation, click Save Notes.
10. In the Problems box, search for and select the problem. You can also add a new problem. These terms are supplied by the American Animal Hospital Association. 
11. In the Product/Service area, search for and select a product or service on the next available consultation product line.
    • If you are ordering laboratory or in-house analyzer diagnostics, see Order diagnostic products.
    • If you are ordering digital imaging products, see Order digital products.
    • If you are recording vaccine details, see Enter vaccine information and print certificates.
    • If you are prescribing or refilling a medication and printing labels, see Create or refill a prescription.
    • If you are recording a microchip ID, see Enter a microchip ID for a patient.
    • If you are applying any discounts, see Apply a discount to consultation or estimate product lines.
    • If you are printing a form linked to a product, see Print or email forms and documents.
12. Update the consultation product line details, as needed.
    • Label - Enter information to be printed on labels or forms. For example, prescription instructions, location of administered vaccine.
    • Quantity - Quantity sold.
    • Provider - Veterinarian or staff who should be credited for the sale.
    • Price - Sell price without tax.
      Note: You will also see the sell price with tax plus any applied discount, as applicable, if your practice has the Display Price Inc Tax turned on in Company Settings.
    • Date - Date the product was sold, performed, administered, prescribed, etc.
13. Optional. To rearrange the order of product lines, click the Rearrange icon  on the product line you want to move. Then continuing to hold down your mouse button, drag the product line or grouped procedure template product lines up or down until a blank line appears where you’d like to move the product. See Rearrange product lines on consultations, estimates, and refunds for more information.
14. Optional. If the client has declined any products or services; and you want to save them to the patient record, click the menu button , then select Decline. See Decline products on estimates and consultations for more information.
15. Close the consultation when complete. The action available will depend on the consultation invoice total.
    • When the consultation invoice total is more or less than $0, click the Ready to Pay button.
    • When the consultation invoice total is $0 or is only notes, click the Close Consultation button.
    Note: Do not close the consultation until it is complete as patient reminders are created, updated, or deleted; and callback tasks are created and assigned to the line item provider(s).
    At midnight each day, all closed consultations will be permanently closed. If you need to hide or update a permanently closed consultation, see Void or correct a permanently closed consultation.
16. To lock consultation notes from additional updates, click the Lock Notes button. Do not lock a consultation until the notes are complete.
    Note: Only users who can edit consultations can lock notes.
17. When the patient is ready to be checked out, see Discharge the patient.

Additional information

• For spellcheck, press CTRL (or CMD) + right-click on a misspelled word (underlined in red) to display a list of spelling recommendations.
• Consultations can also be created outside the appointment workflow from the patient record when you click the Create Consultation button.
• To learn how to update an existing consultation before it is permanently closed, see Update a consultation.
• To learn how to void or correct a permanently closed invoice, see Void or correct a permanently closed consultation.
• When you create a consultation from an appointment, important appointment information will be copied to the consultation:
  
  1. Provider
  2. Reason
     Tip: If you need to modify the reason, you must edit it from the appointment on the Schedule where the consultation was created.
  3. Appointment Notes

An appointment for Zeke Tibbetts on the left with an arrow pointing to the consultation created from the appointment on the right. The provider (Dr. Jones), the Reason (Exam - Well Visit), and the Notes (Overdue for rabies vx) are copied from the appointment to the consultation.