💡 Top tip: You can export your clinical notes and treatment history, but going to the 'History' tab in the patient record, and clicking 'Export as PDF'.
Why can't I edit my clinical notes
All clinical notes are locked for editing 24 hours after a treatment is ticked as complete. This protects the clinical notes from being amended after the day of completion.
How to edit notes after 24 hours
As Dentally locks notes after 24 hours, you cannot edit the already ticked items on your plan. Therefore, we recommend you chart a general note item and add any additional information to this new item on the patients chart.
If your practice is using the 'Robust Clinical Notes Locking Feature' the logic behind editing your notes will differ slightly:
When a treatment is ticked as complete, the notes are only editable for 24 hours as before, but if that treatment is unticked (marked as incomplete) the notes will be locked if the completion date was more than 24 hours ago.
When this occurs you will need to add additional notes as a general note item to record any note changes.
How to edit notes within 24 hours
If the treatment is ticked as complete but the 'Complete treatment plan button' has not been clicked you can open the treatment item and edit the notes directly on the patients 'Chart' screen.
However if you have ticked the items as complete and closed completed the entire treatment plan within the last 24 hours you will need to:
Unlocked treatment (no invoices attached)
Go to the patient's 'Chart' and navigate to the 'History' tab.
Locate treatment plan in the history list.
Click on the blue 'TP' icon on the left of the treatment item, this will bring up the treatment plan on your patient's 'Chart' screen.
From here you can click into and edit the notes of any unlocked treatment items.
If the treatment item is greyed out, this means the item is locked.
You will need to Re-open the treatment plan using the 'Re-open' button at the bottom of the chart screen.
Then you will need to untick the treatment to be able to edit the notes. (If you cannot untick the items, this means there are invoices attached and you will need to follow the below instructions first)
Once unticked you can add/edit your notes as needed.
Once you are ready you will need to tick the items as complete again and then complete the treatment plan.
Locked treatment (with invoices attached)
If you have re-opened the treatment plan and you cannot untick the items, then you will need to proceed to first remove the invoice associated.
Navigate to the patient's 'Account' tab and locate the invoice associated with the treatment you need to edit the notes for.
You will need to delete the invoice - follow the instructions here on how to do this.
After removing the invoice, your original treatment is now unlocked and you can untick the treatment so that you can edit the notes attached.
When you have made all your amendments, tick the items as complete and charge the treatment back through and remember to complete the treatment as well if you re-opened it.
The invoice will be created again and tif there was a payment assigned the payment will automatically be explained against the new invoice.
How to chart a general note
Go to the patients 'Chart' and navigate to the 'History' tab.
Locate the treatment in the list of treatments.
Click on the blue 'TP' icon on the left of the treatment item, this will bring up the treatment plan on your patient's 'Chart' screen.
You will need to Re-open the treatment plan using the re-open button at the bottom of the chart screen.
Chart a general note, or whichever code you use to for this purpose.
Expand the treatment item and make sure you set the date completed to that of the original treatment date.
Add any notes needed.
Once you are ready, tick the treatment to mark it as finished and then press complete to close the treatment plan and send the note to the patients history.