Offline sessions

Home, school and community visits often happen where the connection drops. NeatPractice installs as an app on a tablet or phone and keeps the visits you prepare available offline: you write the note draft on the device, and it becomes the visit's draft note once you are back online. Signing always happens online, in NeatPractice.

Installing the app#

1. Open NeatPractice in the browser on your tablet or phone and sign in.
2. Add it to your home screen: in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen; in Chrome, open the menu and tap Install app.
3. Open NeatPractice from the new icon.

Preparing visits for offline#

Prepare while you still have a connection, for example at the start of the day.

1. Go to Documentation, then Offline sessions. The list shows today's appointments where you are the provider, with their discipline.
2. Select the visits you will document away from a connection and click Prepare for Offline.
3. The first time, choose an offline PIN of 6 to 10 digits. You need it to open your offline sessions when the device has no connection.

A Ready badge marks each prepared visit, and its card on My Day reads Offline ready. For each visit the device keeps only what you need to write the note:

• The patient's first name and last initial, the appointment time and place.
• The visit's draft daily note with its answers so far. When no draft exists yet, preparing starts one on the template you would start from in the browser (your default, else the clinic's), so a template change published while you are offline does not change the note you are writing. The draft shows in the chart before the visit starts and belongs to the visit once it does.
• The treatment diagnoses, the active goals of the plan of care and any precautions on the chart.

Dates of birth, phone numbers, coverage, billing and other patients never reach the device. When a note cannot be started for the visit (no published daily note template, the plan of care requirement, or a note already signed), the visit opens with the reason instead of the template.

Writing a note draft offline#

1. Click Open Offline Sessions (or open the app without a connection). Enter your offline PIN if asked.
2. Pick the visit and click Open. If your clinic uses EVV, Clock In and Clock Out work here too.
3. Read Before you write for the diagnoses, goals and precautions, then fill in the note as you would in the browser. Your answers are saved on the device, encrypted, as you type.
4. Click Save to Sync to queue the draft. It syncs right away when you are online, or as soon as the connection returns. Going back to your sessions queues any unsaved changes too.
5. When you are done with the note on this device, click Done on This Device. Once everything has synced, click Remove From Device.

Smart phrases, goal measurements, activity flowsheets and attachments need a connection; fill those in the browser before signing.

Syncing and conflicts#

The app syncs whenever it is open and online. Each synced draft updates the visit's draft daily note, the same one the browser editor opens; if the visit had not started yet, it starts on the first sync with the draft you prepared.

NeatPractice never silently overwrites a newer draft. If someone changed the note in the browser after you prepared the visit, the sync panel shows Note edit changed in two places with both versions side by side:

• Keep Mine sends your device's version again on top of the server's.
• Use Server replaces the text on the device with the server's version, so you can continue from it.

A field the chart stores masked, such as a Social Security number, never counts as a change, since the server keeps only its last four digits. New saves wait until you choose. A note signed in the meantime does not accept the device's version; the panel lists it as not accepted, and you can add what is missing as an addendum.

Signing#

Signing never happens offline. After the draft syncs, open the visit in NeatPractice and sign the note as usual. Until you click Done on This Device, the note cannot be signed in the browser, so a device still holding changes cannot be overtaken; if the device is lost, an administrator removes it under Offline Devices and the note can be signed.

How offline data is protected#

• Everything kept for offline use is encrypted on the device with 256-bit AES before it is saved. Opening it takes a key only this browser on this device holds and one from NeatPractice (online) or your offline PIN (offline).
• Pages and answers from NeatPractice are never kept in the browser's cache; only the app itself is.
• After your clinic's idle timeout, the offline sessions lock until you enter your PIN or use device unlock.
• Offline data is erased when you sign out, when an administrator removes the device, when the device has not been online for longer than your clinic allows (72 hours unless changed) and after five wrong PIN entries. NeatPractice syncs first whenever it can, and tells you on the next sign-in if anything unsynced had to be cleared.

Settings and devices#

Administrators open Setup, then Offline Devices to set the maximum offline time and the sessions per device, see every registered device and Remove a lost or retired one.