Templates

Templates decide what a clinical document asks for. They come in two layers:

• A component is a reusable section of fields, such as a pain screen, a SOAP subjective or a set of signatures.
• A form is an ordered list of components for one discipline and one document kind, such as a speech therapy daily note or an occupational therapy evaluation.

Open Setup > Clinical libraries > Templates. The page has three tabs: Forms, Components and Catalog. Anyone with access to Setup can see shared templates. Changing them needs a role that can manage clinical libraries.

Document kinds#

Every form is for one document kind: evaluation, re-evaluation, daily note, progress report, recertification, plan of care, discharge summary, patient form or incident report. A component can be for one kind or for all of them, and for one discipline or for all disciplines. A form can only include components that fit its discipline and kind.

Shared and private#

A shared template is available to everyone in your clinic. A private template is visible only to the person who created it. A shared form can only include shared components, so everyone who opens it sees all of it.

Build a component#

1. On the Components tab, click New Component.
2. Enter a Name, and choose the Discipline and Document kind it is for, or leave them empty for all.
3. Click Create Component. The component opens in the editor, a full-screen dialog over the list.
4. Click Add Field below the field list. A drawer opens with every field type, grouped as answers, structured fields and clinical blocks, each with a short description and a sample of how it looks. Type in the search box to narrow the list, then click a field type to add it. Each new field goes below the one you have selected.
5. Select a field in the list to change its settings. Drag fields by the handle, or use the arrows, to reorder them.
6. Click Save Draft at the bottom of the editor.

Preview and try#

Beside the editor, switch between Preview and Try:

• Preview shows the component the way it will look in a document.
• Try lets you fill it in as a clinician would. Fields set to show only sometimes appear as you answer, and calculated scores add up as you go. Click Check Answers to see which required fields are still empty, and Reset to start over.

Nothing you enter in Try is saved or sent anywhere. Changing a field's settings starts the trial over.

In Details you can also set a Category and an Order, which group and sort components in the library, and a Heading component that the component sits under. Type in Heading component to search the whole library.

Field types#

On a body annotation, click the outline to drop a mark. From the keyboard, choose Add mark, then use the arrow keys to move the mark (hold Shift for bigger steps); Tab to any mark to move it again.

Eight blocks are filled in from the document itself rather than typed into the template:

• Goals shows the plan of care goals: to write them, to mark the ones addressed in a session, or to report progress on each.
• Activities holds the activity flowsheet: the exercises and drills performed, from the therapy activity library. See Activity flowsheets.
• Procedure codes and units holds the services and units for the visit.
• Diagnoses holds the diagnoses the document addresses.
• Medications shows the patient's medication list from the chart and keeps it as it was when the document is signed.
• Outcome measure gives an outcome instrument in the document and lists the results given there. Pick the Instrument in its settings, or leave it empty so the author picks one.
• From the chart shows chart records read only: pick what it Shows, the patient's demographics, the coverage in effect on the document date, or the authorizations for the document's discipline that cover that date. A draft shows the chart as it stands, so the author fixes the chart to change it; signing keeps it as it was. The stock evaluation and progress report templates start with a From the chart section holding all three.
• Signature marks where the author, a co-signer, or the patient or caregiver signs.

Field ids#

Every field has an id, such as pain_rating. NeatPractice fills it in from the label while you type, and you can change it before the component is first published. After that the id stays the same, because documents store their answers by field id. To replace a published field, add a new field and remove the old one.

Choices and scores#

Select fields list their choices with a label and a value. Give each choice a Score when a calculated score adds the field up.

A Calculated score adds up, or averages, the fields you pick:

• Numbers and rating scales count as entered.
• A select counts the score of the picked choice, or of every picked choice for a multi select.
• Yes counts as 1 and no as 0; a checked checkbox counts as 1.
• Another calculated score counts as its own total.

Fields left empty, or hidden by a condition, are skipped, so an average covers only the answered fields.

Fill from the chart#

A short text, date or single select field can fill a chart field: pick it in Fills chart field, such as the patient's address or the primary insurance member id. A new form starts with the chart's value. When a patient form is signed, in the clinic or from an intake packet, a different answer never changes the chart by itself; it waits in the chart's chart updates for staff to accept. For a select bound to a coded field, such as sex or guardian relationship, click Use the chart's choices to copy the chart's options.

A file upload field files its files under Files to category once staff accept them from the chart update.

Show a field only sometimes#

Under Show this field, pick a field above it in Only when, then choose the condition:

• has a value shows the field once the other field is filled in.
• equals or does not equal compares the other field with a value you pick, such as yes, a choice, or a number.

For example, a pain rating can show only when Reports pain today equals yes. A field can only depend on a field above it, and a hidden field also hides the fields that depend on it.

Build a form#

1. On the Forms tab, click New Form.
2. Enter a Name and choose its Discipline, Document kind and Visibility.
3. Click Create Form. The form opens in the editor, a full-screen dialog over the list.
4. Under Components, search the available components and click + to add one. Only active components that fit the form's discipline and kind are listed. A large library lists its first 100 components; search by name or category to find the rest.
5. Drag components, or use the arrows, to set the order the document shows them in.
6. Click Save Draft at the bottom of the editor.

If you change the discipline, document kind or visibility of a form, components that no longer fit are outlined in red with the reason, such as Made for Evaluation documents. Remove or replace them before you save; the rest of the form and its order stay as they are.

Payer layouts#

A shared evaluation, progress report or discharge summary form can be the layout a payer asks for. Pick the payers under Payers using this layout. A payer report on one of their authorizations then starts from this form instead of your clinic default. The form must be published.

The form editor has the same Preview and Try beside it, built from the saved components and their latest published fields. Save the form to see a change there.

Publish and versions#

Templates are drafts until you publish them. Click Publish at the bottom of the editor, next to Save Draft, to save the current draft as a new version. Save your changes first: Publish stays off while there are unsaved changes, while the saved draft has no fields (or a form no components), and when the latest version is already published with nothing changed since. Point at the button to see why it is off. An edit you make while a save is still running stays unsaved until you save again. Published versions never change: a document always stays on the version it started from, and a signed document keeps exactly what it showed when it was signed.

• Publish a component before you publish a form that includes it.
• Editing a published template changes only its draft. Its status shows Unpublished changes until you publish again, and new documents keep using the last published version meanwhile.
• A form version keeps the component versions it was published with. When you publish a new version of a component, the forms that include it show Unpublished changes. Publish the form to pick up the new component version.

Each editor lists its published versions under Published versions.

If someone else saved the template while you were editing, the editor says so when you save. Click Reload to load their version, then make your changes again. If the reload fails, your changes stay on screen and you can try again. A component editor opens once its published fields have loaded, since those fields cannot change type.

Defaults#

Each discipline and document kind can have one clinic default form, which new documents of that kind start from. To choose it, open a shared, active, published form and choose Set as Clinic Default from the menu at the top of the editor, or use Set as Default in the form's row menu. The previous default stops being the default.

Clinicians can pick a personal default for themselves: open the form and choose Make My Default from the menu. Their default is used instead of the clinic's while the form stays active and published. Choose Clear My Default to go back to the clinic default. If your defaults could not be loaded, the menu offers Retry Loading My Default instead.

Duplicate a template#

Choose Duplicate in a form's or component's row menu, enter a name, and click Duplicate. The copy starts as an unpublished draft with the same fields or components.

Deactivate or delete#

Deactivate a template you no longer want offered: it disappears from pickers and new documents, and documents already built from it keep their version. Deactivating the clinic default leaves that discipline and kind without a default until you choose another.

You can delete a template only while nothing uses it. A component in a form, or a form or component that documents were built from, cannot be deleted; deactivate it instead.

The template catalog#

The Catalog tab lists ready-made forms and components for speech therapy and occupational therapy: daily notes, evaluations, progress reports, plans of care and discharge summaries, and the components they are built from.

• Click Add to copy an item into your clinic. It arrives published and shared, and from then on it is yours to change. Adding a form also adds its components, or reuses the copies you already added.
• An item you have added is hidden. Turn on Show added to see it, then click Add again to get a fresh copy, for example to restore one you changed or deleted.
• An item for a discipline your clinic does not have cannot be added until you add that discipline.