Adding walk-in patients to a service

Add walk-in patients to a walk-in session, or if this session is very busy, or you don't have a dedicated walk-in session, add walk-in patients to a general session.

Patients are listed in the Service Recording window in priority order. The priority is determined by:
  1. Priority - where 1 is the highest priority and 3 is the lowest. Exact priorities are determined by your organisation:
    • By default, all walk-in patients for a dedicated walk-in only session are assigned a priority of 2.
    • By default, walk-in patients in a General service are assigned a priority of 3.
    • By default, booked patients are assigned a priority of 2.
  2. Sequence date:
    • For a booking that hasn't yet started, the booked time
    • For a patient who has arrived, the arrived or check-in time. If your organsiation has a grace period set and the patient arrives late for their appointment, the priority for their appointment may be lowered.
    • For a service that has started, the start time
  3. Encounter number: two services with the same priority and sequence date are listed in the order created
Tip:
To apply basic triage to walk-in patients, ensure you set both the Priority and Service message when you enter a Service Recording. Develop standard service messages suitable for your encounter place.
To add a walk-in service:
  1. In the Service Recording window, click Add.
  2. In the Add Patient to Service Recording window:
    1. In the Patient Name field, enter the patient's name.
    2. Select the required patient from the patient list.
    3. Click Select Patient.
  3. In the Session Selection window, select the required session from the sessions available today at your encounter place and click Select.
    If a walk-in session isn't available, it has either not started or has not yet passed the last walk-in time available. The number of patients waiting for the session and the scheduled end time of the session are listed.
    Tip:
    If you see a patient for an emergency on a public holiday or outside of hours when the practice is otherwise closed and there are no sessions available, click Extra. The encounter is recorded as a service of type Extra with no session. If you open a clinical record directly rather than from the Service Recording window, the encounter is always recorded as a service of type Extra.
  4. In the Service Record window:
    1. In the Providers list, ensure that the Provider is correct.
    2. In the Priority list, select a priority for the patient. This determines the order in which patients will be seen if the provider is working from the top of the list.
    3. In the Service message field, enter supporting information for the priority. For example, URGENT, head wound.
    4. Check the other information for this patient.
  5. Click Save.

Patients are listed in the Service Recording window in priority order. Providers can use this list as a guide to determine in which order to see patients, and open patient clinical records from the list.

If you added the walk-in patient to a General session, they are added to the end of the bookings, unless you have changed their priority. If you changed the walk-in patient's priority to the same or higher than the booked patients (generally a priority of 2), they are added to the Service Recording list before the next booked patient.

If a selection is cancelled, you can record the service without a session, as an Extra service. Extra services do not have a provider or encounter place assigned automatically. Set or change these manually.