ChiroUp simplifies note-taking by automatically populating the Subjective portion of your note with the survey results completed by your patient at each visit. This article outlines FAQs about how, when, and why patients complete their surveys.
What is the Chief Complaint Survey (CCS)?
The Chief Complaint Survey (CCS) is a comprehensive and intuitive tool that captures detailed subjective information about your patient’s chief complaint. When a patient completes the CCS, it generates the complaint within their encounter, enabling the provider to efficiently complete their note.
What other surveys will patients be automatically prompted to complete?
After completing the CCS on their first visit, patients will either be prompted with the interim or re-exam surveys upon check-in to their subsequent visits.
- The interim survey is a short survey designed to capture a status update on the patient's complaint at the time of their appointment.
- The re-exam survey is longer than the interim survey and shorter than the CCS. It is designed to capture a more detailed status update about the patient's complaint.
When will patients complete the CCS, interim survey, or re-exam survey?
The CCS is always requested for the patient's initial visit (meaning, the patient does not yet have a complaint on their record). For subsequent visits, patients will receive either the interim or re-exam survey. Typically, the interim survey is sent unless the appointment aligns with the designated re-evaluation interval, in which case the re-exam survey is sent.
The Chief Complaint Survey will be sent to the patient 24 hours before their appointment (or shortly after booking if the appointment is scheduled within that 24-hour window. It is sent in advance to give patients ample time to complete this comprehensive survey.
Both the interim and re-exam surveys are only available upon check-in. The patient can either complete the survey on the kiosk device, or if a staff member checks-in the patient from the Schedule, the patient will receive a notification to their personal device (either text or email) to complete the survey.
Do I need to manually send the Chief Complaint Survey to patients?
No, ChiroUp EHR automatically sends the CCS to patients 24 hours before their appointment—or shortly after booking if the appointment is scheduled within that 24-hour window.
If you previously used the Chief Complaint Survey in ChiroUp Essentials with your previous EHR, you may be accustomed to manually requesting the CCS along with other intake surveys. With ChiroUp EHR, however, this step is no longer necessary. The CCS is always sent automatically and seamlessly populates the Subjective section of your SOAP note— and you don't even need to lift a finger!
What about my patients in the middle of care when I start with ChiroUp EHR? Will they have to complete an entire CCS?
When you first ‘go live’ with ChiroUp EHR, every patient is technically considered a "new patient," even if they are already in the middle of their care. To avoid requiring these patients to complete a full Chief Complaint Survey (CCS), we’ve introduced the Abbreviated Chief Complaint Survey.
The Abbreviated Chief Complaint is a shortened version of the CCS designed to capture complaint information so that the doctor can take their note without putting the patient through an extensive intake.
In your Disciplines and Treatments settings, you can designate certain treatment types to Send Abbreviated CCS. This ensures that if a patient is scheduled for those specific appointment types and is a "legacy" patient (migrated from your previous EHR), they will receive the Abbreviated CCS instead of the full-length version.
Why does every patient have to complete the CCS? I think that may be too much for my patients?
Switching over to ChiroUp EHR will be an adjustment time for your team AND your patients. This is a brand new process for your patients, and it may feel frustrating at first. It is important to remind patients that once they complete the survey, that will save time in the treatment room. Their doctor will have all the information about their condition before they even step into your treatment room- which makes for a great experience and saves everybody time.
Remember, when you first “Go-Live” with ChiroUp, every patient is technically a "new patient." This means all patients will need to complete a Chief Complaint Survey (full or abbreviated version).
This process may feel overwhelming during your first month, especially in the first week, but we promise it gets easier! As more patient encounters are established, patients will transition to much shorter interim surveys for most follow-up visits after their initial post-Go-Live visit.
Why is the Chief Complaint Survey not populating my note?
There are two main reasons why the Chief Complaint Survey (CCS) may not populate into your note:
-
Manually Requested CCS Not Linked to an Appointment/Encounter
If you manually request the CCS from the patient’s chart, it will not be linked to a specific appointment or encounter, so it won’t populate into the note. To avoid this, we recommend not manually requesting the CCS. However, if needed, you can manually request the CCS from the patient’s associated appointment to ensure it populates correctly. -
Expired Survey Requests
Survey requests expire after one week. If a patient completes their CCS more than one week before their appointment, the survey results will not populate the note. This is another reason to avoid manual requests unless necessary.
For these reasons, we always recommend having patients complete the automatically requested CCS, rather than manually requesting the survey.
Can I manually request the interim or re-exam surveys, or can patients complete it ahead of time?
No - the interim and re-exam surveys are exclusively available upon check-in and are always requested automatically.
What if the patient does not complete their survey?
If the patient has outstanding surveys to complete - they can either complete them as prompted on the kiosk upon checking in, or the provider can complete the survey with the patient in the treatment room.
- If the patient did not complete their Chief Complaint Survey, then the provider should manually add a complaint using the + button next to the green Manage Complaints button. This will allow you to either re-send the CCS, or to complete in on your screen.
- If the patient did not complete their interim or re-exam survey, the provider can do so by clicking Complete Patient Survey button within the Subjective Wizard.
