The patient information screen is considered an individual patient's "homepage", where you can access the patient's basic information through these DrFirst widgets:

• Demographics
• Medications
• Allergies
• Problems
• Pending prescriptions

This document will show you a brief overview of where to find, and how you can interact with the following information:

• Practice information
• Patient demographic information
• Encounter information
• Pharmacy information
• Prescription benefit
• Pharmacy messages
• Create new prescription
• Medications
• Allergies
• Diagnoses/Problems
• Prescription management

This information can be found from any page by selecting the patient's name in the context bar in the top left corner (see Figure 1-1).

Figure 1-1. Patient's name in the context bar.

Practice information

You will find the name of the location you are prescribing from in the top right hand corner (see Figure 1-2). If you are connected to multiple locations, you will have the option to click on the location name and select the location you are looking for from the drop-down presented. Be sure to review this prior to prescribing for your patient to ensure the correct practice information displays on the prescription heading.

Figure 1-2. Location.

Patient demographic information

Within the "Patient" widget, you will see various demographic fields for the patient (see Figure 1-3). These items will all be imported from BestNotes, and will be managed from BestNotes. Items that you will see displayed here include First Name, Last Name, Sex, DOB, Home Phone, and Address. Other information displayed will include height, and weight. The height and weight should be recorded in BestNotes and in DrFirst, as this information is not connected between the two programs.

Figure 1-3. Patient widget.

Encounter information

A patient's encounter information should be recorded and managed within BestNotes.

Pharmacy information

The pharmacy information is located in the Patient widget (see Figure 1-4). The drop-down box holds information for up to five pharmacies for the patient. Here you can easily search for new pharmacies and remove pharmacies that are no longer needed. You can also obtain pharmacy information such as NCPDP (pharmacy license number), address, phone, and fax.

Figure 1-4. Pharmacy information in the patient widget.

Prescription benefit

Prescription benefit information is obtained from SureScripts and payer claims data. If a patient has multiple plans, select the correct benefit plan by clicking on the drop-down arrow within prescription benefit. A patient's prescription benefit information allows DrFirst to alert users on medications that are on or off formulary and offer on-formulary alternatives when applicable.

Figure 1-5. Prescription benefit.

Pharmacy messages

Pharmacy messages are electronic requests generated by a pharmacy (see Figure 1-6). These could be refill requests for the patient once his or her medication refills have been completed, change requests, or cancellation acknowledgments. Pharmacy messages can be accessed from the "Calendar" tab in BestNotes (see Figure 1-7), or by selecting the pharmacy message icon on the top right of the screen in DrFirst (see Figure 1-8).

Figure 1-6. Pharmacy messages.

Figure 1-7. Access pharmacy messages from BestNotes "Calendar" tab.

Figure 1-8. Pharmacy messages icon.

Create new prescription

You can quickly search for a medication to write a prescription manually by selecting the "Create New Prescription" button (see Figure 1-9), or you can utilize your favorites list to select a previously favored medication.

Figure 1-9. Create a new prescription.

Medications

Within the medications section, any active medications for a patient will be displayed (see Figure 1-10). You can quickly manage medications by adding in a new medication, starting or stopping a medication, or even renewing or prescribing a medication.

Figure 1-10. Medication widget.

Allergies

Within the allergies section, you can document a patient's allergies or adverse reactions to medications. This information should be managed within DrFirst, and will pull into BestNotes.

Figure 1-11. Allergies widget.

Diagnoses/Problems

This section shows you the diagnoses that were entered into BestNotes. The diagnoses in DrFirst is only for display (see Figure 1-12). However, you will be able to select a diagnoses within the "Prescribe Medication" widget and the diagnosis will be placed on the prescription (see Figure 1-13).

Figure 1-12. Diagnosis widget.

Figure 1-13. Select diagnosis when creating a prescription.

Prescription management

The prescription management widget will display any pending prescriptions for a patient. This is where a provider or provider agent can send multiple prescriptions.

Figure 1-14. Prescription management widget.

Save and Close

In order to make sure that all DrFirst data will pull into BestNotes, make sure at the end of each session, you exit DrFirst by selecting the drop-down in the top right corner, and select "Save and Close." This will send the information entered into DrFirst to BestNotes.