The patient chart is the source of truth for patient care. Use Notes → Narrative Notes for patient-care work that is not captured in a visit note, provider order, or structured chart field.
Create a narrative note
Open the patient chart.
Click Notes.
Click Narrative Notes.
Click New Note.
Choose the Type.
Enter the note in Note.
Click Create Note.
Write the note as chart documentation. Include the date, what happened, who was contacted, and the follow-up plan when those details apply.
Choose the note type
Type | Use it for |
General / Routine Narrative Note | General patient-care documentation, follow-up, and routine chart notes. |
Medication Interaction Note | Medication interaction findings, clinician review, patient education, and provider notification. |
Lab Drop Follow-Up Note | Labs obtained, drop-off details, ordering provider, and results follow-up. |
Case Conference | Case conference decisions, care plan changes, recertification review, and discharge planning. |
Recertification / Discharge Decision Note | Discipline-level decision to discharge, recertify, or continue services. |
Occurrence Note | Significant patient events, incidents, actions taken, and notifications. |
Potentially Avoidable Event Tracking | Quality metric, VBP, or avoidable utilization event tracking. |
Start of Care / Initial Evaluation Report | SOC or initial evaluation handoff for office and clinical management. |
Visit Alert | Chart alert shown before clinicians begin a visit. |
Discharge Summary Note | Agency-level patient discharge summary. |
60-Day Summary / Recertification Summary | Recertification summary and physician review or signature support. |
Hospitalization / ER Visit Note | Hospitalization or ER visit details and discharge planning. |
Know system-created notes
Some narrative notes are created by workflows rather than by New Note.
Type | Created from |
Intake Summary Note | Referral acceptance or decline workflow. |
Missed Visit Notification | Missed-visit workflow. |
Keep messages separate
Use Collaboration for internal coordination. Use Notes for patient-care documentation.
For example, a message asking who will call the provider belongs in Collaboration. The result of the provider call belongs in Notes → Narrative Notes. See Collaboration and notes.
If something goes wrong
The note type is not listed. Only manual note types appear under New Note. Workflow-created notes appear after the related workflow runs.
Patient-care information was sent as a message. Enter the information in Notes → Narrative Notes. Messages do not become chart documentation.
A submitted visit note has an error. Use the correction path in Correct visit documentation.