You should record notes whenever speaking to a patient in person or over the phone. Notes can fall within three categories:

You can either write clinical notes from within an appointment or selecting Clinical Notes from the 3 dot appointment menu.

Writing clinical notes from the appointment menu.

1) On the Practitioner Dashboard select the appointment you wish to create a clinical note for and click the 3 dot menu icon, then click Clinical Notes.

2) Type your notes into the Clinical Notes dialog. These notes will then appear when you start the appointment. This is a great way to create clinical notes for the appointment in advance.

Writing clinical notes whilst in an appointment.

1) On the Practitioner Dashboard, click into the appointment, then click Open Appointment.

2) Type your notes on the right hand side of the appointment. The notes will save automatically as you type them.

If you are writing clinical notes while someone else is logged in, ie a clinician writing notes while the Dentist is logged in, you can easily switch the user so that you can write notes as yourself.

1) Click into the profile photo on the top right of the page.

2) Hover over change user

3) Choose your name and enter your password.

You can now type notes as yourself, without interrupting the appointment.

Note: you'll need to have logged in to Principle from this computer before for your name to show up.

You can view past Clinical Notes in multiple places:

Editing and signing off on Clinical Notes

You can edit clinical notes at anytime, either open the appointment to continue editing the note or access the note through the clinical notes history by clicking on the clock icon on the bottom left of the notes section.

Editing a note in an appointment.

1) Open the appointment you would like to edit the clinical note for. If a patient has multiple appointments on the same day you can open either appointment for this patient.

As the owner of a clinical note you will see a lock icon. The lock icon is used to sign off on a note, this prevents anyone else from making further edits to the note. If a note is locked and you need to make further adjustments simply unlock the note by clicking the lock icon.

Edit a note from the clinical note history.

1) You can also edit and manage locking clinical notes from the clinical notes history by clicking on the clock icon on the bottom left of the notes section.

Clicking the 3 dot menu will allow you to either edit or lock/unlock a clinical note. Remember only the note owner has the ability to lock and mark the clinical note as completed.

1) Type the patient's name in the search bar and click into their profile

2) Scroll down to the Upcoming Appointments box on the left hand side and click on the 3 dots. Then click into notes.

3) Type relevant notes then click add.

4) Notes are now included in the appointment.

You can also do this from the Receptionist Dashboard.

1) Click into their appointment on the Receptionist Dashboard, then click the 3 dots on the right side of the appointment.

2) Click Scheduling Notes

3) Type relevant notes then click add.

You can also view or write scheduling notes during the appointment in the notes section on the right column.

Social notes can be anything that you might want to remember about a patient. For example:

To add social notes, you can:

1) Click into their appointment on the Receptionist Dashboard

2) Click into 'Pinned Social.' Type notes and click add.

1) Start by typing their name into the search bar and click into their profile.

2) Scroll down on the left column, and type into their social notes then click add.

Or during the appointment in the notes section on the right column.