Patient Contacts Tab

The Patient Contacts tab contains a list of all clients that have been associated with the patient over the course of its visits to your hospital.  Clients can be owners, RDVMs, clinics, but also custom client types defined by your hospital administration, such as boarding kennels or stables, pet sitters, third party payers or insurance, pet trainers, etc.  

Use CTRL+Click on the blue contact name to load the client screen in another tab.  Or click on the name to open it in the current tab.   (You must have Client Screen privileges to view the client details on these links.)

Add New Contact

To add a new contact, click on the Add New Contact button.   The standard VetView New Client will open, just like it does on the Admission screen.

You can search for an existing client, or add a new one to the system.

After you click on the Save button, the new client will appear on the patient's record.

Change Attributes of a Client

The icons next to a Contact Name represent the attributes of the patient.  Each patient can have a designated primary owner and primary RDVM.  Mouse over the icon to see what attribute it represents.

If you right click on a client contact line, you will see a list of options available.  These are contact sensitive, and not every option will be available for each client when you right click.

Transfer Ownership 

In the example below, another client contact is set as the primary owner.  So this client has the Transfer Ownership option, to change the patient's owner to a different client.  This process allows you to keep a patient's medical records intact, but charge any future orders to the new owner instead of the previous one.  

The Primary Owner icon will change from the original owner to the new one.

Set As Inactive

Use this option if an owner has informed you that their patient's contact is no longer in service, such as a pet sitter going out of business.  Or if they will no longer be utilizing that service.  Inactive clients preserve the records of any information that was sent to the client, but also indicate that the client is no longer valid for future visits.

Set As Default Bill Party

If a client has an agreement for a third party payor, such as a direct charge client for a research project funding the animal's care, or a relative who has agreed to handle the bills for a patient, you can designate a separate Default Bill Party from the primary owner. 

Delete This Contact

If a contact was entered by mistake (e.g. a duplicate of an existing client in your system that already has extensive records) you can delete it from the patient contacts entirely.  You will then need to manually look up the client in the Client Search screen if you want to inactivate it completely.

Client Medical Record Communications

There are three communication icons in VetView: 

• Medical Record Communications
• Owner Communications
• Release of Information Granted

Medical Record Communications

These communications are intended to be sent to RDVMs/Clinics.  These include copies of Documents and Requests that have been designated under the Event Setup to fire off to the Communication Worklist after certain events occur (or queue as pending there for further review.)  For example, your hospital may have a communication sent to the RDVM for a patient upon check-in or discharge.  If a client contact has this flag set, then it will be on the mailing list for this particular patient when those events occur.  Multiple RDVMs and clinics can be designated for the medical record communications, if a patient sees more than one specialist.

Owner Communications

These communications are intended to be sent to the owners of a patient.  For patients with multiple owners (e.g. horses, herds of cattle on a farm co-op, etc) you can designate multiple recipients for these communications.  Like the Medical Record Communications, these events are set up to go automatically to any owner on the patient contact list when specific events occur during the episode.   Or they can be set to queue on the Communication Worklist for review before being sent. 

Release of Information Granted

A patient can have multiple owners receiving communications from the automatic events, but you can also designate a patient contact as being able to receive information directly from your hospital staff without necessarily receiving the communications.   For example, if an owner works in a place where they are unable to take phone calls, they can grant a third party the right to discuss their patient's status with your client coordinators. 

No Communications For This Patient

If a previous owner should no longer receive any communications for this patient, you can set this flag on the patient record without removing them as a client contact.  This preserves the relationship and any previous communications that were sent, which may be necessary for legal purposes.   No further communication will be sent when this flag is turned on.

Remove Flags

When a flag is turned on for a client on this screen, it can be removed at any time by right clicking and choosing to Remove that mode of communication.

Client Alerts

Client alerts will appear on this screen as a warning icon.  Mouse over the icon to display what the specific alerts are for that client.