Centricity & Allscripts Trainin Manual Updated

1. 1
Updated 5/16/2014

Centricity & Allscripts Front Office Manual
-Table of Contents-
Viewing Patient Balance……………………………. 2

Eligibility……………………………………………. 3

Scheduling a New Patient…………………………... 5

Duplicate Accounts………………………………… . 7

Duplicate Account Help Desk Ticket……………… . 8

Scheduling an Existing Patient……………………… 9

Rescheduling Appointment………………………… . 10

Cancelling Appointments…………………………… 11

Posting Copays……………………………………… 13

Payment on Account (POA) Schedule……………… 14

End of Day Process………………………………… . 16

Deceased Patients……….…………………………. .. 22

Allscripts Task Workflow…………………………... 23

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Updated 5/16/2014

Centricity
-Viewing a Patient’s Balance-
Viewing a patient’s balance is helpful prior to checking them in so the front desk staff can ask them
about making a payment.
An example would be: “I see Mr. Adams that you have a balance of $55.00, how would you like to pay for that today?”

To View a Patient’s Balance
1. From the Appointment Manager screen hover over the name of the patient and a pop up will appear with
the balance owing. OR





2. From the Daily Schedule hover over the name of the patient and a pop up will appear with the balance
owing. OR



3. Click on PM on the toolbar, Search for the patient and then click on their name.





4. From the Account tab on the right under Personal you can see the Amount Due. If you click on the
Amount listed you can get more information.






5. When you click on the amount owing, the transaction screen will show you things like the Date of
Service, the Provider Number and the Amount Due.
















**Offer this information to the patient. If they ask any further questions direct them to the billing
department at 303-716-8059.**

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Centricity
-Demand Request for Eligibility-
You will need to check for eligibility on every patient if you do not see an E in the Info Section when you are in the
Appointment Manager.



1. To demand eligibility, click on the appointment time to verify that we can demand request by checking
the patients insurance (see table below for eligible insurance plans), then look in the lower right hand
corner and click Demand Request.





INSURANCE COMPANIES THAT ARE CURRE NTLY PARTICIPATING WITH OUR CENTRICITY
ELIGIBILITY CHECKER:
Aetna Rocky Mountain
Anthem/BCBS Secure Horizons
Great West/One Health Unicare (except PPO)
MEDICA/United United Healthcare

1. A Demand Eligibility Request window will open, click Demand.


2. A Demand Request Status pop-up window will appear. This should only take 5-30 seconds to check
for eligibility.



3. Once that is complete you will get your status shown below. You can view the response or close the
window. If it states it’s active there’s no need to view the response.



Below are four responses you’ll see come back when checking for eligibility.




Active:
Response has been received; the
patient/member is active.

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4. Now that you’ve got your response, save and close the screen.

5. You should now see your E.

Here is the list of AAA denial codes and their reasons:





























04 - Authorized Quantity Exceeded
15 - Required application data missing
41 - Authorization/Access Restrictions
42 - Unable to Respond at Current Time
43 - Invalid/Missing Provider Identification
44 - Invalid/Missing Provider Name
45 - Invalid/Missing Provider Specialty
46 - Invalid/Missing Provider Phone Number
47 - Invalid/Missing Provider State
48 - Invalid/Missing Referring Provider
50 - Provider Ineligible for Inquiries
51 - Provider Not on File
52 - Service Dates Not Within Provider Plan
…...Enrollment
53 - Inquired Benefit Inconsistent with Provider
…...Type
54 - Inappropriate Product/Service ID Qualifier
55 - Inappropriate Product/Service ID
56 - Inappropriate Date
57 - Invalid/Missing Date(s) of Service
58 - Invalid/Missing Date-of-Birth
60 - Date of Birth Follows Date(s) of Service
61 - Date of Death Precedes Date(s) of Service
62 - Date of Service Not Within Allowable
Inquiry Period
63 - Date of Service in Future
64 - Invalid/Missing Patient ID
65 - Invalid/Missing Patient Name
66 - Invalid/Missing Patient Gender Code
67 - Patient Not Found
68 - Duplicate Patient ID Number
69 - Inconsistent with Patient's Age
70 - Inconsistent with Patient's Gender
71 - Patient Birth Date Does Not Match That
for the Patient on the Database
72 - Invalid/Missing Subscriber/Insured ID
73 - Invalid/Missing Subscriber/Insured Name
74 - Invalid/Missing Subscriber/Insured Gender
Code
75 - Subscriber/Insured Not Found
76 - Duplicate Subscriber/Insured ID Number
77 - Subscriber Found, Patient Not Found
78 - Subscriber/Insured Not in Group/Plan
Identified
79 - Invalid Participant Identification
80 - No Response received – Transaction
Terminated
97 - Invalid or Missing Provider Address
T4 - Payer Name or Identifier Missing
Inactive:
Response has been received;
patient/member has terminated
coverage.
Unknown:
An unknown status means mixed information
has been sent in the response (active in one
benefit type, but not another) and eCommerce
and Centricity are not able to derive the
status.
AAA:
This type of message indicates there was a
problem in the transaction. It provides a reject
reason and follow-up action. It indicates an
error was detected with the request such as the
patient was not found, the system was
unavailable at the time of the request, or that
there is an invalid data format.
See the list below of AAA denial codes and their reason.

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Centricity
-Scheduling a New Patient-

1. Using the toolbar at the top of the screen click on the PM for patient manager.


2. Type in the Date of Birth for the patient, mmddyy (no formatting needed) and click search.





3. Look through the patient records and make sure that the person is not already a New West patient and if
not click New Registration.




4. In CAPS type in the Account Information. Account holder’s name, address, city, state, zip telephone
and mobile phone number and click next. (The account information MUST be an adult and the person
responsible for the bill so it may be a different person from the patient, like the parent of a child)









5. The name, address and phone number from the account tab pre-populates into the Patient Tab. If the
account holder and patient are the same person (an adult) you can leave the pre-populated information
the same. If the patient is a child, edit the pre-populated information with the child's name, address,
home and mobile phone, date of birth, sex and PCP and click Finish.
















(**If you accidentally click on next you will end up on the insurance screen. Just click cancel and you will be in the
patient’s record**)
(The patient may be different from the
account holder, like parent and child so
make sure the date of birth is that of the
patient)

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6. From the patient’s record go up to the Quick Links dropdown and choose Resource View to get into the
doctor’s schedules and find an appointment time for your new patient.






7. Type in your Place of Service, your Provider Codes, the Date, choose Full Day and then click Search
(each clinic has a place of service # and each provider as well)








8. Find a doctor with openings on their schedule. The green cells signify open time slots. You can hover
over the blue icon to locate an NP30 (New Patient 30 minute) slot OR click on the doctor’s name.








9. Click on the time from the schedule that will work for the patient, and then from the Recent Patient
dropdown select your patient.






10. Enter the Encounter Code for a new patient (NP30), enter the Reason for Visit and click Next.





11. The next screen is the verification screen. All you will need to do is click Next thru this screen.

12. If the appointment is related to an injury, enter in the Date of Injury OR the Motor Vehicle Accident
Date and click Save. If not click Cancel.







*** DAT E SHORT CUTS- If you want,
rather than using the calendar to find a date,
use / then a number, then W, M or Y for
week, month or year. Examples below:
/2W – jumps you 2 weeks from today
/3M – jumps you 3 months from today
/D – brings you back to today on the
schedule
We WILL NOT bill auto
insurance but a date must be
entered if the patient wants
to send the insurance claim
form for reimbursement.

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13. Add your login Initials under APPT BOOKED BY: and click Schedule






14. Confirm with the patient the appointment information and then click Close. This will return you to the
schedule to get ready for your next call.




Centricity
-Duplicate Accounts-

1. At the top of the screen click on PM for the patient manager


2. Type in the date of birth for the patient and click Search





3. Click on New Registration to enter a new patient into the system






4. In CAPS type in the account info for the adult responsible for the bill. Account holder first name, last
name, address, city, state, zip, telephone and mobile number and click next








5. In CAPS type in the new patient info, first name, last name, address, city, state, zip, home phone, mobile
number, birthdate and sex then click Next.

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Because this patient is already in the system you will get a Warning Duplicate Account Message. It’s
best to hit Cancel at this point and search the system again for the patient rather than potentially creating
a duplicate account.







6. When you click Cancel a message will pop up about all of the data you just typed in and that it will be
lost. Click OK to prevent saving possible duplicate account information.






7. Click on Change Search and search for your patient again or more carefully






**Please be aware when searching for patients, it’s best to start by entering a date of birth. A patient may
say his name is Joe Adams but we have him in the system as Joseph Adams or Steven Joseph Adams.**

Centricity
-Duplicate Account Help Desk Ticket-
Adding a New Patient -Duplicate Warning-

When adding a new patient if you encounter a Duplicate Account Warning like the image below, click
CANCEL to exit the screen. This will prevent creating duplicate account records. Then research why the
system thinks you have a duplicate account. You can look the patient up by first and last name and
locate the existing account or search again by date of birth.





Locating an Existing Duplicate Account

If you discover a duplicate account, you need to create a help desk ticket to report it. Once reported, the
duplicate account will be removed from the database. Make sure that the records have the same name
and birth date or other verifying information.

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Reporting a Duplicate Account
To report a duplicate account, send an email to the helpdesk using the following link:
[email protected]
Provide the following information in your ticket:
Possible Duplicate Account
Patient’s Name (Jane Doe)
Date of Birth (4/11/68)
Both Centricity Account Numbers (244007, 295102)

Centricity
-Scheduling an Existing Patient-
1. Using the toolbar at the top of the screen click on the PM for patient manager.


2. Type in the Date of Birth for the patient, mmddyy (no formatting needed) and click Search.




3. Look through the patient records and locate the patient you wish to schedule and click on their name.




4. Click on the Quick Links dropdown at the top right and then on Resource View.







5. Type in your Place of Service, your Provider Codes, and the Date, choose Full Day and then click
Search.







6. Find a doctor with openings on their schedule and click on their name.

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7. On the schedule find an available time and encounter code that works for the patient and click on the
time.



8. Click on the Select Patient dropdown and click on the patient’s name.





9. In CAPS type in the encounter code and reason for appointment and click next.




10. The next screen is the verification screen. Review the demographic information with the caller. If any
information is wrong, click on Demographics on the top of the screen, edit the information and Save.
Then click Next.

11. If the appointment is related to an injury enter in the injury date. If the patient was in a motor vehicle
accident, enter the MVA date. We will NOT bill auto insurance but a date must be entered if the patient
wants to send the insurance claim form for reimbursement. Click Save or Cancel to move on.

12. Enter your initials in APPT BOOKED BY and click on Schedule.





13. Click on Close on the last screen and it returns you to the schedule so you can take your next call.

Centricity
-Rescheduling Appointments-
1. From the Provider Schedule in the status column click on the Pending status for the patient you wish to
reschedule.






2. From the change appointment status window click on the Reschedule button. A new window opens.
Click on the Change Reason Code search box, only if your clinic requires you to use reason codes.






**If your clinic doesn’t require a Change Reason Code just click Save**

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To search for different reasons for Rescheduling click on the Search button. Click on the radio button
for the appropriate reason for rescheduling and then Save.

3. Choose either Provider Schedule OR Resource View to find another appointment slot.




4. Choose the provider and new appointment date and click Search. Find a new time the patient is
requesting and click on the appointment time to schedule.

5. Verify all of the information is still correct and click Next to proceed with scheduling as normal. The
old appointment will be cancelled and the new appointment scheduled.












Centricity
-Cancelling Appointments-
There are many screens where you can cancel a patient’s appointment. Two ways to cancel are:
A. Using the Patient Manager Screen
B. Using the daily schedule
A. The most accurate way to cancel is to go into the patient manager to the patient appointment
screen.

1. At the top of the screen click on PM for the patient manager.

2. Type in the patient’s date of birth and click search. Locate your patient and click on their name.

3. In the patient record, click on Appointments on the top right.








4. In the status column for the pending appointments click on the Pending.

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5. Click on the Cancel button to cancel the appointment.







6. Click on the Change Reason Code Search Box and then the Search button. Choose a Reason Code and
then click Save. You can now see on the patient appointment screen under Show All there is a canceled
appointment. Click on Cancel to return to the schedule.






B. There is a 2nd way to cancel an appointment. Any screen displaying the daily schedule has a
status column for the appointments.

1. From the daily schedule click on the Pending status for the appropriate patient.








OR from the Appointment Manager, click on the Pending status.








2. From the Change Appointment Status window click on the Cancel button.








**Be careful in the Change Appointment Status window to use CLOSE if you don’t want to cancel an
appointment, just close the window.**

3. Proceed with steps to cancel just like in the first example.

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Centricity
- Posting Copays & Payment on Account (POA) Schedule-
Posting Copays
1. From the schedule click on the $ under Info.





2. An Add Copayment window will open. In the Payment Code box you’ll type in one of two codes:
a. CPCC – for Copay Credit Card
b. CPCS – for Copay Cash or Check

Then click Next.





3. If the patient is paying by credit card do the following:
Payment Code - CPCC
 Enter the Payment Amount
 Choose the Type of Payment (Credit Card)
 Enter the last 4 digits of the credit card
Then make sure to click Post/Print to post the payment and get a receipt





4. If the patient is paying by check do the following:
Payment Code - CPCS
 Enter the Payment Amount
 Choose the Type of Payment (Check)
 Enter the check number
Then make sure to click Post/Print to post the payment and get a receipt





5. If the patient is paying by cash do the following:
Payment Code - CPCS
 Enter the Payment Amount
 Choose the Type of Payment (Cash)
Then make sure to click Post/Print to post the payment and get a receipt

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Payment on Account (POA) Schedule
The POA schedule is like any other schedule except it’s only used for patients that come into the office that
want to make a payment on their account. If the patient is already in for an appointment and wants to pay on
their account, you can click on the $ from the schedule and post their co-pay, then click on the $ again and post
their POA. Some clinics prefer you to schedule a patient on the POA schedule even if they are in the office for
another appointment.

If the patient is NOT on the schedule for an appointment, you will need to go into the POA schedule and create
an appointment for them in order to post their payment.

POA Quick Clinic Reference
AWP Applewood BRP Broomfield EIP Evergreen LVP Lakeview
APT Arapahoe CCP Cherry Creek GCP Golden Central LIP Lakewood
AFP Arvada Family CSP Cardiology GWP Golden View NDP North Denver
AIP Arvada Internal DWP Denver West HPT Highlands Ranch PMP Park Ridge
BVP Bear Valley





















1. Once you have your patient scheduled, click on the $ under Info.

2. An Add Copayment window will open. Because this is a POA the codes different. You’ll use one of
the six codes below:
a. CASH – for POA Cash
b. CK – for POA Check
c. VISA – for POA Visa
d. AMEX – for POA American Express
e. DISC – for POA Discover
f. MC – for POA MasterCard

Then click Next.

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3. If the patient is paying by credit card do the following:
Payment Code - CASH
 Enter the Payment Amount
 Choose the Type of Payment (Cash)
Then make sure to click Post/Print.


4. If the patient is paying by credit card do the following:
Payment Code - CK
 Enter the Payment Amount
 Choose the Type of Payment (Check)
 Enter the check number
Then make sure to click Post/Print.

5. If the patient is paying by credit card do the following:
Payment Code - MC
 Enter the Payment Amount
 Choose the Type of Payment (MasterCard)
 Enter the last 4 digits of the credit card
Then make sure to click Post/Print.

6. If the patient is paying by credit card do the following:
Payment Code - AMEX
 Enter the Payment Amount
 Choose the Type of Payment (American Express)
 Enter the last 4 digits of the credit card
Then make sure to click Post/Print.

7. If the patient is paying by credit card do the following:
Payment Code - DISC
 Enter the Payment Amount
 Choose the Type of Payment (Discover)
 Enter the last 4 digits of the credit card
Then make sure to click Post/Print.

8. If the patient is paying by credit card do the following:
Payment Code - VISA
 Enter the Payment Amount
 Choose the Type of Payment (Visa)
 Enter the last 4 digits of the credit card
Then make sure to click Post/Print.

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Centricity
-End of Day Procedures-
The following steps cover the end of day procedures for the front desk to complete for balancing and
closing out the till(s) each night. These steps are guidelines and suggestions but each clinic may have their
own workflow to determine who is responsible for each task.

1. Logged into Centricity, go into your Quick Links dropdown menu and choose Appointment Manager.










2. Choose the date, click on the dropdown for the Place of Service and choose your clinic, select Arrived and then
click on Search.







3. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and make note of how many patients were arrived for that day.







4. Gather your receipts for the day from all tills and count them. You should have the same number of
receipts as you do total number of arrived patients from above. If you don’t, you will have to look at the
schedule from the appointment manager and check each receipt with each patient until you find out who
you did not print a receipt for.

5. Sort your receipts by tender. So all the cash, all the checks, all the zeros and all the credit cards.


6. Add each type of tender on the calculator, total and tear the calculator paper receipt. Attach the
calculator receipt to the stack of patient receipts with a paperclip.

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7. In Centricity click on the Quick Links dropdown and choose Special Programs.












8. In the Enter Selection box type 15 (for the OTC-Copay Program) and hit ENTER or click OK.









9. Click on 3=REPORTS or type in 3 for the Enter Selection and hit ENTER or click OK.














10. Click 1=PAYMENT HOLDING FILE REPORT or type in 1 for the Enter Selection and hit ENTER
or click OK.

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11. Type in your Place of Service number (your clinic number), for the date of service put in /D to /D,
choose your sort by (I recommend #5, User Code) and hit ENTER.









12. At the bottom of the screen you should see a message that says “Payment Holding Report Spooled
Successfully”. Now go up to Quick Links and click on Printer Management.












13. Confirm that the User Code is your login initials and then click Search.








14. Locate the Payment Holding File Report and click on it to open it up.






15. Once the report opens, print a copy of it and close it.

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16. Compare your calculated receipt totals that you have paper clipped to the patient receipts to the report
totals. Notice the credit cards are listed individually. If you have discrepancies you will have to check
each receipt for errors. If you printed your report by user code you will have to do this for each user or
till.

















17. As soon as you are done posting all of your credit card transactions for the day you will need to close
out your credit card machine. The first thing you’ll need to do is print out the Totals Report. To do
that simply press Report then press Totals (F2).

18. Take your Totals Report and compare it to the Payment Holding File Report that you printed from
Centricity. If you have more than one till you will need to have the Payment Holding File Report for
each till and add them up. Check to make sure that all of your credit card transaction totals match up. If
there is a discrepancy you will need print a Details Report from your credit card machine (press report,
then detail (F3)) and go through each CC transaction from the credit card Details Report and match it up
with the Payment Holding File Report to find out where you went wrong. If you have no discrepancies
then skip to step 20.


19. If you identify errors and need to void any transactions from the credit card machine, follow these steps:
(voids can only be done for the current business day before the credit card machine has been closed out)
a. Press Void (F4)
b. Choose NO (F2)
Enter the invoice # of the transaction that you need to void. The invoice number is on the CC
receipt that printed when you ran the card through. Make sure to include this voided transaction
with all of the paperwork that you turn into your practice manager.

20. If your Payment Holding File Report(s) totals match your CC machine Detail Report totals and you
don’t have anything to void, your next step is to perform the Batch Settlement process on the machine.
Once you process this settlement your CC machine has been closed out for the day.
a. Press MORE on the machine
b. Press Settlement (F2)
Attach the receipt that prints out to your Centricity CC receipts for the day

21. If all of the numbers match in the Payment Holding Report to your receipts then you’re ready to fill out
the Daily Activity Summary located on the G drive (G:\Sites\AllSites\DailyActivitySummary.xls) if
you don’t already have one. See next page.

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22. Count the number of receipts you have for each type of tender (cash, checks, credit cards & zero
payments) and enter the total number for each type on the summary sheet. Your Total # Appointments
should match your total # Receipts.














23. Take your total dollar amounts from your Payment Holding File Report(s) and your calculated receipts
and enter the total amounts for each type of tender on the summary sheet. Enter the Grand Totals and
any Variance you have.


















24. If you have any variances you will need to look through your receipts to determine where you went
wrong. You may want to document the variance at the bottom of the form to explain what you found.
Contact your practice manager for any questions or assistance on this process.

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25. On the top of your Daily Activity Summary enter a breakdown of any cash you took in for the day. On
the previous page we listed $80.00 of cash so we might have 3 - $20 bills, 1 - $10 bill and 2 - $5.
















26. At the top of the Daily Activity Summary put in your Site and the date for DOS. At the bottom of the
form put in your Cashier Initials.












27. Put all money in the deposit bag and then into the safe. Give the practice manger the patient
appointment receipts, the Daily Activity Summary, the Payment Holding File Report(s) and the two
copies of the credit card machine reports.

Centricity
-Deceased Patients-
**A number of patients have been marked as deceased in Allscripts but not in Centricity. It is critical
that the patient gets marked as deceased in Centricity which will then feed over to Allscripts, like the
other demographic changes. Please distribute this reminder to your staff. Thanks for your help. **

1. When a patient is deceased, look the patient up in Centricity and go into the patient tab. Click on the
select option drop down and choose to edit the patient demographics.

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2. Enter a Deceased Date, a Y for Deceased? and Save.
















3. Your deceased patient will now show up in Centricity as:




And in Allscripts as:




Allscripts
-Task Workflow-
Basic Tasks

1. When sending a new task, make sure you have assigned the task to the right person.
 Never send a task to the doctor. Tasks should always go to the doctor’s medical assistant and they will handle
task from there.

2. Check the patients chart for active tasks. If the patient has an active task that is regarding the same issue
your taking a message for, add your message to the active task. Before clicking OK, make sure the task
is “Active” NOT “In Progress”.





3. If you are replying to a task that shows Delegated, please Un-Delegate the task so the Medical Assistant
will see it.

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4. This is part of the patients medical records so don’t use slang or derogatory language.
Appropriate task:






Inappropriate task:







5. Before sending tasks always check:
 Status – make sure its Active and not In Process
 Type – select the proper task type, i.e. Call Back, Lab Order, Referral
 Priority – select whether its Routine, ASAP or Urgent
 Contact – if the patient is requiring a call back, make sure you get a call back number from them.
 Details – put as much detail as you can in the task. Details are very important. If there aren’t enough details
you will either, have the medical assistant asking you questions about the call that you may have already
forgotten or they will send the task back and ask you to call the patient to get more details.

Prescription Task

1. Check to see if the patient has refills remaining.

2. When sending a refill request to the medical assistant, right click the medication they are wanting
refilled, go to New Task, once the task box opens, click the task down arrow button
and click Med Renewal or Go To Med
. Type in the task where the patient wants his/her medication sent.

3. Verify the patients preferred pharmacies. Click on the on the patient banner to verify the patients
pharmacy.






4. If the patient wants the prescription sent to a new pharmacy or there is no pharmacy in the patients chart,
then add the pharmacy.
 Click on Retail Pharmacy or Mail Order to locate and add the pharmacy.

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5. Make sure to put in a call back number in case the Medical Assistant has questions.

6. If the patient is requesting a call back to notify them the prescription has been sent, explain to the patient
that it typically takes 24-48 hours for prescription refills and to have them contact their pharmacy to
check the status of the refill.

Referral Tasks
1. When a patient or providers office calls for a referral, please do the following before starting a new task:
 Check to see if a referral already exists
o If the referral already exists and has not expired then fax a copy of the referral
 If no referral exists, make sure there is no task for the referral or a pending referral task
2. Referral tasks can be sent one of two ways
 Quick Type Referral
o When the patient calls for a referral, make sure you get the doctors name, their specialty, a diagnosis and
the date the patient is scheduled to see the doctor.
o Make sure you select the correct Task and ALWAYS send to the medical assistant that works with the
patients’ doctor.




 Template Referral
o You would get the same information as a Quick Type referral only you would use an Allscripts Text
Template.





o Once you have clicked the Text Template button a new window will open. From here you will select
Refer to Specialist.










o This is where you’ll put in your Diagnosis, the Specialist name, number of visits, etc. Any text that is
between [ ] double click and it will be added to your task.

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o Now click OK, and this is what your task will look like

















3. Remember to base the priority of the task (Routine, ASAP or URGENT) on the patients’ appointment
date if the patient already has an appointment.

4. If a Specialist is asking for a referral to another Specialist, have them fax over the Referral Request
Form to the MSO. All New West Physicians Preferred Providers have the Referral Request Form.

Triage Tasks
1. Triage Tasks are one of the most important types of tasks and should be handled as followed:
 If a patient calls in and says, “I think I have a sinus infection but I don’t have time to come in. Can you send
a message to my doctor and see if they can just send in a prescription for me?” The proper way to handle that
call is by telling the patient, “The doctors don’t typically prescribe an antibiotic unless you have been seen but
I can send a message back to see if they would be willing to do that for you.” This is what the task should
look like:









 If a patient calls in and says, “I’ve had this pain in my chest for the last couple weeks. I’m pretty sure it’s
nothing and I’d like to get in to see my doctor either tomorrow or sometime next week.” The proper way to
handle this call is by saying, “Mr. Smith, because you are having chest pains I would like you to speak with
one of our medical assistants so that they can triage your symptoms.” Put them on hold and send back a quick
task, then find a medical assistant to triage the call.

27. 27
Updated 5/16/2014

o Always send a task even though you are having the call triaged and make sure you send it back as
URGENT. But because the patient is having chest pains the call MUST be triaged by a nurse or
medical assistant before being scheduled. After the call has been triaged, the nurse or medical
assistant will send the task back to you with what needs to be done.

2. Calls that MUST be triaged
 Chest pain
 Sudden slurred speech
 Chest tightness
 Acid Reflux ~ check the patients chart to see if he/she has a history of heart disease or if they have ever been
diagnosed with Acid Reflux.
 Sudden droopiness in the face
 Sudden shortness of breath
 Sudden dizziness
 Loss of consciousness