Copying, Changing, or Renewing Continuous
Infusion Orders
As part of the effort
to improve access to VA healthcare, the Vista Scheduling Enhancements
(VSE) project was initiated. The project makes several enhancements involving
scheduling appointments, including the ability to create an order in CPRS
that is sent to Scheduling so that a clerk can schedule one or more appointments
for a patient to return to a clinic for additional visits.
Note: The
Return to Clinic dialog will only be available to the user if the appropriate
VistA Scheduling Enhancements patch (SD*5.3*671) has been installed on
your system.
The Return to Clinic
dialog has several fields that enable the user to select how the patient
should return for another appointment:
- Quick
Orders: This field lists any personal quick orders that the user
has already saved for himself or herself. To create Return to Clinic
personal quick orders, enter all the necessary data in the Return
to Clinic order dialog, but do not select Accept yet. Then, save it
as a Personal Quick Order.
- Clinic:
The clinic the patient should return to
- Date:
The date the patient should return to the clinic
- Time
Sensitive: Whether the appointment is Time-Sensitive
- Not
Time Sensitive (box unchecked): If the appointment is not time-sensitive,
the order will read “on or around”.
- Time
Sensitive (box checked): If the appointment is Time Sensitive,
the order text will read “no later than”.
- Number
of Appointments: Providers enter the number of future appointments
they would like to request. The number of return appointments is limited
to 60.
- Interval
in day(s): Providers can enter the number of days between appointments.
For example, a provider may want to request a number of appointments
14 days apart. The maximum interval is 30 days.
- Prerequisites
(check all that apply): This item is available only if the site
puts items into a parameter where prerequisites are defined. For example,
if nothing is put in the parameter, the user will not have any selections
in this field. However, if the site puts in labs or radiology, the
provider can select as many of those items as apply.
- Comments:
This is where the user can enter their own comments for the scheduler
to see.
- More
Information: This field displays information to the user while
they are creating the order. This is information entered by the site.
- Order
Sig: This field is created as information is entered into the
dialog by the user.

To order a request for return
or follow-up appointments, please use these steps:
- On the
CPRS Orders tab under the Write Orders pane, select Return to Clinic.
- In the
Return to Clinic dialog, if you have saved a Quick Order that you
would like to use, select the down arrow and then select the quick
order. If not, proceed to step 3.
- Select
the Clinic field’s drop-down box’s arrow and then the appropriate
clinic name. (This is a required field.)
- In the
Date field, select the date. (This is a required field.)
- If the
appointment is time-sensitive, select the Time Sensitive check box.
Selecting the Time Sensitive check box will change the order text
in the Order Sig from “on or around” to “no later than”.
- If you
want more than one appointment, place the cursor in the Number of
Appointments field, enter the number of appointments.
- In the
Interval in day(s) field, enter the number of days between appointments.
- If the
field is active, you can select the Prerequisites field, you can select
one or more prerequisites, such as lab work or imaging, that should
precede the appointments.
- In the
Comments field, type in any comments that should go with the orders.
- In the
More Information field, additional information displays for the user
to see.
- Review
the Order Sig to ensure that it is as you need it.
Note: If
the order is one that the user will reuse frequently, the user can
save it as a personal quick order. To save this as a quick order,
go to the menu bar and select Options | Save as Personal Quick Order.
Then, the order will display in the Quick order field the next time
the dialog is opened.
- If the
Order Sig is correct, select Accept.
After
the user selects the Accept button, the order is sent to Scheduling
so that a clerk can make the requested appointments.
Here is
an example of unsigned Return to Clinic order displayed on the Orders
tab. The display shows a Return to Clinic order under the new Service
category of Clinic Scheduling.

Clinic
Scheduling orders can have the following statuses:
- Unreleased:
The order will have this status before it is signed.
- Pending:
The order will have this status after it is signed but before being
acted upon by the Scheduling package.
- Completed:
The order will have this status after Scheduling has acted up on it.
This capture
show the detailed display for a Return to clinic order.
