# Entering or Changing Encounter Information

Encounter information is required before you can enter orders, write notes, or perform other activities. It does not count for workload credit. For that, you must enter encounter form data.

To enter or change the Encounter provider, follow the steps below:

1. If you are already in the Provider / Encounter dialog skip to step 2. Otherwise, from any chart tab, select the Provider / Encounter box located in the top center portion of the dialog.

Note: These instructions are written as if the user must select a provider. If the user making the selection is a provider, the user will be selected by default and the cursor will go to the New Visit tab if no visit is defined, or to the Clinic Appointments tab if one is defined. If the user is not a provider, the cursor will go to the Encounter Provider field so that the user can select the provider for the encounter.

2. In the Encounter Provider list box, locate and select the provider for this encounter.

( Note about providers with similar first and last names.)

3. Select the tab of the correct encounter category for this visit:

o Clinic Appointments

o Hospital Admissions

o New Visit

4. Select a location for the visit from the choices in the list box.

5. If you selected a Clinic Appointment or Hospital Admission, skip to step 7. If you are creating a New Visit, enter the date and time of the visit (the default is NOW).

6. Select a visit category from the available options (such as, Historical) and select OK .

7. When you have the correct provider and location, select OK . If the Similar Providers screen appears, select a provider from the list and select OK.

Note: If the last name and the first two letters of the first name match another provider, CPRS will display the Similar Providers screen, which will prompt the user to select the right provider from a list of providers with similar names, as shown in the screenshot below. This functionality exists in thirty-seven areas of CPRS but it always works the same way.

The Similar Providers dialog displays names you can choose from.

8. For more information and instructions on entering more encounter form data, refer to the Notes section of this manual

Related Topics

Entering Encounter Form Data

Encounter Information (overview)