Using Contact and Office Experts

Using Contact Experts

Contact experts enable you to use existing or custom reports to obtain specific information from your database.

Creating Contact Experts

Use contact experts to organize and process lists generated from patient tracking reports or from office expert items. You can send letters and cards, print labels, and print reports for everyone on the list or for specific people on the list.

• You can sort only by fields that correspond to the type of list you are creating; for example, lists of patients can be sorted by patient or communications fields.

Patient Fields

Using the patient fields, you can create lists of patients and search for specific patient information.

To access contact experts on the main menu, click the Contact Experts button. The Contact Expert window is displayed.

To create a contact expert report of patients:

1. In the List of field, select Patients.

2. Click in the Sorted by field and select a sort option and the order in which to display the list.

3. Click in the Where field, select a field option from the list and the conditions or criteria to apply to the search.

4. To save the search options, click Apply and type a name for the search. Click OK and Search.

Responsible Party Fields

You can create lists of responsible parties and search for specific responsible party information in patient lists. To create a contact expert report of responsible parties, follow the steps in Creating Contact Experts, but in the List of field, select Responsible Parties. To select from a list of responsible party search parameters, click the Responsible Party Fields option and select from the fields at the bottom of the window.

Communications Questions

To search for a list of patients or responsible parties who provide specific answers to communications questions, follow the steps in Creating Contact Experts; however, select Communications Questions and select from the options in the Category or Questionnaire fields.

Using Search Results

The Search Results window contains details about the patients/responsible parties returned by the search, which are to be displayed in the report.

To select additional output fields:

1. Select Patient Fields, Communications Questions, or Responsible Party Fields, and select from the corresponding fields at the bottom of the window.

• If a patient has more than one responsible party, use the drop-down list in the Rsp. Parties field to view information for the other responsible parties.

2. Click Report. The Print Options window is displayed.

3. Select to print, view, or export the report and click OK.

Additional Search Result Information

You can perform additional tasks with the names the software retrieves from the initial search by using the following fields and buttons:

• First Name, Last Name—Provides additional information about a patient in the search list when selected.

• Remove—Removes a patient from the active search list.

• Restore—Adds a patient to the active search list again.

• Question Mark—Displays the search options used to create the list.

• Photos—Displays photographs of the patients on the list, if snapshots are available.

• Letters—Posts letters to the patients found by the search.

• Labels—Prints mailing labels.

• Cards—Prints recall cards.

• Report—Prints reports and exports search results and .csv files for use in other applications, such as spreadsheets.

• Export—Exports the report information.

• Totals—Displays the Financial Totals window, which displays financial information for all patients in the list.
  
  
  
  The balances and aging of accounts are displayed at the top of the window, along with the dollar amount for each category.
  
  To change the display of the Financial Totals window, select from the following options:
  
  1.  Click the buttons at the bottom of the window to change the view from Dollar Amounts to Number of Accounts or Percent of Accounts.
  
  2.  In the Chart Type field, use the drop-down list to select from two-dimensional or three-dimensional bar or pie charts.
  
  3.  Click Print Graph to print the totals and the 2D bar graph for each of the views.

• Restart—Starts another search or modifies the current search. If a search fails to find the correct accounts, click Restart to return to the Contact Expert window and enter new search parameters.

• Apply—Saves the search. To name the search, type a name and click OK.

• Close—Exits the contact experts function. To save the search, click Yes. Type a name for the attribute set and click OK.

• When creating contact experts for use with office expert, use a naming convention so the search sets are grouped together.

Loading Previous Searches

To load a search you saved previously:

1. In the initial Contact Expert window, click Load. A list of previously saved searches is displayed.

2. Click the search and click OK. The software populates the window with the search parameters, which you can edit.

3. Click Search. The Search Database window is displayed, asking if you want to use the previous results of the search.

4. Click Yes to use the previous search results. A list displays the same results as the last time the search was saved.

OR

Click No to search your files with the same options and create an updated list of patients who meet the same criteria.

Related Topics

Using Office Expert

Skill Sharpeners