There are three categories of people that are typically involved in the transactions of a medical office. These categories include the patient, the guarantor, and the provider. All people have a common set of personal information. An example, all people share are person name, address, date of birth, and sex.
A sequence of four input sections appears in the editor. The first two are the personal sections. The second two sections are unique to a patient, guarantor or provider. (Guarantor and Provider are described other chapters.)
To create a new patient, you first enter the personal information by using the first two screens from the editor then use the next two screens to gather the patient specific information.
| Personal Info: | The Editor | Navigation | Section 1 | Section 2 | Duplicate a Person |
You will notice that in the editor (shown in image below) there are three specific vertical sections in the screen. The first vertical section on the left has four gray boxes. Each of these boxes provides a summary of the information contained on one of the sections of the editor. (Note: they are identical to those gray boxes found in the Patient Detail) Together, these boxed areas provide a complete view of all the personal detail. In the example below it is the patient detail being edited. The top two boxes display the person information and the bottom two contain the patient information.
The middle vertical section titled Enter Information is where you actually enter the person information. Note that, in the left side there are four selectable boxes. Only one of these boxes is selectable at a time. The selected box edit fields appear in the middle.
On the right side of the screen are buttons that control actions that can be taken.
Note: if required fields are not filled-in the buttons will not function and an error message will be displayed.
Only one of the four sections in the Enter Information section is displayed at a time. The particular section displayed can be selected by several methods.
The input cursor may be moved forward to the next field in the section by using the TAB key. The two key combination of SHIFT and TAB will navigate the cursor to the previous field.
The first section in the common Person Editor is displayed below. Required fields are labeled with a "* ".
The table on the left illustrates the field labels, descriptions, and the minimum and maximum number of characters that can be input for each. Some fields throughout TFM have no minimum or maximum size limitations.
| Label | Description | Min/Max |
|---|---|---|
| First Name: | Person first name | (1 / 30) |
| Middle Name: | Person middle name | ( / 30) |
| Last Name: | Person last name | (1 / 30) |
| Address: | Street or lot number | ( / 30) |
| Street: | Street | ( / 40) |
| City: | City | ( / 50) |
| State: | State | ( 2 / 2) |
| Zip: | Zip Code | ( / 10) |
| Sex: | Sex | ( / 6) |
| DOB: | DOB and optional time | ( / 10) |
| SSN: | Social security number | ( / 11) |
| Deceased Box: | Check if person is deceased | ( / 10) |
| Deceased Date: | Deceased date | ( / 10) |
The only required fields for this section are First Name, Last Name, and Sex. The deceased date field is activated only when the deceased box is selected.
The following default values are initialized from the Preferences options:
The second section in the common Person Editor is displayed below. This section contains personal contact information. The table illustrates the field labels, descriptions, and the minimum and maximum number of characters that can be input for fields in this section.
| Label | Description | Min/Max |
|---|---|---|
| Home: | Home phone | ( / 40) |
| Work: | Work phone | ( / 40) |
| Mobile: | Mobile phone | ( / 40) |
| Contact: | Email address | ( / 50) |
| Employer: | Employer name | ( / 50) |
There are no required fields in this section.
The following default values are initialized from the Preferences options:
The same personal information is often duplicated for related people. For example: two children in the same family may have the same address, last name, and home phone number. Likewise, a patient and their guarantor may be related or if the patient has their own coverage, may be the very same person. Methods are provided in TFM to allow Patient Detail, Coverage Detail, and Provider Detail screens to automatically copy or share the same person information. Refer to the Related New section for a sample illustrating how to create a guarantor or a new patient using personal information from an existing patient.