How to Use the Clipboard App
- Dylan Nigh
- Tim Carpenter
The Clipboard iPad app is used for assigning Electronic Health Record (EHR) Ability forms to patients for completion on iPads. This article details the app's functionality and best practices for its use.
For information on how to acquire and install the Clipboard iPad App, or the other apps, please consult the Installing, Updating, and Connecting Your iPad Apps article here.
Clipboard Preferences
There are only a few preferences to cover in the software itself to customize the behavior of the Clipboard App. These are be located in the MacPractice Menu > Settings > Clipboard.
The three options in Preferences are as follows:
Unlock PIN: Allows you to set a 4-digit PIN that must be used to unlock the cb app in between patients. This prevents the patient from accessing other patient data while they are in possession of the ipad. You can also opt to use TouchID (older iPads) or FaceID (newer iPads) for this purpose.
Clipboard Header Label: Allows you to set a custom message/greeting in the header of the Clipboard app, like so:
Hide Race and Ethnicity from Demographics Intake: Checking this will hide the Race and Ethnicity portion of the Demographics filled out within the Clipboard app.
Overview of the Clipboard Interface
The Clipboard app can be used in either portrait or landscape modes, and switching between these modes is controlled simply by how the iPad is held - Holding the iPad vertically will be portrait mode and turning the iPad horizontally will switch to landscape mode.
Note that this may not work if the orientation lock is on in iPad settings. This lock can be found in the iPad Control Center, which can be accessed by swiping down from the top-right corner of the screen (near the battery level indicator). If the lock icon is black then it is set to off and the screen orientation can be changed. If this icon is red and white then the lock is on and the screen will be locked to which ever orientation it was in when the lock was turned on.
When a staff member logs in to Clipboard, you will automatically be selected on the Appointments tab and a list of the appointments for the day will display.
To make sure all appointments for that day are showing, drag down in the middle of the screen with your finger until you see “Pull down to refresh appointments” with arrows on either side of the text, then release when the arrows point up. Any missing appointments for that day will now show. This step should only need to be needed if the Clipboard is currently logged into while appointments are being added within MacPractice. Logging out, then back into the app, or any appointments added to MacPractice while not being logged into the app will accomplish the same thing.
The following is a breakdown of everything you will see on the screen:
Welcome Message (set in Preferences within MacPractice, as explained in Clipboard Preferences above)
The Date for which the current viewable appointments apply
The Hour of day that particular appointment takes place within. For example, if you have an appointment at 12:00, another appointment at 12:15, and another appointment at 12:45, all of these appointments would show within the “12:00” hour. All appointments between the 1:00 - 1:59 hour would show under “1:00”, and so on.
The Patient Name and Account #
The Appointment Type
The Appointment Status. If the patient checked in using the Check In app, the status would change to “Checked In” with a time of when they checked in and how long they have been checked in.
Any Forms the patient has filled out, or started to fill out, for that day. If a session is started with 1 or more templates selected for that session, the user can select these existing forms and will see “Resume” in front of those templates, along with the data and time the from was accessed previously in the day. They would tap Continue and the patient can proceed to finish filling out or make changes to those forms that were previously applied to that session. This will likely only come into play if the patient has to discontinue the session and log out of the app before the forms are completed. Doing this, however, may not retain the progress of all of the forms in that session.
The Time of the appointment and the Provider being seen for that appointment
The User and Time a form has been filled out/updated during a session
The Appointments Tab (where appointment for that day are viewed)
The Search Tab, which will allow the user to search for a patient by name whether they have an appointment for that day or not. Use the search bar in this tab to search by patient name or account #. If you use the drag refresh shown in the animation above while in this tab, it will load every patient in the database.
Info Button
- Tapping this button will reveal a menu:
• Help - Links to this HelpDesk Article
• Submit Ticket - Allows the user to submit a support ticket to the MacPractice Support Team
• Acknowledgments - Links to a list of personnel credited with the development of the Clipboard app
• Log Out - Allows the user to log out of the Clipboard app, though simply quitting the app accomplishes the same thing.
Creating Forms
Before you can use the Clipboard App to send patient forms, you first must first have Clipboard compatible EHR Form(s) in the EHR ability. You can create forms from scratch within the EHR ability (Click here for more information on creating templates in EHR) or have a MacPractice Template Specialist create forms for you. This service is already included in your license costs and can save time if you don’t have experienced form builders in your office.
Assigning Forms to a Patient
If you already have Clipboard compatible forms in your database, then you are ready to start sending forms to patients.
To do this, use the following steps:
Once you locate the patient via the Appointments Tab or the Search Tab, tap on that patient/appointment.
This will bring up the Choose Templates window (aka, the Template Selection Window) where you will see the available templates that can be sent to the patient.
Select the template(s) that you would like the patient to fill out. Multiple templates can be selected. By tapping forms, they will check and uncheck, allowing you to toggle which forms you'd like to assign to the patient for completion.
Tap Continue, then hand the iPad over to the patient and they would take over at this point.
There are two other options within the Choose Templates window to be aware of:
• Get More Templates - this option allows the user to preview and install pre-made shared templates that can be used on Clipboard. These are the same templates that you see in the Shared Templates node in the EHR ability, but the only templates that will show here are templates set for use on Clipboard.
• Settings - This option allows the user to assign specific templates to specific appointment types (see below).
Associating Templates to an Appointment Type
It is also possible to associate certain templates to an appointment type, so that specific templates are already selected if a patient is set to a certain appointment type. This can be done in the Schedule ability in MacPractice or here, within Clipboard. The steps are as follows:
Locate and tap to select a patient
In the Choose Templates window, tap Settings
You will then see a list of Appointment Types (these are the same appointment types seen in the Appointment Types node in the Schedule ability). Tap on one of the appointment Types and you will be taken to the list of your templates.
Tap each of the templates you would like associated to this appointment type. A checkmark will appear next to each associated template.
You can then exit by tapping anywhere outside of the Choose Templates window and the setting will be saved.
To do this from the Schedule ability in MacPractice, click here to view this article.
Filling out a Form
The Patient Clipboard Session begins with an introductory screen. The interactive elements on this page are as follows:
Back - takes the user back to a previous screen.
Next - proceeds the user to the next screen
Log Me Out - logs the user out of Clipboard and ends the session without saving any data entered on forms up to this point (demographics changes will save even if the user logs out before finishing their forms).
To navigate between pages, the patient can swipe across the page from right to left to go forward, left to right to go back, or use the Back and Next buttons.
Before arriving at your selected forms, there are a few default pages that the patient will be required to fill out. Let's cover these next.
Patient Demographics Page
The first Clipboard page displays the patient's information as it has been entered into the MacPractice database for this patient, such as Patient Basic Information, Patient Contact Information, Patient Demographics, and Patient Race. The patient can tap any field to add or edit the data.
The patient can also add a photo by tapping “Tap to Take Photo”. The iPad's front-facing camera can be used to take a picture, which can then be moved and scaled into position by the patient.
If there is already a patient photo in the patient record, this will be displayed in lieu of the “Tap to Take Photo” image.
If you have the “Hide Race and Ethnicity From Demographics Intake” preference selected (referenced at the top of the article), then the Ethnicity and Patient Race portion of the above image will not show.
Once this page is filled out, tapping Next or swiping from right to left will take the patient to the next page.
Primary Responsible Party Demographics Page
The next page to complete is Primary Responsible Party information. At minimum, the name of the Primary person on the account must be entered into the Primary Tab in the Patients Ability in MacPractice, which is a required step when creating any new patient account. The other demographics within the Primary Tab can be entered in the Clipboard app.
Insurance Information
It is important to note that the Employer and Insurance information will only display what has been entered in the Employers and Insurance areas under the Primary and Secondary Tabs in MacPractice. These areas cannot be edited by the patient. This is by design to ensure the correct information is entered in these areas. Incorrect data in these areas could result in rejected insurance claims, therefore, this data is required to be entered by office staff when the patient presents their insurance card.
The Insurance Verification dropdown is required for the patient to indicate that the employment and insurance information contained in MacPractice is correct and complete. If the patient tries to proceed without answering this question they will see this:
There are two options within the Insurance Verification dropdown:
Yes, it is current and correct - when this option is selected and the patient proceeds to the next page, if there is no Secondary Responsible Party on the account, they will see the “Do you have any additional insurance?” popover.
If YES is selected, they will see an additional popover instructing them to present their insurance card to the front desk staff.
If NO is selected, the patient will simply proceed to the next page.
No, something is old, incorrect, or l'm not sure - when this option is selected, a popover will appear instructing the patient to present their insurance card to the front desk staff. The patient will tap OK and will proceed to the next page.
Secondary Responsible Party Demographics Page
If there is a name entered into the First and Last Name fields of the Secondary Tab in the Patients Ability in MacPractice, then the Clipboard app will show the Secondary Responsible Party Demographics page. If there is no Secondary person on the account this page will not show in Clipboard.
The information being entered for the Secondary Responsible Party is the same as the Primary and the Insurance Verification process is the same as described above.
HIPAA Release Acknowledgement
The last page to complete before the patient proceeds to their patient forms is the HIPAA Release Form. This document only shows once for each patient and once it is signed will not show again in any following Clipboard sessions.
When signing this from the user has three options:
Cancel - which cancels the signing and takes them back to the document.
Clear - If the patient is not satisfied with how their signature turns out, they can clear the field and sign again.
Done - allows the user to commit their signature and proceed to the forms that follow.
The following animation shows the entire process, including, in this case, if the patient decides to clear the signature and try again:
Once the patient completes their Clipboard session and has submitted all of their forms, the HIPAA Release dropdown and Date will be updated to reflect that this acknowledgement was signed. This dropdown can be found in the Patients ability in the Patient tab, then the Insurance sub-tab.
When this dropdown shows “None” and the data field is blank, this indicates that this particular patient has not yet signed the HIPAA Acknowledgement, and will thus show in Clipboard. Once the acknowledgement is signed this area will appear as such:
If the patient has an insurance tied to their account, the HIPAA Release dropdown can be changed manually to one of the following options:
If any option other than “None” is selected, the HIPAA Acknowledgement will not show in the Clipboard app, even if they haven’t previously signed it in Clipboard.
For international offices that are not under the purview of American HIPAA laws, this Acknowledgement can be deactivated for all patients by utilizing the “Update Patient HIPAA Release” Database Utility, which allows the office to set the HIPAA Release dropdown pictured above to one of the options for all patients in the database.
The patient can also refuse to sign the Acknowledgement. If the patient attempts to proceed past the Acknowledgement by tapping the Next button without signing, they will see the following popover. The options are as follows:
Sign - activates the signature box.
Refuse to Sign - Progresses the patient to the next page without committing a signature. If this option is selected the HIPAA Release dropdown in the Insurance sub-tab will be set to the “No, Provider is Not Allowed to Release Data” option.
Cancel - takes the user back to the Acknowledgement, where they can either decide to sign or refuse to sign the document.
Patient Forms on Clipboard
Once you've completed the above mandatory pages, any Clipboard forms that you have added from the Choose Templates window will now display for the patient. They will proceed through each assigned form one-at-a-time, signing each one as they go forward.
Required fields and Signatures are required on patient forms. If the user attempts to skip a form without filling in required fields or signing the form, they will see one of the two following alerts:
If it is a required field they are skipping, the alert will state the question they have skipped and when they press OK they will be taken to the top of the section on the form that contains that question. Required fields will show in red on a patient form.
Signing Forms
Patient Review Page and Submitting Forms
Once the patient has completed all the forms you have assigned in the previous step and continued onward, the final page will summarize all information updated on the previous pages. The patient can review what they've entered and flip back to the appropriate page to update any information if necessary.
When the forms are completed, the patient should tap the Submit button. This will submit the information to the patient's record and lock the Clipboard App.
Once the Patient Clipboard Session is completed, the patient will be reminded to return the iPad to the staff so that the staff member can create the next Patient Clipboard Session. If the patient responded that he or she did have changes to the Insurance information presented, Clipboard will remind the patient to bring the insurance card along with the iPad.
Once the Submit Button is tapped, the Clipboard App will be locked so that only a staff member with the Unlock Pin may access the iPad App. If an incorrect pin is entered three times, the Clipboard App will lock for 30 seconds, after which the correct pin can be entered to unlock the pin. The pin used to unlock the iPad can be referenced or changed in MacPractice Preferences.
The completed forms will be sent to the MacPractice database.
Reviewing Completed Forms
If the practice has the EHR Ability enabled, completed patient forms will display within the EHR Ability. Otherwise, completed patient forms will appear in the Clipboard Ability in MacPractice as a narrative so you can review the contents.
HIPAA Release Forms, Clinical Intake forms, and so on, display within the Clipboard Ability sorted by Incident. If a patient form is not already associated to an Incident, it will appear in the Documents Without Incidents node. To associate the patient form with an incident, click the form and drag it to any Incident node.
To view a snapshot of any narrative, set the Narrative menu to the desired snapshot. Snapshots are created each time a Patient Form is saved.