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Physical Exams

See how to create, view, edit, copy, and delete physical exams—and save time by setting their default values.
Amber Pistone avatar
Written by Amber Pistone. Updated over a week ago

Every practice is a little different, right down to the way you care for your patients. At the core of patient care is the physical exam, and we want to make sure you have all the flexibility you need in order to examine patients consistently and efficiently.

So, we've given you a few pre-loaded exams to use right off the bat. We’ve also made it possible for you to create your own physical exam templates that fit how your practice operates.

To get to your practice’s physical exams, select ‘Admin’ and then ‘Physical Exams.’

When you land on the physical exam page, you’re able to:

  • Add a new exam

  • View an exam

  • Edit an exam

  • Copy an exam

  • Set an exam’s defaults

  • Delete an exam

Adding a New Exam

To add a new physical exam, select the ‘Add New’ button on the right side of the screen.

Inside the new exam, you can:

  1. Name the template

  2. Add fields

Adding a Field

There is no limit to the number of fields you can add to a Physical Exam. To add a field:

  1. Select the ‘Add Field’ button below the template name.

  2. This will open a sidebar with several options

    1. Name the field

    2. Add an input control (or multiple)

    3. Add options (attached to specific inputs)

Adding an Input Control

An input control is how you measure the specific field in the examination. To add an input control, select the button labeled ‘Add Input.’

Note: fields can (and sometimes should) have multiple controls

When a new input control is added, a dropdown will populate with the types of input controls you can select. There are 6 types of input controls:

  • Radio

  • Multiselect

  • Select

  • Short Text

  • Textarea

  • Text Editor

Tip: we have a more robust guide to exam input controls if you need more information or would like some suggestions as to what input control would work best for certain parts of an examination.

Adding Multiple Input Controls

In many cases, adding multiple controls to a field is a good idea. This allows you to have the option of having options like ‘Normal,’ ‘Abnormal,’ and ‘DNE’ and for a field while also having a notes section for when any further explanation is required.

To add a second control to the field, select the ‘Add Input’ button. Repeat the process for any additional input controls you want to add to the field.

Note: Make sure to select the 'Save' button when you are done with your Physical Exam.

Physical Exam Actions

Within the Physical Exam window, each exam has several actions available:

  1. Preview the exam

  2. Set Defaults for the exam

  3. Copy the exam

  4. Edit/Customize the exam

  5. Delete the exam

Copying an Exam

Copying an existing physical exam is a great way to save time.

  1. Select the copy icon to the right of the exam you would like to duplicate

  2. This will open a duplicate of the chosen exam. From here you can edit the name and fields as needed.

  3. Select the 'Save' button

Setting Exam Defaults

Another great way to save time while you’re caring for a patient is by setting defaults in your exam templates.

Since (more often than not, anyway) most patients will be generally healthy, it’s a good idea to create exam templates with all values pre-populated as ‘Normal.’ That way, you won’t have to constantly be noting when things are as they should be. This will allow you to concentrate more on noticing and documenting abnormalities.

To set an exam’s defaults:

  1. Select the ‘Set Defaults’ icon

  2. This will open the chosen exam. From here you can enter the default information into each field. Note: The information you enter will automatically populate when this exam is added to a SOAP.

  3. Select the 'Save' button

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