Cases
Use cases to group a patient's visits into an episode of care with problems, goals, linked visits, billing details, status history and discharge outcomes. Owners and admins can turn Cases on from Settings.
Cases live in the patient's chart on the Cases tab. A case groups visits into one episode of care, with the problems treated, goals, linked visits, billing details and outcome.
How do I turn on Cases?
Owners and admins can turn on Cases in Settings. In the left sidebar, click Settings (at the bottom). In the settings menu, under Configuration, click Cases. Use Settings (1) and Cases (2) to get to the Cases settings page.
- Turn on Cases.
The setting saves automatically. If the save fails, Ona shows Couldn't save and restores the last saved setting. When Cases is enabled, the patient chart includes a Cases tab with problems, goals and status tracking.
What information can I record on a case?
Cases are recorded on the Cases tab in a patient's chart. In the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name and open the Cases tab. Use Cases (1) in the patient chart navigation to open the tab.
A case requires Title and Start date. You can also add a Description, one Primary problem, Secondary problems and Goals. On the form, Title (1) and Start date (2) are required, while Primary problem (3), Secondary problems (4) and Goals (5) hold the clinical details.
The case form also has a collapsible Billing section when you need to set billing mode, insurance, authorizations, referral and injury details for the case. It is where you set the policy the case bills, link authorizations for this episode, and record referral and injury information that claims repeat.
Problems can include an ICD-10 diagnosis, a free-text description, or both. Empty problem rows are not saved.
Each goal requires a description. You can also add baseline and target values, a target date, status and term. New goals start with Not started and Short-term selected.
When you create or update a case, Ona closes the sheet after a successful save. If a save fails, Ona shows an error toast with the error message when available.
How do I add problems to a case?
Cases are edited from the Cases tab in a patient's chart. In the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name, open the Cases tab and open the case form.
- In Primary problem, search for and select an ICD-10 diagnosis, or enter a free-text description.
- Under Secondary problems, select Add for each additional problem.
- Search for an ICD-10 diagnosis or enter a description for each secondary problem.
- Select Create case for a new case, or Save changes for an existing case.
The case detail view lists the primary problem first and marks it as primary. In the screenshot, Primary problem (1) is where you enter the main diagnosis, and Secondary problems (2) is where you add additional problems.
How do I add goals to a case?
Cases are edited from the Cases tab in a patient's chart. In the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name, open the Cases tab and open the case form.
- In Goals, select Add goal. Add goal (1) adds a new goal row.
- Enter the goal description in Goal description (2).
- Add baseline and target values in Baseline and target (3) if you use measurable targets.
- Add a target date, choose the goal status and choose the term in Target date, status and term (4).
- Select Create case for a new case, or Save changes for an existing case.
The case detail view shows how many goals are Met out of the total number of goals.
Goal statuses are Not started, In progress, Met, Not met and Revised. Goal terms are Short-term and Long-term.
How do I view a case and its linked visits?
Open the patient's chart from the left sidebar, then click the patient's name and open the Cases tab to review a case without leaving the chart.
- Select a case from the list. The case detail panel shows Case status (1) beside the title.
- Review Description, Problems and Goals. In the panel, Problems (2) and Goals (3) show what the case is treating and tracking.
- Select Edit to change the case form, including billing details.
- In Linked visits, select a visit to open it. Linked visits (4) is where you jump to a visit from the case.
- Review linked-visit claim details, patient owes amounts and billing-mismatch warnings when they appear.
- Review Status history to see status changes and who made them. Status history (5) records the case's status changes.
If no visits are linked, the case shows No visits linked to this case yet.
What happens when I discharge a case?
Discharging a case records the outcome for the episode. In the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name, open the Cases tab and open the case. The Discharge case dialog requires Discharge reason. Discharge date is filled with today's date when the dialog opens.
The Discharge button is unavailable until you choose a Discharge reason. After discharge, the case status shows Discharged, and the discharge reason appears in the case detail header.
Available discharge reasons are Goals met, Plateau, Self-discharged, Referred out and Lost to follow-up.
Case statuses
Open the case detail view from the patient's chart by clicking Patients in the left sidebar, then clicking the patient's name, opening the Cases tab and selecting a case. The case detail view shows the current status beside the case title and keeps a Status history. Current status (1) appears beside the title, and Status history (2) appears below it.
Available case statuses are Planned, Active, On hold, Discharged and Cancelled.
What can't I do here?
Cases have these limits:
- Staff and clinicians cannot turn Cases on or off from Settings.
- A case cannot be saved without a Title and Start date.
- A goal cannot be saved without a description.
- You cannot select Discharge until you choose a Discharge reason.
- The Billing section only appears when billing can be read for the case.
- Linked visit claim details, patient owes amounts and billing warnings only appear when billing information is available.
Common questions
What is a case?
A case groups a patient's visits into one episode of care. It stores the problems being treated, goals, linked visits, billing details, status changes and discharge outcome.
Can a case have more than one problem?
Yes. A case can have one Primary problem and multiple Secondary problems. Each problem can use an ICD-10 code, a free-text description, or both.
Can I add goals after creating the case?
The case form supports adding, removing and updating Goals when editing an existing case.
Where do linked visits appear?
Open the case detail view by clicking Patients in the left sidebar, clicking the patient's name, opening the Cases tab and selecting a case, then look under Linked visits. Selecting a linked visit opens that visit and can show its claim details, patient owes amount and billing mismatch warning.
Why can't I discharge a case?
The Discharge button stays unavailable until you choose a Discharge reason.
What is the Billing section for?
Use Billing to set the billing mode, insurance, authorizations, referral and injury details that a case carries onto its linked visits and claims.
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