Select the Clinical Notes tab of the patient file.

Select the New button to create a blank note, or select the drop-down arrow next to it to choose a template from the list.

In the template drop-down, select the star icon next to a template to set it as your preferred template. Once a template is starred, selecting the New button will create a new note using that template automatically, rather than a blank note. You can change your preferred template at any time by starring a different one in the list.

The clinical note workflow is modular. The Add to Note button stays available at the top of the note at any point while you're writing, allowing you to add elements or more templates as you go. This means you're not limited to a single template. You can start with one template and add further elements as building blocks, all forming one single note. Learn more about templates here.

The history pane sits on the right-hand side of the screen while you're writing a note. Use the show/hide history button in the top right corner to show or hide it. The appearance of the buttons is different depending on the screen size of your device.

It lets you view and filter past clinical notes while you're writing a new one, so you can refer back to earlier notes without leaving the note you're working on. See Using the 'Show History' Function for more detail.

At the top of the pane, you can toggle between the History and Files tabs. The Files tab lets you view and preview files that have been uploaded into the patient record.

If the practitioner has the Parchment prescribing integration enabled, they can also view the patient's prescribed medications in this pane. See the Integrations section below for how to connect Parchment.

The Attach File button at the top of the note lets you associate an attachment with the note.

You can upload a new file, or link an existing file to the note.

When uploading new files, you have the option to also show the file in the Files tab of that general patient file. If you don't select 'Show in Client Files', the attachment will only be visible and accessible from the clinical note itself. Only those with access to the clinical note will be able to access the file.

PracSuite has a couple of tools to help you write notes faster:

Pinning a clinical note brings that note out of the timeline so it's the first note you see every time you open a patient's Clinical Notes tab. To pin a note, hover over it and select the pin icon on the right-hand side. Pinned notes appear in blue at the top of the page. Unpin at any time by repeating these steps.

There are two ways to copy an existing clinical note. Both require the Copy Clinical Note permission to be enabled on the user role.

1. Create a new note as a copy of an existing note. In the main clinical note timeline, use the copy icon to create a new note that duplicates the selected note.

2. Copy a note into one you're already writing. While a new note is in progress, hover over a note in the History pane and use the copy icon to insert its contents at the bottom of the current note.

When you're finished writing a note, you can save and complete it, or save it as a draft to finish later.

Select the drop-down arrow next to the save button for further options:

If enabled, some third-party integrations are also accessible at the top of the page when creating a new clinical note:

Each integration needs to be set up and enabled before it will appear here. See the linked articles above for setup instructions.