Basic Document Management

The Document Module Interface

You can access the Documents Module by clicking on the blue ‘inbox’ icon at the top right of the OutSmart Interface.

Access to the documents section.

The interface of the Document Management System in OutSmart gives you a large set of tools to help you manage and find your documents easily.  The interface is broken up into:

  • The documents toolbar
  • The options panel
  • The document path
  • The document list
Documents module interface

Documents module interface

Navigating the document management system

Navigation in the OutSmart Documents Module is based on Labels.  Labels serve to organize documents into meaningful categories, and to share your documents with practitioners or patients.  Your account already comes loaded with ‘system’ labels, but you can also create your own custom labels as well.

For example, you can view a list of all your unread documents, which is a list of all your uploaded documents that have the Unread label applied.  Similarly, if you wanted to view all your unread faxes, you would be displaying a list of documents that have both the Unread and Fax labels applied.

Document Labels. Click on a label to display all documents with that label.

Document Labels. You can click on a label to display all documents with that label.

Document Base Views

A Base View is your starting list of documents, from where you can use labels to further filter your documents.  It is the completely unfiltered view of all your documents.  OutSmart has only 2 Base Views:

  1. The All Documents View
  2. The Patient Workspace View

All Documents View

If you want to see all your uploaded documents without any filtering whatsoever, then you will be looking for the All Documents View.  The All Documents View displays all documents uploaded regardless of the labels assigned to them, and regardless of which patients or clients they involve.  To access the All Documents view, click on the blue ‘X’ button to the right of the patient list in the Document Options Panel, situated directly to the left of the documents list.  Clicking this ‘X’ button removes all filters currently being applied to the view, and provides an unfiltered view of all the documents that you have ever uploaded.

Click on the blue ‘X’ to go to the All Documents View.

Click on the blue ‘X’ to go to the All Documents View.

Patient Workspace View

The only other view in the Documents Module which displays documents regardless of the labels attached to them is the Patient Workspace View.  The Patient Workspace View displays all uploaded documents that involve a specific patient.  For example, you may upload some lab test result for a patient.  This is a private patient document, and you will be uploading this document to that specific Patient Workspace View.  IF it helps you can thing of this as a file folder with a patient’s name on it.  Only documents that involve that patient will be stored there.  To access a Patient Workspace View, select the patient from the patient workspace drop-down list in the Document Options Panel.  Your document list will then change to display all documents that involve this patient.

Select a patient from the patient list in the Document Options Bar in order to access the Document Module’s Patient Workspace View.

Select a patient from the patient list in the Document Options Bar in order to access the Document Module’s Patient Workspace View.

The Document Path

The Document Path is the series of labels that are selected for filtering the list of documents.  By filtering, I mean that you are narrowing down the list of documents based on the selection of specific labels.  This can be thought of like file folders in your computer.  However, while file folders indicate a specific place where documents are stored, OutSmart Labels indicate categories that a document belongs to.  This makes organizing and finding documents a lot easier.  Instead of trying to find the place where you saved a documents, you will use labels to narrow down the category a document belongs to.

Example of a document path. This path is displayed directly above the document list.

Example of a document path. This path is displayed directly above the document list.

Navigation Using Labels

You can use labels to further filter the document list once you have select a Base View of either All Documents, or a Patient Workspace View.  Filtering the documents list using labels can be done in a variety of ways:

  • Click on a currently visible label in the documents list that is displayed in the row of a specific document.
  • Click on a label name in the Document Module Options Panel.
  • Use the drop-down list of labels next to the Document Path to select a Filtering Sub-Label.
Navigating documents using Document Labels

Navigating documents using Document Labels

Searching For A Document

You can also use the Search Term field in the Options Bar located directly to the left of the Document List.  Entering any search term in there will filter out the documents within the specific Document Path you are currently viewing.

Bookmarking a Document Path

Bookmarking a Document Path is useful if you will often need to filter your documents in a very specific manner.  For example, if you often want to take a look at all your documents that are labelled as “unread” and “to be reviewed”, then you could create a book mark for that specific document path so that you can return to it easily.  Here is how you can create a bookmark:

  1. Navigate manually to the document path that you want to bookmark.
  2. Click on the “bookmark” icon in the Document Toolbar
  3. Enter a name for your bookmark, and then click on the ‘save bookmark’ button.

This will save your bookmark, and you can return to that specific document view anytime by clicking on the bookmark button in the toolbar and selecting your saved bookmark.

Saving a bookmark to a custom document path.

Saving a bookmark to a custom document path.

Uploading documents

There are two main Document Views where documents can be uploaded – the All Documents View, and the Patient Workspace Documents View.  A Document View is like a folder.  It is a container for all the documents that you upload into that view.  The All Documents View will show you every single document you have uploaded into OutSmart, while the Patient Workspace Documents View will show you every single document you have uploaded that involves private information concerning a specific patient, for example lab work or scanned intake forms.

After uploading documents, you can also label documents with various label types to further organize your documents.

How To Upload Documents

Documents can be uploaded by dragging and dropping files or folders anywhere into the documents module.  You can also upload files individually by clicking on the  Upload Documents button located in the Top Toolbar.

The Documents interface

The Documents interface

It is important to note that documents will be uploaded into the current Document View, and will automatically take on the labels that are part of the current Document Path.

Remember that there are two Base Document Views: The All Documents View, and the Patient Workspace Documents View.  When uploading a file, pay attention to which Document View you are uploading the file into.  You should only upload private patient information into the Patient Workspace Document View, while all files which are not patient-specific should be uploaded into the All Documents View.  If you make a mistake, no problem, you can always change the base document view of an uploaded file.

Changing An Uploaded File’s Document View

There is always the possibility that you will accidentally upload a file into the incorrect Document View.  for example, you may upload a patient’s private lab test results into the All Documents View instead of that patient’s Patient Workspace Document View.  You can correct this by changing the document view after the file is uploaded:

  1. Find the document you have uploaded to the incorrect view.
  2. Click on the blue  More Info button located directly to the left of the name of the document.  This will open up the Document Properties.
  3. Look for the Patient Association label and change it as needed.  Removing the Patient Association will transfer the document to the All Documents View, while adding a patient association will transfer the document to that patient’s Patient Workspace Document View.

Associating an uploaded document to a patient record.

Deleting documents

To delete an uploaded document, you must first select the document (or documents) by clicking on the row for that document (click and drag to select multiple files).  This will turn the row(s) orange to indicate they are selected.

When you select documents, the options in the Top Toolbar will change to reflect what can be done with the selected documents.  One of the icons will be the ‘delete’ or ‘trash’ icon.  Click on that to delete the files.

Deleting multiple documents.

Deleting multiple documents.

Changing the patient associated with a document

In order to change the patient associated with a document, the first thing to do is located the document in your document list.  Once you can see the document in your list, click on the blue “down arrow” icon to the left of the document.  This will open an information box directly below that document.  You can then click on the “remove” link or “change” link to remove or change a patient association.

Changing or removing the patient associated with a document.

Changing or removing the patient associated with a document.

Changing the owner of a document

In OutSmart EMR, you can change the owner of a document(s) to any other practitioner in your clinic with a license to use the system.  You cannot change the owner of a document to a practitioner who does not have a license or who is on a free subscription.

To change the owner of a document, first select the document by clicking on the row where the document is displayed, in the Documents Module.  You can click and drag to select multiple documents.

When the documents are selected, they will be highlighted in orange, and the options available in the Top Toolbar will change to reflect what can be done with the selected documents.  Use the “Change Owner” drop down box in the Top Toolbar to select a new owner for the documents.

Changing the owner of a document.

Changing the owner of a document.