Procedure Group Note Signature

[tmv2]

Hi,

How come after I create and sign a group note for 3 procedures, I'm still able to create and edit the note for each of those procedures individually. Two questions:

1) Shouldn't the 3 procedures that are grouped have the same exact note?
2) And if one of the notes in the group is modified, shouldn't the group signature be invalidated?

I'm on v7.9.17.

[jordansparks]

1. The three procedures that are grouped should not have any note.
2. Although if the procedures do have their own individual notes, they would be entirely separate from the group note and not considered at all when determining if the group signature is valid. Things that would invalidate the group note signature would be changing dates or procedurecodes of the procedures, or of course the note itself.

[tmv2]

> 1. The three procedures that are grouped should not have any note.

They can, that's the problem. After I create a group note, I can click on one of the grouped procedures and create an individual note. The purpose of a group note is to make all the grouped procedures have the same exact note. I wouldn't group them in the first place if I want them to have different notes. If a procedure belongs to a group, it shouldn't be allowed to have its own note. If a procedure has its own note, it shouldn't be allowed to be part of a group. That's my opinion.

>2. Although if the procedures do have their own individual notes, they would be entirely separate from the group note and not considered at all when determining if the group signature is valid. Things that would invalidate the group note signature would be changing dates or procedurecodes of the procedures, or of course the note itself.

Since a procedure can have its own note and can be part of a group note, it's possible that the two notes might be contradictory to each other. If both notes were signed, which one will legally hold?

For me I'm sticking with just entering note for one of the procedures and signing that and leave the other procedures that are supposed to be part of a group without note.

[jordansparks]

It seems like an operational office policy as to how you choose to handle this. You asked what would happen if you had both procedural and group notes that contradicted each other. The same as if you have any chart notes that contradict each other. It's up to you to not write contradictory notes. I agree that group notes are of limited usefulness. But some users really really wanted them.

[DavidWolf]

I use the group note for things that are not individual for each procedure. Mainly anesthesia, if I do a quadrant of operative I just use one group note for all the anesthesia rather than writing it on one of the three fillings. I would also like to be able to select all four third molars that were referred for extraction and set them to completed other and write one note regarding who extracted them. But, both of those things are still requested features. Currently you have to individually change each tooth from referred to existing other and write each one individually.

[Hersheydmd]

I stopped using group notes. It was too confusing.