Open Dental Forum

In another thread, in the request list, and on the phone, there has been much discussion of patient registration forms.

We have decided to immediately add the routing slip type and the "patient form" type to sheets. That way, people can get started on building their forms and they won't be spinning their wheels and be forced to do it all again later. The patient form type could be used for registration forms, medical history forms, etc. Although the patient form fields will all be "input" type fields, they won't really flow into the database yet. We're just making sure they output properly for now. So you could prefill the registration form with as much info as you have before you hand it to the patient. Or you could use it for the patient to verify their info at recalls. And of course a signature box could be easily added. Not all fields will be present in the first round, especially medical related fields. Should be part of 7.0 as long as nothing unexpected comes up.

Later, as the input fields become functional, the patient form type will replace the existing questionnaire feature and the terminal feature. Not to mention plans for web enabling. So it's a pretty big deal, even though we are just at the beginning.

If I'm reading this correctly, this might be just what I need to truly move to a "paperless" office. That and scanning multiple page PDF's.

Yes. At least after one more revision that replaces Questionnaires and the Terminal.

Although the patient form fields will all be "input" type fields, they won't really flow into the database yet. We're just making sure they output properly for now.

Out of curosity where will the data from these forms be stored? Are there plans for a separate table in the database?

The data will be the same as for the other types in the sheets framework. Images are stored in the AtoZ folder. The text data for each patient is store in the sheet and sheetfield tables in the database. Once the registration forms turn into true input forms, the data will also be "imported" one time with user validation and involvement into such tables as patient, patientnote, disease, insplan, patplan, etc. The "validation and involvement" part is the hardest because you do not want garbage flowing into your database.