Group Sessions to document the group notes including shared group notes and individual notes about the patient's participation in one place. The system will then distribute the notes in read-only format to the corresponding charts with the patient's attendance status, general group duration and description, individual notes, and signatures. In addition, you can annotate individual notes, and link the group notes to the Golden Thread (if used).
Therapists, Case Managers, Other Therapists, and users with Manage Group Sessions feature can start Group Sessions.
Scheduled Group Sessions
The Scheduled Group Sessions tab shows all groups scheduled for Today.
- If you are using Scheduler, you will see the Scheduler tab.
- If you are using the legacy Calendar, you will see the Calendar tab.
The Scheduled Group Sessions tab contains three main sections:
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Upcoming Group Sessions: Lists all groups that have not been started yet, sorted by start time and then alphabetically. For each group, you will see the group's full name, start time, and its leader(s) if any.
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Group Sessions In Progress/Completed: Lists all group sessions that have In Progress or Completed statuses. If a group has a topic already, you will see it next to the group's name.
- Use the Edit or Delete icons to make updates or delete a Group Session. Deleting a Group session simply moves it back up to the Upcoming Group Sessions section. Any notes/signatures assigned to a deleted group session cannot be restored.
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Group Sessions Pending Review: if you have a staff member(s) with the Requires Group Session Review feature, the group sessions they have signed and completed will await a Reviewer's signature in this area.
If you need to view the same information for any of the past dates, or you forgot to log one of your older group sessions, you can use the Change Date button to switch between dates.
Document Group Sessions
Let's review how to complete Group Session documentation.
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From the Schedule Group Session tab, click on the Group Session Name to start a session.
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Note: If your organization uses Scheduler, please start the Group Session from the Scheduler card.
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- Once opened, the group session will populate with the patients that have been assigned to the session.
- You can add patients using the Add Patient button.
- You will see patients in your current census, and you can pick one or multiple patients.
- You can also add All patients in the current census if necessary.
- If you are documenting an older session, the system will show you the patients who were in the census at the time of the group session.
- You can add patients using the Add Patient button.
- You can remove a patient by clicking the trash can icon in their row.
- The top of the Group Session page displays:
- Session Name and Date/Time
- Group Leader: This is the individual who started the session (or the user assigned as the Group Leader).
- Location: Where the Group Session is taking place.
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Start and End time: If your group session started or ended at a time different than indicated, use these fields to adjust as needed.
- If a session's starts before midnight and end time is set to after midnight, the date of the next day will appear beneath the end time.
- If you click on the date, you will see an option to pick the date.
- If you select the earlier date, the end time will automatically be set to 11:59 PM.
- If a session's starts before midnight and end time is set to after midnight, the date of the next day will appear beneath the end time.
- If your group session template includes codes, they will appear at the top of the top of the session. Additionally, the selected codes will appear for each patient, but can be changed for each patient individually.
- Topic: Select one of the suggested topics set up in the Session Template or type in your own. Selecting a topic will automatically populate the Group Description.
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Change Group Leader: Use this button to select an individual to lead this session. Note: When you select a new group leader, this group for this date will only be visible to that user.
- Print Sign-in Sheet: Allows users to print out a list of all attendees with a signature line for each to track attendance.
- For each patient, you can document the following confidential information. These details will only display in the chart of the patient and are not shared across all group session attendees.
- Attendance: enabled by default to indicate the patient's presence in the group. If a patient was due for a group but did not attend, uncheck the box and write a short note to explain.
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Golden Thread: if your facility uses Golden Thread, you can link the patient's group notes to particular problems, goals, objectives, and/or interventions.
- Individual Assessments/Interventions: Log details about the patient's participation and behavior in the group, individual statements, and goals, completed tasks, etc.
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Individual Start and End time: if the patient was late to the group, or left earlier, you can adjust the time the patient spent in the group. This information is transferred to the patient's chart and is also reflected in the Billing report (as a duration).
- If your group session started or ended at a time different than indicated, use these fields to adjust as needed.
- If as with the overall group session, if an individual in the session starts before midnight and their time is set to after midnight, the date of the next day will appear beneath the end time.
- If you click on the date, you will see an option to pick the same date or the next day.
- If you select the earlier date, the end time will automatically be set to 11:59 PM.
- If the group session template has codes attached but you need different ones for specific patients, you can select them manually.
- Additionally, if codes have time duration requirements, they will automatically be applied based on the start and end times entered.
- If as with the overall group session, if an individual in the session starts before midnight and their time is set to after midnight, the date of the next day will appear beneath the end time.
- If your group session started or ended at a time different than indicated, use these fields to adjust as needed.
- The last section of the Group Session page contains:
- Group Description: This field should document what the group was focused on for this session. This field is available to all patients and shouldn't contain PHI.
- Attachments: Any attachments added are only available on the group's page and won't transfer to the patient's charts. You can upload the sign-in sheet or discussed handouts, etc.
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Group Leader Sign Off & Submit: Click this button when you are done documenting the Group Session to sign and submit.
- Note: When signing off as the Group Leader on a billable group session that is marked as ancillary, you will receive an error if no billing code has been selected. This functionality only applies to Group 2.0 notes. To convert any remaining 1.0 groups to 2.0, please consult the article here.
- Note: When signing off as the Group Leader on a billable group session that is marked as ancillary, you will receive an error if no billing code has been selected. This functionality only applies to Group 2.0 notes. To convert any remaining 1.0 groups to 2.0, please consult the article here.
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Add Group Signer: If your group is facilitated by multiple people, you can add more group signers by clicking on this button.
- Select the desired signer or signers. All added signers have full control over the group and all added users can sign. When you are added as a signer, you will get a notification stating someone has added you as a group signer.
- If you need to remove the additional signer, click on Add Group Signer once more and click the user(s) highlighted green to remove them. You can also click on the red x by the specific name.
- Signers added here will appear in parentheses on the Group card and in the Leader column.
- Group Card:
- Leader Column:
- Group Card:
- Select the desired signer or signers. All added signers have full control over the group and all added users can sign. When you are added as a signer, you will get a notification stating someone has added you as a group signer.
- Add Patient: You can add additional patients as needed.
After the Group Session is complete, you can click the Show Individual Notes button to view a list of individual patient notes (the same view as in patient's charts). Note: You must have the View Individual Group Sessions instance settings enabled for this button to be available.
Past Group Sessions Overview
The Past Group Sessions tab under Schedules lists all existing group sessions in In Progress, Pending Review, or Completed statuses, newest first. You will see the session name and topic, date and time, group leader(s), and status. Each column is sortable. You can also search by keywords in Session or Group Leader columns.
Group Leaders can search by their name and sort by status to review groups pending completion.
Chart auditors can complete past group sessions that are not in the complete status by clicking on the checkmark that is only available to users with that permission enabled.
If a Chart auditor completes a group session, the details will say that the session was marked as closed by the user.
Group Sessions in the Patient Chart
The Group Sessions tab in the patient chart is a view-only log of all group sessions the patient was added to (whether marked as attending or absent). Click here to learn more.
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