Adding medical alerts

You can set up the medical alerts that you want to have available for attaching to patients. Dentrix Ascend comes with a large set of default medical alerts, but you can add your own custom alerts as needed.

Note: Medical alerts are global (available to all locations across your organization).

To add a medical alert

1. On the Settings menu, under Patient Care, click (or tap) Medical Alerts Library.

   The Medical Alerts Library page opens.

2. Do one of the following:

   • To create a medical alert for an allergy, next to Allergies, click (or tap) Create New.

   • To create a medical alert for a problem, next to Problems, click (or tap) Create New.

   

   Tip: You may want to verify that the medical alert that you want to add does not already exist in your practice database before you attempt to add the alert. Under Available Medical Alerts, begin typing an alert in the search box, continue typing as needed to narrow the search results list. Alternatively, you can expand a section to look for an alert in that category.

   

   The options for adding the medical alert become available.

   Allergy

   Problem

3. Specify the description, category, and other details of the medical alert as needed.

   Set up the following options:

   • Alert name / Condition - Enter a description of the medical alert. It can be up to 60 characters long.

   • Category - Select a category for the medical alert. For an allergy, the selected category is Allergies and cannot be changed.

   • SNOMED CT code - Enter the SNOMED CT code that you want to associate with the medical alert.

   • Show alert - Set this switch to one of the following options to specify the default state of the Show alert switch that is available when you are attaching a medical alert to a patient's record:

     • Yes - For a patient with this alert attached, a message that describes the patient's allergy or condition will appear each time you access the patient's information, and the Medical Alert icon will appear where applicable.

     • No - For a patient with this alert attached, a message will not appear when you access the patient's information, but the Medical Alert icon will appear where applicable.

     Note: When you are attaching this medical alert to a patient, or when you are editing a patient's medical alert, you can change the state of the Show alert switch as needed.

   • Is permanent - Set this switch to one of the following options to specify the default state of the Is permananent switch that is available when you are attaching a medical alert to a patient's record:

     • Yes - If this medical alert will usually be permanent for patients to whom you attach it.

     • No - If this medical alert will usually not be permanent for patients to whom you attach it. If a medical alert is marked as not permanent, you can mark it as expired when applicable.

     Note: When you are attaching this medical alert to a patient, or when you are editing a patient's medical alert, you can change the state of the Is permananent switch as needed.

4. Click (or tap) Create.

Note: If the Show alert switch was set to Yes, a red exclamation point appears next to the name of the allergy or problem.