Practices often use Spruce to collaborate on patient care. This might involve internal discussion of a patient’s billing questions, clinical communication between providers, or relaying of patient requests from administrative staff to clinicians. Within a conversation, "internal notes" (yellow messages on Spruce) can be used to accomplish these tasks easily and effectively, but the situation can become complex when there are multiple active conversations for a single patient. If your practice needs a way to discuss a patient's care outside of any specific conversation thread, or needs to be sure that the internal discussion is accessible to team members who may not have access to all conversations, one great solution is to use the new "Note" feature to communicate!
IN THIS ARTICLE
Using Notes
A “Note” is a purely internal conversation thread. There are two methods to start a new Note. To start a general note, while in Inbox view, click the action button (blue button) or the plus sign if on mobile and select "Note." Alternatively, to start a note about a specific patient you can open a patient’s contact card and click on the note icon next to the SMS icon. If you click on this note icon, it will create a new note conversation, in which members of your team can discuss the patient, their care, and anything else relevant to their situation.
You can set permissions on notes to default to the full organization so that they are visible to everyone. You can also create notes with only specific team members as members of the conversation, if more privacy is needed. If you intend to use one note for all communication regarding a patient, you may want to title it something like “Internal Thread.” It would then display in your Inbox tab as “Internal Thread Regarding Patient Name.”
With notes, all internal communication regarding a patient can now be contained in one place, rather than being spread across multiple conversations. You can easily find notes listed with all other conversations in a patient’s contact card.
This is what your note might look like when used for internal communication about a patient.
In this image you can see that when you click on the [i] on the upper right hand corner of the note you are able to see which patient it is regarding and select their name to open her contact card.
When you open the contact card you can see the note we have created listed under the conversation tab- easy to find!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I leave an internal note on a Spruce conversation for my team?
Open the conversation, tap the notes or internal message icon, write your note, and send. The note appears in the thread but is not delivered to the patient.
Can patients see internal notes in Spruce?
No. Internal notes are visible only to your team members. They are completely separate from outgoing patient messages.
Are internal notes in Spruce saved permanently?
Yes. Internal notes are stored with a timestamp in the conversation thread, creating a permanent record of team communication around that patient interaction.