This release covers all changes from 2.0.38 to 2.0.60.
New Features
Online Patient Forms
Forms built in the Form Designer can now be sent to patients as a personal link, by email or as a mail shot, instead of a PDF.
Patients can sign on a tablet or phone, upload files (photos, letters and so on) and tick boxes. The form shows the patient’s name at the top so they know it is meant for them. Links that have been used or have expired show a notice instead of the form.
New form items: signature, file upload (with a document category), a text block you can paste formatted text into, and a single checkbox.
Use Send Test to email the form to yourself before sending it to patients, and Copy Form (right-click on the Forms table) to start a new form from an existing one.
PDF forms
You can now import an existing PDF form and place fields, signatures and dates on top of it. Patients fill it in online and the result prints exactly like the original. The Forms table has a new Type column showing PDF or Standard.
Patient Forms tab
The patient’s page has a Patient Forms tab listing the forms they have been sent, whether they have been opened, which have expired and which are still waiting. Completed forms can be viewed and printed from here.
On the Patient Forms mail shot page, each form now has its own responses page showing each patient’s answers.
Mail Shots
You can now tick exactly which patients an Email, SMS or Patient Forms mail shot is sent to.
A list of patients can be uploaded to choose who receives a Patient Forms mail shot (up to 1,000 patients).
Inserting merge fields and template notes into an email is now done from one dropdown, and a Patient Form email can be started from a template note.
Image editor
Patient images can now be edited in Chiral Cloud: crop, rotate and straighten, zoom, adjust brightness and sharpness, and add text. Your edits are saved as a copy, so the original image is never changed.
Each image opens in its own tab on the patient or appointment page. A * on the tab shows there are unsaved edits.
Composite images
Several images can be combined into one composite, for example a set of ortho photos. Design layouts in Housekeeping, then drag images into place or let auto-place fill the layout by image type. Composites can be saved and downloaded, and are available on the appointment page too.
Images can now be given an image type when they are uploaded.
Online Portal Designer
Practices with access can design their online booking portal from Utilities or the Practice Control Centre: pages, blocks, wording, fonts, colours and images, with a preview of how it will look to patients.
On the user page, clinicians can be marked Bookable Online and given a portal bio and photo. One clinician can be the Default Online Provider, and these settings are grouped in a new Online Presence section.
Online bookings and registrations reports
The Online Registrations report has new portal columns and filters, and registrations can be allocated to a clinician in bulk.
There is a new weekly Online Bookings report.
Check Lists
Practices can set up check lists in Housekeeping, such as the steps before a new patient’s first visit. Each patient’s progress is shown as a table and in its own panel on the appointment page. Items can tick themselves off when the patient submits a form or a file is uploaded.
Account adjustments
Adjustments can be made from the patient’s Account tab. They are listed on the Daily Transactions and Voided Transactions reports.
Choose your Patient Details tabs
Each user can choose which tabs show on the Patient Details page, and in what order.
Closing tabs
Right-click a tab to use Close, Close Others or Close All. You will be asked about any unsaved changes before a tab closes.
Practice Control Centre
With the right permission, the Practice Control Centre buttons can be rearranged by drag and drop, including buttons for reports.
Messages from Chiral, such as planned maintenance, now appear as a notice below the buttons and as a pop-up that stays until you close it.
Login History
A new Login History page under Users shows when each member of staff logged in, locked the screen and logged out.
Documents
The documents list has a Last Edited column. Patient documents are now locked against editing by default.
SMS & Emails now shows which documents were attached to an email.
Other improvements
- Charting: an extracted tooth is shown with a red cross until the extraction is complete.
- Patients can be given the status Pre-Acceptance.
- NHS stacked claims can be sorted by any column, and the patient’s page can be opened from the right-click menu.
- New report: COP Report 1 (100 year).
- The general note on the treatment plan can be edited directly on the page.
- Family Group: open a family member’s page straight from the Family Group tab.
- Patient transfer: add patients to the transfer table by typing their patient ID.
- iPad: press and hold now opens right-click menus reliably, including in the diary.
- Security improvements to logging in and to opening patient files.
Resolved Issues
Treatment planning and charting
Fixed several problems where a charted treatment could disappear after saving, where fillings and caries on more than one surface did not display correctly, and where the Save button did not enable after dragging a treatment.
Charges on a cancelled appointment are now released so they can be booked again.
Appointments, receipts and invoices
Issuing a receipt or invoice from an appointment now updates the treatments straight away, including for NHS patients and second payments.
Refunds are now included in the patient’s live account balance.
Bulk invoicing now invoices each patient for their own balance and clears the page correctly when it finishes.
Edits being lost
Some pages could overwrite what you had just typed with the saved copy. This included dates picked on NHS Edit Claim.
Some date pickers closed unexpectedly while you were choosing a date.
Ortho assessments were being saved again every time the page was saved.
Practice preferences now save reliably when you leave the page.
Errors and crashes
Double-clicking the Recalls Due and Reminders Due tables no longer shows an error.
Opening the practice week diary from the Practice Control Centre no longer shows an error.
Closing some PDF pages no longer shows an error.
Other fixes
- A forced logout now always logs the user out.
- Searching for patients, users and referrers now always shows the results for what you last typed.
- Uploading a patient file shows a progress bar.
- Selecting and downloading images works with the filter applied, and a single image downloads directly instead of as a zip file.
- Patient self check-in on the kiosk now shows the correct message for every outcome.
- The statement dialog now picks the account group of the tab you are on.
- Information from one practice no longer shows after switching practice or logging out.
- Improvements to staff messaging (chat) between practices.