This release covers all changes since 2.0.69. It introduces ChiralAcademy, built-in training for your whole team, a self check-in kiosk for reception, and PAR Index scoring for orthodontics.
New Features
ChiralAcademy: built-in staff training
My Training (left menu › Academy) gives everyone a personal training pathway for their role, such as receptionist, nurse, clinician or practice manager. A pathway is made of modules, and each module of short steps. Each step explains a task and shows where to find it, often with a short video and a Try it button that opens the real screen. A quick quiz at the end of each module unlocks the next one.
How do I…? in the top bar (or press F1 on any screen) lets you type a question in your own words, for example “invoice several patients at once”, and takes you to the right training step. It only searches training content, never patient data, and it runs inside Chiral Cloud.
Team Progress lets practice managers and supervisors see each team member’s progress, assign or remove pathways and set due dates. Group supervisors can see across the group.
Academy Studio lets practices and groups write their own training steps, modules and pathways. They can share them across the group through the group library: mark them required for all practices, offer them to the group, or make a local copy.
Who can do what: Academy – monitor practice training is given automatically to staff who have Housekeeping. Monitor group training and author practice / group training are given by the practice in User Capabilities.
Self check-in kiosk
A tablet or screen in reception can be signed in as a Check-in Kiosk user so patients check themselves in. A Check-in Kiosk user can only use the check-in screen; they can’t open patient records or any other part of Chiral Cloud. Choose the role in the user’s details. Kiosk users don’t appear in staff lists such as task assignees or chat groups.
Patients find their appointment, confirm it is theirs (for example “Is this you? Sarah J. 9:30am with Dr Patel”) and check in. The kiosk tells them if forms such as their medical history are due. If they walk away, it asks “Are you still there?” and then starts again for the next patient. If something isn’t right, it asks them to speak to reception.
Design the kiosk’s welcome screens, wording, colours and logo on the new Check-in kiosk page in the Portal Designer. Set it up in Preferences under Self check-in kiosk.
Staff leave the kiosk with an exit PIN of 4 to 6 digits, set in Preferences → Diary Settings → Checkin Pad. There is no default, so set one before using the kiosk. A wrong PIN shows how many tries are left, and too many wrong tries lock the keypad for a minute.
In the diary, appointments checked in at the kiosk are marked Checked in at kiosk, and you’re warned if the kiosk goes offline.
PAR Index scoring
The patient’s Ortho tab has a new PAR panel beside Triage and IOTN. It shows the pre- and post-treatment PAR totals (“—” means not scored yet), the outcome, for example “Greatly improved (78% reduction)”, and when and by whom it was scored.
In edit mode, Score PAR… opens the PAR Index scoring chart on the right, with Pre-treatment and Post-treatment. Tap teeth and contact points, then pick the back-teeth, overjet, overbite or open bite, and centreline readings. The total, breakdown, outcome and FP17O warnings update as you go. Press Apply to assessment, then save the patient. A total over 99 can’t be applied, because the FP17O only takes two digits.
A patient’s PAR totals now come from their latest scored assessment, and PAR is entered only through the chart. On an appointment’s Treatments tab, Orthodontic Details shows the PAR summary, with Show PAR chart to view it. Existing assessments start unscored. PAR is not yet sent with FP17O claims.
Copy templates from another practice
System Templates, Patient Templates and Preferences › Reports (email and SMS texts) now have Copy from another practice, as the Form Designer already does. It needs the Clinic Switching permission, and for system templates also permission to edit system templates. A copy with the same name as one you already have is saved as “… (copy from <practice>)”, and for an email or SMS text you already have you can choose Replace mine.
Online patient forms and the Form Designer
When a patient presses Submit with questions still unanswered, a bar above Submit now says how many questions need an answer, with Previous and Go to next to jump between them. Each question’s message clears as soon as it is answered. Answers patients type are now dark and easy to read in every field, and text on coloured blocks shows in the chosen colour.
In the Form Designer, text blocks have a Text Colour setting and section headers a Show underline option.
Permission changes
- Clinic Switching is now only given by hand, in User Capabilities; it is no longer given automatically.
- Recalculating balances now needs the Recalculate Patient Balances permission. This covers both Recalculate patient accounts (Reports › Outstanding Accounts) and Recalculate account (patient Account tab). It isn’t given automatically.
Resolved Issues
- Patient online forms: after a refused Submit, the count of questions needing an answer didn’t go down as patients answered them.
- Account tab: issuing a credit note on a zero-value or already fully credited invoice could freeze the screen. It now explains why (“There is nothing to credit on this item” or “This invoice has already been fully credited”). Refunds on receipts are judged on the money taken.
- Copy Template (within a practice) now keeps the template’s version. If the template’s file is missing, it tells you (“Template not copied – The template file is missing, so it could not be copied.”) instead of creating an empty template.
- Form Designer: a section header’s text, and a fieldset’s title, showed twice on the design canvas.
- Check-in kiosk: numbers typed on the exit keypad could land in the date-of-birth boxes after the keypad timed out.
- Small security and reliability improvements.