Group module - need help understanding how to use

Day-to-Day Users
#1

I have enabled the group module and I would like to use it to document group psychotherapy. (There are group psychotherapy modalities wherein an identical note can serve all group participants and other modalities wherein notes specific to each participant are needed - I’m hoping for a way to record some information that populates in the records or each participant and I will supplement it with another form for specific information. )

With the module enabled I have the group menu and I have set up a group and added participants. I can create an encounter for the group however there is no “administration” menu to allow billing options? (Not a big deal for me as we bill via DDE for now.) When I select from the “Layout Based” menu to record a service note, it does not appear below the encounter information in the encounter summary page. The text I enter is saved if I click the same note type from “Layout Based” menu, but will not save such that I can see it and click the “sign” button. Also this encounter does not appear in the past encounters for any participant.

Also when creating an encounter for an individual patient I can select “group therapy” and associate the individual encounter with the group but this is no different than creating an individual service note for each group participant as I have been doing (and saves me no time).

Is there a way to create a group encounter and group note that appears in the encounter history for each participant?

#2

Hi David-
This module is new to me so I’m poking around with it for the first time.
You’re right, the group encounter menu has no admin item to get to a fee sheet to add a charge for that grp session. However, I find you can go to the patient’s encounter summary and pull up the grp therapy session, and find the fee sheet from there, to add the fee for the session. But that is what I’d call a ‘sub-optimal’ workflow; you’d have to add the fee to each participating pt individually!
Seems it might be fairly simple to add the admin menu item to the group encounter, doesn’t it? But I’m not a dev.

If you notice any other desireable changes please post them here. I’m going to play with this some more, esp re: your service note. Maybe we can put together an organized report for the module’s dev to request some changes.

#3

Update: my superficial research into the group module has led me to create a user doc which I will post when completed, ‘Real Soon Now’ :slight_smile:

#4

It is in the OpenEMR wiki, here:
https://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/HOWTO_Setup_and_Use_OpenEMR_Groups_Module
Comments/ feedback is certainly invited!

1 Like
#5

I don’t see the visits choice under the group menu?