Provider Manual · Part VI

Encounter completion — questionnaires in the note

The forms the patient already filled in, beside the note: when the middle column opens on them, the three ways to switch views, how to read a card's score and answers, putting them into the note with .questcurrent, and why a visit sometimes opens on Encounter Completion instead.

5 sections~13 min read6 screenshots
VI
Part VI · continued

Encounter completion — questionnaires in the note

The forms the patient already filled in, beside the note: when the middle column opens on them, the three ways to switch views, how to read a card's score and answers, putting them into the note with .questcurrent, and why a visit sometimes opens on Encounter Completion instead.

6.28The Questionnaires pane

The forms the patient already filled in, beside the note

The note screen is three bands: the patient header strip across the top, a middle column, and the note editor on the right. That middle column used to hold two things — Chart Review and Encounter Completion. It now holds a third: Questionnaires, the answers this patient gave on the forms attached to this visit, question by question, without leaving the note.

  1. It appears when the visit has completed answers. A questionnaire counts if it was completed — assigned to the encounter itself, or to the scheduled visit the encounter was booked from, which is how pre-visit forms sent by an assignment rule arrive. An assignment that was sent but never filled in does not count, and neither does a form the patient completed for some other visit.
  2. It is the view the note opens on. With no choice of your own stored for that note tab, a visit carrying completed questionnaires opens on Questionnaires rather than Chart Review. The reasoning is that the answers the patient gave minutes ago are the thing you want in front of you when you start writing.
  3. Read the header. A clipboard icon, the word Questionnaires, and a chip carrying the number of forms. On the right of the same row, Answered for this visit.
  4. One card per questionnaire. Each card is the questionnaire’s name, a score chip, a line saying when and by whom it was completed, and every question with the answer exactly as it was entered. The next section reads one in detail.
  5. The note does not move. The pane is built on the same frame as Chart Review — same header height, same scrolling body — so switching between the views never shifts or resizes the editor beside it. Long answer lists scroll inside the column.
The Hero EMR encounter note screen for Maria Garcia with the middle column showing the Questionnaires pane: a header reading Questionnaires with a count chip of 1 and Answered for this visit on the right, a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 card with a PHQ-9 9 Mild depression score chip and all nine questions with the answer Several days, the hint to type .questcurrent at the bottom, and the note editor open on the right
The middle column on the Questionnaires pane, with the note editor untouched beside it.
Answers follow the visit, not just the encounter. Questionnaires are assigned to the patient from Patient Information → Questionnaires, but the pane picks them up when the completed answers are tied to this encounter or to the scheduled visit it was booked from. That is what makes a form the patient filled in from a reminder the night before show up here the moment you open the note.
6.29Switching views

Three ways to move between Chart Review, Questionnaires, and Completion

The three views share one column, so there is one cycle through them and three controls that walk it. All three do exactly the same thing; use whichever is nearest your hand.

ViewWhat the column showsWhen it is in the cycle
Chart ReviewThe chart tabs — encounters, notes, labs, imaging, medications and the rest.Always.
QuestionnairesThe completed questionnaires for this visit.Only when the visit has at least one completed questionnaire.
Encounter CompletionThe completion checklist — diagnoses, orders, charges, follow-up.Only for people allowed to open it: clinicians, and staff with draft-editing rights.
  1. Shift + Tab cycles them. The order is Chart ReviewQuestionnairesEncounter Completion → back to Chart Review. Views that are not available for this visit or this reader are skipped, so with no questionnaires on the visit you get the classic two-way flip between Chart Review and Encounter Completion, exactly as before. It works with the cursor sitting in the note — the note screen catches the key first, so it switches the view instead of outdenting your paragraph.
  2. The floating switcher sits at the top right. A small pill of three icon segments at the right end of the patient header strip — the spot where the Encounter signed pill appears on a signed visit. Left to right: Chart Review, Questionnaires, Encounter Completion. The current view is the filled one, and the Questionnaires segment carries the number of forms (anything above nine reads 9+), so a visit with answers waiting is visible at a glance without opening anything.
  3. Hover a segment for its name and the key. The segment you are on says Chart Review (current); the others name themselves and the chord, as in Encounter Completion — Shift+Tab cycles views. If your practice or your account leaves only one view available, the switcher does not render at all.
  4. The note tab has the same toggle. The active note tab in the workspace tab strip carries a small two-way arrow between the title and the close ×. Its tooltip names the view the click lands on and the key that does the same thing: Switch to Encounter Completion (Shift+Tab). It is only on the note tab you are actually in — inactive note tabs keep the room for their title, and a note with nothing to cycle to has no arrow.
  5. Remap the key if Shift + Tab is not yours. SettingsHotkeys opens Keyboard Shortcuts. Under the Note Writer heading — blurbed Active while a note is open for editing. — find the row Cycle the middle column: Chart Review → Questionnaires → Encounter Completion. The icon buttons on the row are Change, Turn off, and Reset to default; a shortcut you have turned off reads Off. Every tooltip above follows whatever you set, so the tab arrow starts naming your chord instead.
Close-up of the floating view switcher at the right end of the Hero EMR patient header strip: three round icon segments for Chart Review, Questionnaires and Encounter Completion, with the Questionnaires segment filled and showing the count 1, and a tooltip below reading Encounter Completion — Shift+Tab cycles views
The switcher: the filled segment is the current view, and the count rides on the Questionnaires segment.
The Hero EMR workspace tab strip with the active Note: Maria Garcia tab showing a two-way arrow toggle beside its title and a tooltip reading Switch to Encounter Completion (Shift+Tab), next to an inactive Note: Daniela Ramirez tab that has no toggle
The toggle on the active note tab names the next view in the cycle, and the key that gets there.
The Note Writer section of the Hero EMR Keyboard Shortcuts editor showing the row Cycle the middle column: Chart Review to Questionnaires to Encounter Completion with the binding Shift+Tab in a key cap and pencil and turn-off icon buttons beside it
SettingsHotkeys: the cycle is one remappable row under Note Writer.
6.30Reading a questionnaire card

Score, timing, and every answer as the patient gave it

A card is four things stacked: the name, the score chip, one line of provenance, and the answers. Nothing on it is editable — this is a reading surface, and the questionnaire record itself stays in the chart.

  1. The name is the questionnaire’s full title. Patient Health Questionnaire-9, not the abbreviation. A questionnaire with no full title falls back to its short name, and one with neither reads Questionnaire.
  2. The chip carries the score and what it means. It reads short name, score, then the interpretation: PHQ-9 9 · Mild depression. A scored questionnaire without a short name reads Score 9 · Mild depression; one that produces an interpretation but no number shows the interpretation alone; one that scores nothing has no chip at all.
  3. The line underneath says when, who, and how many. Aug 29, 2026, 11:46 PM · by patient · 9 answers. The timestamp is in your practice’s time zone, not the patient’s and not your laptop’s. Who completed it is one of by patient, by staff, or by proxy — worth a glance before you lean on a symptom score, since a form a staff member keyed in over the phone is a different piece of evidence from one the patient typed.
  4. The answers are numbered, in the questionnaire’s own order. Question text on one line, the answer directly beneath it. A picked option shows the option’s wording (Several days), a multi-select shows the choices separated by commas, and free text is reproduced verbatim, as typed. A question the patient left blank is still listed and numbered, with Not answered in its place, so a skipped item never silently disappears. Per-question points are not shown; the arithmetic is in the chip.
  5. Fold what you are not reading. Click anywhere on a card’s header to collapse or expand it; the chevron on the right follows. One or two forms on a visit both start open. From three upward — an intake packet, say — only the first opens, and the rest stay folded so the whole set is scannable in one screen.
  6. Know the three failure messages. If the answers cannot be fetched at all, the pane shows Couldn’t load the questionnaire answers. with a Retry button next to it — the cards keep their names and scores meanwhile, because those arrive with the encounter. A single card whose answers did not come reads Answers are not available for this questionnaire. And a visit whose forms turn out to be empty reads No questionnaire answers are tied to this visit.
A single Patient Health Questionnaire-9 card in the Hero EMR Questionnaires pane, showing the score chip PHQ-9 9 Mild depression, the line Aug 29 2026 11:46 PM by patient 9 answers, the nine PHQ-9 questions each numbered with the answer Several days beneath, and the footer hint to type .questcurrent in the note to insert these answers
One card, unfolded: name, score chip, provenance line, then every question with its answer.

What the card is good for

  • Reading a score and its interpretation without opening the chart.
  • Checking a single item — PHQ-9 question 9, for instance — against the total.
  • Seeing whether the patient or a staff member entered the answers.
  • Comparing what was reported on the form with what you are being told in the room.

What it is not

  • Not editable: answers cannot be corrected from here.
  • Not a history — it is this visit only. Score trends over time live in the chart, and .questtrend puts one in the note.
  • Not automatic documentation: nothing reaches the note until you insert it.
  • Not a review record — reading the pane is not the same as acknowledging a result.
6.31Putting the answers into the note

.questcurrent writes the visit’s questionnaires into the note

The pane is for reading. When the answers belong in the documentation, the last line of the pane tells you how to get them there: Type .questcurrent in the note to insert these answers. It is a dot phrase, so you type it in the editor rather than clicking anything in the pane.

  1. Type .questcurrent where you want the block. It fires as soon as it is recognised — there is no list to pick from — and the dropdown shows Inserting this visit’s questionnaire answers… while it works.
  2. What lands in the note. A heading, Visit questionnaires — 2026-08-29, then one block per questionnaire, oldest completion first: a bold line pairing the short name with the completion date (PHQ-9 — 2026-08-29), the full title beneath it when it differs, and a score line reading Score: 9/27 — Mild depression. The denominator only appears when the questionnaire defines a maximum, and an unscored form reads Score: N/A. Any flags the questionnaire raises follow as a short bulleted list under Flags.
  3. The answers arrive as a details card. Under each score line sits a collapsible block headed PHQ-9 details with an answered counter on the right (9/9 answered) and the same numbered question-and-answer list you were just reading, unanswered items included. .questcurrent inserts it already expanded; the other questionnaire phrases insert theirs collapsed.
  4. Nothing to insert says so. On a visit with no completed forms the phrase writes one line — No questionnaires completed for this visit. — rather than failing silently. In a quick note with no encounter behind it the heading and the empty line both say “today” instead of “this visit”.
  5. Sensitive questionnaires insert the summary only. A questionnaire your practice has marked financially sensitive contributes its heading and score line, and its answers card is left out.

Four related phrases cover the rest of the questionnaire work, and all of them are available anywhere in the note editor, not only on a visit with a pane:

PhraseIn the dot-phrase listWhat it inserts
.questcurrentInsert this visit’s questionnaire answersEvery questionnaire completed for this visit, with scores and expanded answers.
.questdetailPick a questionnaire and insert its answersOpens a Search questionnaires picker; inserts one chosen submission with its date, score, flags, and answers.
.questtrendInsert questionnaire score trendThe same picker, then that questionnaire’s scores over time — a text list, plus a chart once there are two or more scored submissions.
.phq9 / .gad7Latest score for this patientOne line, e.g. PHQ-9 (2026-08-29): 9/27 — Mild depression, or PHQ9: No results found.
Insertion is a copy, not a link. What .questcurrent writes is ordinary note content from the moment it lands — it does not update if the patient later amends a form, and it is what gets signed with the note. If answers change after you inserted them, re-read the pane and correct the note by hand, the same as any other text.
6.32When the pane does not appear

Visits with no forms, saved notes, and what each person sees

The pane is additive: it shows up when there is something to show and stays out of the way otherwise. Four situations account for nearly every “where did it go”.

  1. No completed questionnaires — nothing changes at all. The middle column behaves exactly as it did before: Chart Review, Encounter Completion, and Shift + Tab flipping between the two. There is no Questionnaires segment on the switcher and no third stop in the cycle. A clinician whose visits never carry forms will not notice this feature exists.
  2. You saved the note — the column moves to Encounter Completion. Saving hands the column to the completion checklist, exactly as it always has. The questionnaires have not gone anywhere: one Shift + Tab, or one click on the switcher, brings them back.
  3. The visit already had completion work on it. A note you open that already carries a draft or an addendum with diagnoses, prescriptions, lab or imaging orders, charge capture, patient instructions, follow-up scheduling, or an encounter summary opens on Encounter Completion rather than the questionnaires — the work in progress wins. This is the usual reason a visit you have already touched today does not open where a colleague’s does.
  4. Your own choice wins, and is remembered. The moment you pick a view yourself — by key, switcher, or tab arrow — that note tab stops switching itself and stays where you put it. Each open note tab remembers its own view, so moving between two patients’ notes does not disturb either, and a page refresh restores them. The memory is per browser tab and is cleared when you log out or close it. One exception: a remembered Questionnaires choice only holds while the visit still has completed questionnaires; otherwise the note falls back to Chart Review.
  5. Staff see the pane too. A staff member without draft-editing rights has no Encounter Completion pane at all, and for them the cycle is the two-way Chart ReviewQuestionnaires. Everyone who can open the note can read the answers on it.
The same Hero EMR encounter note screen with the middle column switched to Chart Review, showing the Encounters, Notes, Labs, Imaging and Medications tabs, an upcoming visits panel and the encounter table, while the view switcher at the top right now has the Chart Review segment filled and the Questionnaires segment showing the count 1
The same note on Chart Review. The Questionnaires segment keeps its count, so the answers stay one key away.

Expected a pane and did not get one

  • The form was assigned but never completed — only completed answers count.
  • It was completed against a different visit, or against no visit at all.
  • The visit already carries completion work, so the column opened on Encounter Completion.
  • You picked a view on this note tab earlier and it is honouring that.

Getting back to it

  • Shift + Tab until the column reads Questionnaires.
  • Click the middle segment of the switcher at the top right.
  • Click the two-way arrow on the note’s tab.
  • For anything not tied to this visit, use the chart’s Questionnaires tab or .questdetail.

Need help? Email support@heroemr.com.