Open an Encounter at Registration

Every visit needs a single home — one record that everything attaches to: the queue ticket, the vitals, the doctor’s notes, the orders, the bill. Veona calls that record an encounter. The good news is that nobody has to create it by hand. The moment a patient is registered, Veona opens exactly one canonical encounter for their visit, so there is never a second, parallel visit floating around.

Who / when: the Registration Clerk triggers it simply by registering the patient; the Physician later works inside the very same encounter when they see the patient. No extra step is needed from either of them — this page explains what is happening so you can trust it.

We will keep following Amina Bello from her registration.

1. Registration Clerk — register the patient as usual at Register → New Registration and press “Assign UHID & save” on the final review page (the full walk-through is in Register a Patient and Mint a UHID).
2. Registration Clerk — at the instant the UHID (Unique Health ID, the permanent VNA-… number) is minted, Veona opens one encounter for the visit automatically. You do not click anything for this; it is part of saving the registration.
3. Registration Clerk — confirm it is there if you wish: open Register → OPD Board (OPD is the Outpatient Department — patients seen and sent home the same day). Amina now appears with an open “Walk-in / Outpatient” encounter, in an early state such as “Arrived”.
4. Physician — later, when you open Amina’s record from Chart → Patients, you are working inside this same encounter. Your notes, orders and prescriptions all attach to it. You never have to open a fresh visit to start documenting a walk-in — it is already waiting.

Note

One patient, one visit, one encounter. This is deliberate: because registration opens exactly one canonical encounter, the queue ticket and any appointment for this visit all resolve to it rather than spawning duplicates. It is the spine the rest of the visit hangs from.

What happens next

With the encounter open, the front desk can issue a queue ticket that links straight to it (see Link a Queue Ticket to an Open Encounter), the nurse can record vitals against it, and the physician can chart, order and prescribe — every action landing on the one record. When the doctor presses “Complete” at the end of the visit, this encounter is what closes.

Follow the trail

• Previous: Register a Patient and Mint a UHID
• Next: Link a Queue Ticket to an Open Encounter
• Related: Check In an Appointment Into an Encounter · Converge Appointment and Queue on One Encounter · A Patient’s First Visit, End to End