Patients & charting

Protocols

Save a reusable starting point for sessions you chart often.

What a protocol holds

A protocol is a saved starting point for a session — the points, pulse & tongue observations, pattern & technique, and free-text notes you'd otherwise fill in from scratch every time you chart a similar visit. It doesn't include custom fields, since those are captured per visit.

Creating a protocol

Go to Protocols in the sidebar and choose New protocol. Give it a name that will make sense in the quick-apply list later — for example, “Low back — standard” — and fill in the points, pulse/tongue, and pattern/technique the same way you would on a session. You can also save the session you're charting right now as a protocol, straight from the protocols panel on the session form.

Using a protocol in a session

On the session form, the protocols panel lets you apply a saved protocol with one click. Applying a protocol adds its fields to the session you're editing — you can then adjust anything before saving, and the protocol itself is unaffected.

Applying a protocol adds to the session rather than replacing it. Points and pattern are merged in without duplicates, free text is appended, and anything you've already entered stays as you typed it. That's deliberate: it lets you stack several protocols in one visit — a points protocol plus a separate pattern protocol, say — instead of one replacing the last.

Editing and deleting protocols

Edit a protocol from the Protocols list at any time — changes only affect sessions charted afterward, not ones already charted from it. Deleting a protocol moves it to the trash; see Trash & recovery to restore it.

Why “protocol” and not “template”?

If you've used another practice management system, you may know this feature as a chart template. We use protocol — the word acupuncture software has long used for a saved point prescription — because “template” is reserved here for a different job: deciding which fields appear on a chart in the first place. A protocol fills a chart in; a template decides what's on it.