A conversation with Jane’s community of chiropractors on charting efficiently, effectively, and as effortlessly as possible.
Hey there, Alex here from the Jane team. 👋
We were curious how our community of chiropractors chart in Jane, and we thought you might be too. So, we set out to do some digging and interviewed five busy charters who generously shared their time with us (seriously, we can’t thank them enough!).
In interviews led by Ali, Jane’s cofounder and clinic owner, we get to take a peek into the minds of these fab five from our chiropractic community. They share everything from their daily charting workflows, the templates that they use from Jane’s Template Library, and they even share some tips and tricks along the way. We couldn’t be more excited to show you!
I’ll personally take you through some of the most effective charting methods in each of my highlight reels, or you can catch the conversations from each interview below.
But first, let’s meet our lovely five! You can click on the dropdowns below to see a brief introduction of each of our interviewees alongside links to each of their websites.
▶ 💜 Dr. Roxanne Wagner, Co-Owner of Comprehensive Chiropractic in Lakewood, CO
Dr. Roxanne Wagner is a shining example of having a dream and having the passion to go and achieve it. Roxanne met her husband (and now co-owner) while they were both going to school Not long after they made the brave decision to move to Denver to start from scratch, and began creating long-lasting relationships. They're currently on their 5th year in practice together!
You can find her practice here.
▶ 💙 Dr. Nick Meier, Owner of Meier Family Chiropractic in Waukee, IA
Dr. Nick Meier has been his own boss since he unexpectedly had to start a solo practice in 2018 as a fresh graduate which wasn't his initial intention. From day one, Dr. Nick has had the goal of helping others heal both emotionally and physically through his unique take on the chiropractic discipline. Combining both his passion for healing and drive to grow as a solo practitioner, Dr. Nick has made a name for himself and lives up to his goal of making a positive impact on the world.
You can find his practice here.
▶ 🧡 Trudi Pedder, Practice Manager of Vida Lifestyles in Sandringham, VIC, Australia
Trudi has been helping practice members receive the best possible care for over six years with Vida Lifestyles. With a focus on creating an environment that's welcoming and efficient, Trudi uses her charting knowledge to create notes during the visit so no information is left undocumented. It's clear to us that Trudi's expertise and positive attitude continues to be invaluable for both the clinic and their members.
You can find more about Vida Lifestyles here.
▶ 💚 Dr. Trent Hippard, Owner of Restoration Chiropractic in Knoxville, TN
Dr. Trent has been in practice for over 10 years and most recently relocated out of state to start a new clinic. Making his start in Northern Illinois, Dr. Trent spent 8 years in private practice at an entirely paper-based clinic. Fast forward to 2021, Dr. Trent moved to Tennessee to start his new practice, Restoration Chiropractic where he's gone entirely paperless with Jane!
You can find his practice here.
▶ 💛 Dr. Britta Cicansky Cech, Owner of Crystal Care Chiropractic in Benzonia, MI
Dr. Britta has grown her own chiropractic business from the ground up. Starting as a solo practitioner, Dr. Britta has managed to create lasting connections with her community members and continues to provide the best service possible for her patients. With her 2nd year in practice approaching, it's clear that there's no stopping her from achieving her goals of seeing patients improve and using her skills to better the community she loves.
You can find her practice here.
📣 Disclaimer for charting: It is important to check with your governing body to ensure your charting follows your discipline’s professional requirements.
💜 Dr. Roxanne Wagner
Co-Owner of Comprehensive Chiropractic in Lakewood, CO
Roxanne on her favourite chart part:
“Smart Options! I really like them because they’re similar to Macros on our previous software where you can click one of these buttons and have the sentence just written for you, so I’ve got a few of those throughout my notes. I also love the fact you allow us to pre-click the options, it definitely saves time having the most common buttons already selected.”
🎬 Charting Highlights with Alex
🔍 Find all of Roxanne’s templates by searching “Roxanne Wagner” in the Chart Template Library.
▶ 📚Catch the Conversation: click here to read it!
Ali: So today, I wanted to hear about your chart notes, about how long do you spend taking notes for your initial and subsequent visits?
Roxanne: I would say on average, for an entirely new chart note, it takes around 5 minutes depending on how much I need to type, but if it's an easy note I can duplicate and it will be less than a minute. But those initial ones are definitely important, you know, make sure everything is right because there are times where something is wrong, you realize after, and it's like "Oh no! This is in every single one!"
Ali: Interesting, this is the second time I've heard this, so you have one template and use that for your initial visit, then duplicate from that one note for the following visits?
Roxanne: I have a few different templates, my husband and I do it differently, and sometimes we'll use each other's templates with that template sharing feature in Jane. For mine, I have a New Patient template that only needs a few things deleted to make it a Subsequent Visit note. That way, it doesn't have all of the Exam stuff I did on the first visit or any of the explanations for each CPT code I used in the Subsequent Visit note.
Roxanne: I also have some little extras created as different chart templates for things like tests, extra research, and causation treatments. They're basically just pre-typed entries I can just slot into a chart note to save myself some time.
Ali: I love that people can build and create the templates in ways that they like, and it just goes to show how personal everyone's charting process is! Take you and your husband, for example, you both are chiropractors, you both learned at the same school, and treat the same type of person. He charts one way and you chart another, so by building templates you can actually enjoy the process instead of stuffing yourself into someone else's workflow.
Roxanne: We actually took a documentation course that really helped us weed out the extra stuff we had in our previous notes. So I've been able to condense it down to what is actually necessary for the insurance companies we submit to, and if we need to look back at a record, what's the non-fluff that's needed to find that record. I use the Medical Alerts in the charting section to leave myself notes instead of including them in the actual chart note.
How cool is it that Roxanne even provided us with the documentation course she took? Thanks for chatting with us, and showing us that it’s worth it to just ‘do it!’
💙 Dr. Nick Meier
Owner of Meier Family Chiropractic in Waukee, IA
Nick on why he chose Jane:
“Initially, I was playing around with other EHR systems and they just weren’t very user-friendly as far as charting goes. I asked some people on a Facebook group I’m in and most people suggested Jane! Once they suggested that, I had about a month of using Jane before I opened my office, and it was much more affordable than I was expecting. Two weeks later, after learning how Jane worked, I was already seeing patients two weeks sooner than I thought I was going to.”
🎬 Charting Highlights with Alex
🔍 Find this template by searching “Nick Meier” in the Chart Template Library.
▶ 📚Catch the Conversation: click here to read it!
Ali: So with the templates you've set up, you've included a ton of pre-written sections to save yourself some time. How long does it take to fill out a note on charting for your visits?
Nick: For a day-to-day patient filling out a note, it would only take me around 2 minutes, duplicating and pre-filled templates make it just so easy. For a new patient, I spend about 45 minutes with them in total, and that can change depending on how long it takes for me to process an X-Ray and if someone else is using the machine before me. 15 minutes for the x-ray minimum, about 2-3 minutes on the adjustment, and around 30 minutes for the actual exam. I block myself out some time as well in case the visit does go a little longer than expected.
Nick: You'll see on my template that I have instructions throughout the chart note just so I can remind myself of things to say, in case I forget a word like Twisting or something else. I used Instructions since they don't show up on the printed chart.
Ali: You've got the instruction modules throughout to give yourself some notes in the chart note, cool!
Whether it’s his pre-filled templates or the notes he writes for his future self, Nick’s experience in charting and patient care is clear as day. Thanks for letting us pick your brain about everything charting, Nick!
🧡 Trudi Pedder
Practice Manager of Vida Lifestyles in Sandringham, VIC, Australia
Trudi on her dynamic roles as a Practice Manager and Chiropractic Assistant:
“We have a fairly high volume of people coming in during our shifts. We have an open room with 5 tables, so for me to be able to take the doctor’s notes during the visit is invaluable in the amount of time saved. This way, the doctor doesn’t have to come around after the shift to finish their charts, and everyone can go home at the end of their shift!”
🎬 Charting Highlights with Alex
▶ 📚Catch the Conversation: click here to read it!
Ali: You are the perfect person to ask about charts since charting is what you spend most of your day doing, right?
Trudi: Yeah, it's a majority of it!
Ali: How long did it take to build the templates you're using across your clinic now, and how often do you update those templates?
Trudi: Well moving to Jane gave us a lot to learn about, so we had around 5 drafts to start, which we were playing around with. From there, we've just updated them and honed down on what we need on each chart. But the big thing for me was figuring out how to get the entire chart note to fit onto my one screen, which saves me scrolling up and down.
Ali: That's a great point!
Trudi: Yeah, probably the most recent change I made was adding a "Countdown until review" that's required on our charts. It's just a checkbox where you can choose from 13 - 0 days until review.
Ali: Do you have any other templates you use as well?
Trudi: Yep! We have them for the initial treatments as well but we keep everything very simple. Our initial visit chart template only has 2 note fields, one for the practice members' chief complaint and another for the outcome and diagnosis. We do it this way since we get all of the practice members' information we need beforehand in the Intake Forms that we've created in Jane.
Efficiency is key for juggling multiple patients at once and on top of that, Trudi even manages the day-to-day workings of the office, what a star! ⭐ Thanks for chatting with us Trudi!
💚 Dr. Trent Hippard
Owner of Restoration Chiropractic in Knoxville, TN
Trent on starting a new practice:
“It’s fun! It’s fun in the aspect of the re-branding process being able to revisit those things you did 10 years ago with the knowledge you have now. I keep saying ‘How did I do this 10 years ago?!’”
🎬 Charting Highlights with Alex
▶ 📚Catch the Conversation: click here to read it!
Ali: I love that you came from paper, so this is your first experience building and using your templates. Do you change them regularly? Have you needed to yet?
Trent: My templates are pretty straightforward since I'm cash which makes it pretty simple. The three main templates I use are from the Template Library which I've done some tweaking to myself.
Ali: Well I'd love to see you walk us through your process when it comes to the day-to-day of filling in your charts.
Trent: For a regular visit, I keep it pretty simple. I start with adding the Spine item since I really just want to document the shifts in the spine, do my check in person, and mark subluxations in the Spine Notes area. Because I'm a cash practice, I don't need to document every piece of the appointment, but if I do need to I can use a SOAP note and add the Spine as an item at the end of the note.
Ali: Ahh, the benefits of running a cash practice.
Trent: Right? If something does come up during their visit, I also use the Medical Alert to take down the patient's specific listing for their spinal subluxations I find. I also add in the start and end date of their care, it's a little redundant, but I want to have redundancy all over for the office assistant that I hire in the future and myself for the time being since everything is stored up at the top of the charts.
Ali: If you were talking to someone who was switching from Paper to Electronic charting for the first time, what advice would you give them?
Trent: I told my wife this, but once I got my head wrapped around Jane App and the EHR system it is, I just wish we did it sooner!
Ali: Ohhhh, that's a marketing soundbite right there!
Trent: And you can use it too! But honestly, I'm a paperless office now and I love it. The only caveat is that you need to be on top of changing your practice, and knowing your system well enough to be able to make those changes is a big part of why it works for me.
As you can see, Trent, we used it! Thanks again for running us through your quick charting process and letting us get a glimpse into your clinic’s templates!
💛 Dr. Britta Cicansky
Owner of Crystal Care Chiropractic in Benzonia, MI
Britta on transitioning from a solo practice to having a team:
“The first year it was just me, but on my first year anniversary, I hired my first staff member. So now, we have a Chiropractic Assistant and Office Manager in the office 3 days a week to help with the admin work. It’s SO different, but it’s been great to be on both sides of using Jane - on my own, and teaching my staff how to use Jane.”
🎬 Charting Highlights with Alex
🔍 Find this template by searching “Well Adjusted Soap” in the Chart Template Library.
▶ 📚Catch the Conversation: click here to read it!
Ali: What's your experience with charting? Did you come from another software charting electronically, paper, or is Jane your first charting experience?
Britta: Since opening my own practice I have only used Jane, but in school we used paper charting and Athena.
Ali: I like to hear that, so you've since built some templates, how long did that take you, any issues?
Britta: There are some amazing templates in the Template Library, so my suggestion to anyone out there would be to take a look at the library and find one you love the most, then from there you can edit and tweak it to your own liking. There are SO many great and detailed templates out there already created. It was easy once I had a base template that I liked to build on it. It did not take long initially editing it but I also change and edit it as my practice grows and changes. I did not have any issues building templates, it is very straightforward.
Ali: So, how did you find those templates in the busy library of templates?
Britta: It is amazing how many templates are available via the template library. Being in a rural area with slow internet it was time-consuming to click on each of them but well worth it, it allowed me to determine what I liked and disliked easier having seen so many. When I found the template I wanted to use for my base it was easy to tell as I had viewed so many and knew what I was looking for. Though after having seen them all, I think generally the best ones are at the top of the list, as they are so well-liked.
Ali: So, you use only one template for both your initial and subsequent visits?
Britta: Yes, initially I set it up as two templates, one for initial visits and one for follow-up visits. But once I started using the duplicate feature, I started to take really detailed initial visit notes, duplicate for the follow-up visit and then delete or add anything I don't need using the ellipses,
Ali: Do you delete it right away or do you ever keep things for one patient and not the other?
Britta: It truly depends on the patient and their needs. Depending on how complex of issues the patient presents with, I make charting determinations as I go.
Sifting through the entire template library definitely isn’t easy, so thank you Britta for doing that for us and the community. We are super proud to be a part of your journey in establishing and growing your clinic!
Did you learn something? We’d love to hear your thoughts! 📝
Thanks again to our fantastic community members for taking the time to chat with us about their charting. If you’d like to learn more about how to customize your charting to fit your unique practice, feel free to hop on over to the Jane Guide, it’s brimming with tips, tricks, and tutorials to ensure your charting is as effortless as possible.
Speaking of communities, do you have a charting question or tip that you want to share? Head on over to our official jane.app Community Facebook group to join the conversation or reach out to us at [email protected] and let us know what it is!