New updates and improvements to Aster
We implemented a new feature called payments. It helps you log and keep track of all payments related to care. You can use it at the patient level or at the practice level, the numbers reconcile between each. It shows the last 30, 60 and 90 days of charges or payments. You can add either charges or payments, assign it to a client, add a note and choose the payment type. You can then add the amount.
In this view you can toggle between either charges or payments.
You can also add adjustments, rather than deleting items, which would potentially create inaccuracies in the ledger.
Many of our users expressed that there could be some improvements to the vitals entry area, something you do several times a day. In particular smart calculators, clearer formatting and easier text entry was what was needed. We have completely updated the vitals entry flow. As it stands in this new version, we split BP into two columns, which is better for data handling, we have added metric/imperial units for temperature, weight and height. Which converts on your behalf. We also reconcile these numbers for any calculators so you don't have to.
In addition to the above, we've added a BMI calculator. You just need to type in height and weight in any format of your choice.
We worked to add logical and sensible filtering based on our users typical use cases. To begin you can now filter by due date in common ranges, the next week, the next 30 days and the next 90 days. Giving you a sense of who might be a high priority in the immediate moment and who is just entering their 3rd trimester. As well as that you can filter by gestational age, even including those who may have exceeded 40 weeks, are postpartum. You can also filter by patient status; active, archived and prospective.
We added styling to the gestational age, to help quickly identify the larger ranges between pregnancy dates.
In addition to the new styling you can sort by the majority of columns in the patient list. The sorting remains in place even if you leave and go to a different screen.
The phone number throughout Aster had international formatting, which is something we were required to do for one of our third party integrations, we since fixed this and were able to revert back to the standard U.S. format.
We made a small tweak the menu, making it more unified and consistent. It's smaller and easier to read and keeps consistent sizing of text and iconography - truly a small but meaningful upgrade if you had a design-eye that finds pixel level errors frustrating.
We've made huge strides to really improve providers experience when they download encounters for transferring, or simply to share with another provider or the client themselves. We have made the encounter downloads, easy to read, scannable and informative for the end-user e.g. a hospital staff member who needs to quickly scan notes during a busy transfer. You can see an example below, accessible from either the encounter list or the encounter itself.
We've partnered with Vital to help providers order hundreds of lab test and dozens of panels directly from within Aster and your patients chart. These tests can be ordered from a range of lab providers e.g. LabCorp & Quest and cost significantly less than market rate, due to group discounts. Once a walk-in test has been ordered by you the patient receives all the relevant comms needed to make their way to the lab. Once the results have been collected and published you will receive them directly in Aster and the patient's record.
We've premade a number of panels relevant to women's health which includes a number of key markers. Moving forward you'll be able to create your own panels.
We've finalized the immediate postpartum and newborn experience within Aster. One of the most incredible aspects of this is the logical and intuitive side by side charting of parent and baby. As well as that each part of the experience enables you to chart with one-click, significantly reducing the amount of free text you would require during this experience, so you can focus on the patient. As well as this we have a resuscitation tool which charts each step including the actions you would take and any medication, all whilst showing the APGAR score clearly and simply.
We've entered into a fantastic partnership with e-prescribing platform, DoseSpot. Enabling you to order and write prescriptions and have them send to pharmacies near your patients address. You can order a number of scrips, choose the dose, add instructions for the patient and also renew prescriptions directly from Aster. As well as this, you can add multiple favorite pharmacies, just by using the patient's zip code. You can also order devices such as a glucometer for the patient and insert their insurance details to make collection at the pharmacy easier. It's kind of amazing.
Improve Public Intake Form link expiration: Now, when the send intake form button is clicked, we will check if there is an existing valid token, refresh it, and reuse it. Additionally, we have increased the expiration time from 48 hours to 7 days.
Cancellation appointment emails are being sent again.
One of our incredible customers requested this feature a few weeks ago, today it is live. You can now chart encounters in the future or the past. For example, you have a patient coming in the next day you're up late wanting to prepare for this appointment; writing a check-list or reviewing their prior vitals, labs. Now with Aster you can set the date for that encounter to be at anytime, whether in the future or the past.
Bug Fixes
As well as that we implemented some bug fixes that should make your experiences far smoother. Firstly if you've been logged out during your session, which is something we do during inactivity after 20 minutes, a bug existed where you wouldn't be sent to the sign-in page automatically, so Aster would not work well in this state unless you signed back in, that's now been fixed. You will be redirected to the sign-in page if logged out after inactivity.
The calendar now works in all-time zones, there were some issues with non-U.S. timezones, so if you're travelling abroad and need to use Aster's calendar - that will work smoothly now. Lastly we've updated the calendar to enable 5-minute increment scheduling.
This was one of the most requested scheduling features we have received since launching Aster, so we're delighted to release it. You can now add multiple patients to a single appointment, this works well for group bookings and educational classes. After adding several patients to a single appointment it will send out the appointment reminder email to them individuals separately. There is no limit to have many patients you can schedule for. Give it a try!
As well as this you can also add or schedule on behalf of other providers in the practice. Say for example a staff member is busy with a patient and someone else has requested an appointment you can now just shcedule on their behalf. Secondly, you can add a number of providers to a single appointment. When you dive into the appointment itself you'll see the details of everyone who is added.
We've made multiple quality improvements and bug fixes to Aster's scheduling, to ensure the process of maintaining, managing and using your scheduler is smooth and easy for providers and your clients. You can now drag and drop appointments to reschedule them. As well as this we changed the default time-slot to 15-minutes, rather than 20.
As well as this, we've made some new additions to the preset scheduling categories and have added, block bookings as well as general bookings. Furthermore, you can now choose more incremental start and end times for appointments, down to the 5-minute mark. Lastly we've made it possible to schedule multi-day appointments, say for example you need to block the calendar so your team is aware that you're OOO and can't take on clients.
