The Visit Card is one of the four note formats available in an active session — alongside SOAP, free text and a template. Instead of an empty field you get the sections of a physiotherapy examination with ready-made fields, a counter of completed sections and ICD coding.
You choose it in the Note format field at the top of the editor. Everything you type saves itself as you write.
Start a visit from the calendar
How to do it
The card is a vertical run of sections with a counter at the top and the signing button right at the bottom. 1 is the header of the first section — Diagnosis starts there; 4 is Save and sign the visit, which you reach after scrolling through every section.
Choose the card
If the practice documents both physiotherapy and osteopathy, on opening you will see Choose a visit card with two options: Physiotherapy card and Osteopathy card. The choice applies to this one visit.
The physiotherapy card has eight sections: Diagnosis, Interview, Physical Examination, Functional Tests, Clinical Hypothesis, Therapy Plan, Procedures and Summary & Recommendations. Above them Heltio counts how many sections are already complete — an individual section is labeled Section complete or Section incomplete.
Carry over what has not changed
Copy from previous visit brings the Interview and Physical Examination sections over from the last visit in the same therapy cycle. Heltio asks for confirmation and warns that it will overwrite the current content.
The diagnosis is not copied — that is a deliberate decision. The diagnosis is to be made from today's examination, not inherited.
Record the red flags
The Interview section contains a list of red flags — among them cauda equina symptoms, bladder and bowel disturbance, saddle anaesthesia, progressive neurological deficit, night pain unrelieved by rest, unexplained weight loss, a history of cancer, recent major trauma, symptoms of upper cervical instability.
You mark every flag as Present or Excluded, and each carries a weight: Emergency, Urgent or Precaution. A flag marked as requiring referral blocks the closing of the visit until you fill in the Referral section.
Record the functional tests
In the Functional Tests section you search for a test by name and fill in the Score, the Numeric score, the Interpretation and Notes. For a test that has one, a Scoring guide is available. The Test Narrative Summary field takes a description in words.
Code the visit
The Visit coding bar takes three kinds of code: ICD-10 (diagnoses), ICD-9 (procedures) and ICF (functioning). Type at least two characters for the search to start. Below the field you see Recent codes and Suggested codes.
Sign the entry
At the bottom of the card stands Save and sign the visit. Heltio warns you: "After signing, the entry becomes unchangeable. Later changes are possible only as an amendment." You confirm with the Sign entry button.
Once signed, the entry gets a Signed marker with a name and a date, and a revision number. It can be changed only through Add amendment — a new revision is created with the reason given, and the signed original stays in the record untouched.
When something goes wrong
Referral details are required before this visit can be closed.
What this means: A red flag with a weight requiring referral was marked in the interview, and the Referral section is empty.
No previous visit found in this therapy cycle
What this means: This is the first visit in the cycle, or the earlier visits belong to a different cycle.
Save failed. Check your entries.
What this means: A field did not pass validation — usually a numeric value outside its range.
An empty entry cannot be signed — fill in the visit card.
What this means: The signature attests to the content of the documentation, and the card has no saved content yet.
Only the author can sign this entry.
What this means: You are opening a card written by somebody else.
The entry changed since it was last loaded — review the content and sign again.
What this means: The card was open on two devices and was saved elsewhere.
This note was changed on the server. Your offline edit wasn't applied.
What this means: The card was edited without a connection, and in the meantime somebody saved a newer version.
Who has access
PractitionerThe card is filled in by the person running the visit. Only its author can sign the entry — with no exceptions, including the Owner and the Administrator.
The layout of the card — which fields are visible and in what order — is set under Settings → Note templates, separately as My layout and Clinic layout. Some fields are locked and cannot be turned off: they feed reporting, the P1 integration or the documentation of red flags. They can be reordered, not removed.
Related
- Active session — the screen in which the card opens.
- Clinical notes — the other three note formats, signing and amendments.
- Patient interview — what goes into the interview section and where the red flags come from.
- Body map — marking pain on the figure.
Related features
Active session — working during a visit
The screen you work on from the moment the patient walks in until they leave: the clinical note, range-of-motion measurements, the treatment plan, attachments and the summary that closes the visit.
Clinical notes, signing and amendments
Four note formats, practice templates, the 48-hour edit window, and the signature that closes an entry for good — with the amendment as the only route to changing it.
Patient interview
The Interview section of the visit card and the permanent clinical profile on the patient record — what to record where, how to describe pain and what to do after ticking a red flag.
Body map
A figure in four views on which you mark pain and other symptoms — with a comparison to the previous visit, a layer of the patient's own reports, and insertion of the marks into the note.
Patient record
The file of a single person — personal details, clinical profile, note history, measurements, consents, guardians and settlements, in the tabs down the left-hand side.