Questionnaires & the paperwork manager

Two features, one pre-visit flow

Questionnaires and Previsit Paperwork run as separate modals because they answer different questions, but the patient sees them as one connected experience the day they book.

Browse and customize the questionnaire library

Before you assign questionnaires to visit types, decide which ones you want available. The library has three groups: Standardized library (system-provided instruments like PHQ-9, GAD-7, AUDIT-C), Organization questionnaires (cloned and edited by anyone in the org), and Your questionnaires (the current physician's personal versions). Only items in Your questionnaires are editable; everything else must be cloned first.

1. Open Settings > Questionnaires. From the top toolbar, open Settings, then choose Questionnaires. A modal opens with two big actions — Manage Questionnaire Rules and Open Questionnaire Library.
2. Click Open Questionnaire Library. The library opens with a sidebar of all available questionnaires, grouped by ownership. Use the search box or toggle Include inactive if you want to see deactivated entries.
3. Preview a standardized questionnaire. Click any entry to load it in the main panel. Preview mode shows the short name, category, full question wording, response options, and required flags as the patient will see them.
4. Clone before editing. Standardized and organization questionnaires are read-only. To customize one, click Duplicate to edit. The cloned copy lands in Your questionnaires and unlocks every field.
5. Edit metadata and questions. Switch to Edit mode. You can change the short name, display name, description, category (depression, anxiety, mental health, substance use, trauma, pain, cognitive, functional, perinatal, developmental, preventive, or custom), estimated minutes, and default frequency in days.
6. Add or reorder questions. Each question card has a type (likert, single select, multi-select, text, number, boolean, scale, score, or instruction), a required flag, the question text, and — for choice-style types — value/label pairs. Use the up/down buttons to reorder.
7. Configure scoring (optional). For instruments that compute a score, paste or edit the scoring config JSON. Leave it blank for purely informational forms.
8. Click Save & publish. Every save publishes a new version. The footer reminds you that in-flight assignments stay intact — patients already on an older version finish on that version, and new assignments pick up the latest.

Assign questionnaires to visit types

Rules are per physician. Each rule says "for this visit type, send this set of questionnaires" with optional filters that further narrow when the rule fires (age, sex, telehealth vs in-person, ICD-10 code on the problem list, preferred language, booking source, portal status, or days until the visit).

1. From Settings > Questionnaires, click Manage Questionnaire Rules. The Questionnaire Rules modal opens with your existing rules on the left and an editor on the right.
2. Click New to start a fresh rule, or pick an existing rule to edit. Existing rules show their status badge (Active or Paused), questionnaire count, and a one-line filter summary.
3. Fill in the Visit Type section. Give the rule a name (for example, "New patient intake questionnaires") and pick the visit type from the dropdown. The dropdown is populated from your physician scheduling config, so set up visit types first if the list is empty.
4. Pick the questionnaires. Use the search to filter the library and check off the screeners you want for that visit type. Selected items appear as removable pills at the top of the section.
5. Add optional filters. Skip this section entirely to apply the questionnaires to every patient on that visit type. Or narrow with any combination of: minimum/maximum age, visit mode (Any/Telehealth only/In-person only), days until visit, patient sex, portal status, preferred languages, booking sources, and problem-list ICD-10 codes.
6. Leave Rule Active on (or turn it off to pause). Pausing keeps the rule definition but stops new patients from triggering it.
7. Click Create Rule (or Save Rule if editing). The rule applies to all future bookings of that visit type immediately. Existing scheduled visits are not retroactively assigned.

Open the Previsit Paperwork manager

Previsit Paperwork is org-wide. One admin builds the consent forms, financial policies, and other documents patients sign, and every physician in the organization shares them. Hero EMR ships with a set of read-only starter templates you can duplicate as a starting point.

1. Sign in as an org admin. Only admin-level users can publish paperwork templates. Physicians without the admin role can still see the modal but cannot save.
2. Open Admin > Previsit Paperwork. The Previsit Paperwork manager opens with a sidebar of templates and a large editor pane. The sidebar splits into Your templates (org-owned, editable) and Starter templates (read-only, duplicate to customize).
3. Browse the starter templates. Hero EMR includes vetted starters for HIPAA NPP, consent to treat, financial policy + AOB, telehealth consent, no-show / cancellation policy, photography consent, ROI authorization, controlled substance agreement, and more.
4. Pick a starting point. Click any starter and use Duplicate to edit to copy it into Your templates, or click New template to start from a blank slate.