Front desk guide

Most front-desk work exists in two places. ArkCloud Rehab holds the patient record, the schedule and the episode, and is where a therapy clinic usually works. ArkCloud Access, where your organisation has it, is a front door over the same records - an action taken in Access is the same row Rehab shows, not a copy.

There is no separate “front desk” role. Front-desk staff usually hold the Agent role, which opens both Rehab and Access and allows everything on this page except the administrator-only actions below.

ArkCloud Rehab → Records and revenue → Patients → Add patient

1. Search by name or record number first, under Find existing. Most “new” patients are already on file.
2. If they are not, choose Create new and enter first name, last name and date of birth, with email and mobile if you have them.
3. Enter the medical record number, unless your organisation has ArkCloud assign numbers (the field then says optional).
4. If ArkCloud shows a strong possible duplicate, check it. It refuses to create the record until you confirm this is a different person.

A patient referred in is usually registered by accepting the referral into care instead, which creates the record and the episode in one step - see below. Access's Registration queue is for clinics that collect registrations before a visit; it is not a patient record until an administrator sends it to Rehab.

ArkCloud Rehab → Overview → Referrals

1. Record the referral: first name, last name and date of birth are required; add the referring clinician and practice, the reason and the urgency as given.
2. A faxed referral is typed in - there is no fax inbox. Upload the faxed pages too (next section).
3. Triage it, or leave it for the clinical lead, as your clinic decides.
4. Accept into care creates or links the patient and opens the episode. You choose an existing patient by searching, or give the record number for a new one, and a discipline must be set.

The referrer's diagnosis code is recorded as theirs and never copied onto the episode or used for billing. Details: Rehab referral intake · Access referrals.

ArkCloud Rehab → the patient's chart → Documents → Add a document

Scan to PDF with your scanner's software, then open the patient's Documents tab and press Add a document. One-press templates fill in a physician referral, signed plan of care, insurance card, photo ID, signed consent or letter. If the patient is not yet known, upload from Overview → Outside records instead. Each upload is virus-scanned before anyone can open it. ArkCloud does not read the text of a scan.

You can also ask a named colleague to sign a document off as reviewed; they are not notified, so tell them. Full steps, accepted files and what sign-off means: Documents and scanning.

ArkCloud Rehab → an episode → Care team & billing → Coverage, visits and billing → Visits

Visits are booked from the patient's episode so every visit belongs to a course of care. Choose the service from the catalogue - that service is what is billed later - the clinician, the days and times, and the number of visits. A clash with the clinician's leave or other visits, or with the patient's other visits, is refused unless you give a reason.

Rescheduling, cancelling (you are asked whether the patient or the clinic cancelled) and no-shows are on the schedule row. Details: Rehab scheduling.

ArkCloud Rehab → Outpatient → Schedule → Check in

Press Check in on the patient's row (or Mark arrived on Access's check-in board). The visit becomes Checked in, with the time. If the patient used online check-in and reported a change of insurance or contact details, the row says so - update the record yourself; their answer changes nothing.

ArkCloud Rehab → the patient's chart → Registration & admin

The Registration & admin tab of the patient's chart holds the interpreter, preferred language and accessibility needs, administrative notes, the waitlist, and the collapsible Registration details (identity, demographics, contact details, emergency contacts and guardians, duplicates and merges). An interpreter or accessibility need you record shows as one line at the top of the chart and of every episode view, so the therapist sees it before the visit. Once staff functions are assigned, only registration staff and administrators can change them; a clinician who tries is told to ask the front desk. Patients cannot change their own details or insurance - anything they report in the portal becomes a task for you.

Clinicians read registration details but do not edit them. When a clinician who is assigned the clinical staff function (and not registration) notices a wrong or missing detail, they press Flag a detail for the front desk on the patient's chart, choose what needs checking - name or date of birth, phone, email or address, insurance, interpreter or language, accessibility needs, scheduling preference, referral or paperwork, or something else - and may add a short note.

1. You are not notified. Open flags show on the patient's Registration & admin tab. Its All open flags link (shown to registration staff) opens the clinic-wide list, oldest first, with each patient's name. That list is not in the Rehab menu - bookmark it and check it as part of your day.
2. Open the patient from the list and fix the detail on the Registration & admin tab.
3. Press Mark resolved. Only registration staff and administrators can resolve a flag; it then leaves both lists.

1. Forms: from Outpatient → Forms, send the clinic's intake or consent form. The patient is emailed a private link if they have agreed to email; otherwise copy the link, which is shown once.
2. Health questionnaire: on the patient's chart, open Clinical history → Patient intake. Ask the patient to complete it in the portal, or start it on a clinic tablet with a single-use link or QR code valid for 30 minutes.
3. Review your part: contact changes, emergency contacts and permission to email and text are applied by registration staff. Medicines, allergies, history and symptoms are reviewed by clinicians - leave those for them.

Details: intake and consent forms.

• Coverage: on the patient's episode, open Care team & billing → Coverage, visits and billing and record the primary (and any secondary) coverage, or self-pay.
• Benefits: call the payer or use its portal, then record what they said, how and the reference, under Access → Benefits. This supplies the copay and counts visits against plan limits.
• Prior authorization: record the request and the approval (visits, days or units) under Access → Authorizations. Nothing is sent to the payer for you.
• Eligibility: electronic checks are not connected on the hosted service, so verify by phone or payer portal and record it as benefits.

Details: eligibility and prior authorization.

The handoff is through shared records, not messages. When you have done your part, the clinician finds it waiting:

Anything else - a precaution you noticed on a fax, a patient who mentions a fall at the desk - tell the clinician directly. ArkCloud has no handoff message for it. Front-desk flags go the other way: from clinicians to you (see Details clinicians flag for you).