Why Your Macro Setup Matters More Than You Think

Most providers I talk with treat the chart note editor as a blank page they fill in from scratch every visit. In ChiroTouch, though, the Chart Note Editor is designed around a macro layer that sits beneath the text field. Each Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan section can hold up to twenty macro buttons, and those buttons can carry pre-written text, auto-inserted charges, diagnosis codes, and even interactive prompts that ask the provider a question before dropping the answer into the note. If your team is typing the same spinal listing paragraph or the same follow-up instruction plan three or four times a day, the macro system is the part of ChiroTouch that was built to eliminate that repetition. The setup takes a one-time investment of an afternoon, but every subsequent visit pays that time back.

Start by opening the Macro Setup Tool from the left navigation pane of the Chart Note Editor. You can create a new macro set, name it something like "Cervical Follow-Up" or "Lumbar Acute," and even copy button layouts from an existing set so you are not starting from zero. Within a set, the upper-left button acts as the main menu; the remaining slots hold standalone text buttons or sub-menus. When you build a text button, type the caption that will appear on screen, then write the actual note text that gets inserted. Check the "Formatted Text Macro" box if you need bold headings, line breaks, or bullet structure inside the inserted passage. Breadcrumb navigation links appear above the button row, so a provider who is deep in a sub-menu can jump back to the top-level menu in one click without hunting for a back button.

The advanced macro fields are where ChiroTouch documentation gets genuinely practice-specific. Instead of a static text string, you can embed an ASK prompt that pauses and asks the provider to type a patient-specific answer, a CHOOSE ONE or CHOOSE ANY prompt with a drop-down list you define, a DATE field that prompts for an injury or follow-up date, a NUMBER field for pain scales, and REGION or SPINE fields that let the provider click directly on the spinal segments involved. The SPINE-LR variant adds left, right, or complete-segment selection, which is useful when you want the note to read "T4-LR" rather than just "T4." Patient-information fields such as FIRST_NAME, CURR_DX, REFER_PHYS, and INJURY_DATE pull live data from the patient record so the provider does not have to retype it. For a multidisciplinary office running several case types under one patient account, these fields ensure the note references the correct diagnosis and referring physician for the active case rather than the patient's history in general.

Once the text is in place, attach the billing and coding layer. In the Macro Charges list, move the relevant CPT codes from the Available column to the Selected column; the same workflow applies to the Macro Diagnoses list. When the provider later clicks that macro button during a live note, the charges and diagnoses post to the ledger automatically, and the note text appears in the correct SOAP section. You can also use the Code button in the lower-right corner of the editor to add or adjust diagnosis and charge codes mid-note without leaving the text field. For notes that need to stand out during a file review or a payer audit, the Flag button lets you color-code the entry, and the timestamp plus electronic signature capture (via a connected signature pad or a stored signature) round out the documentation trail. If you are a support rep walking a new practice through this setup, the single most common stumbling point is that a macro button with charges attached will not auto-post unless the corresponding charge and diagnosis are also configured for auto-SALT at the practice level. Confirming that setting before the provider hits Save the first time saves a lot of end-of-day reconciliation headaches.

Finally, remember that the Chart Note Editor can be launched from both the Provider All-in-One application and the ChiroTouch Basic application, so front-office staff who occasionally need to add a note or verify a signature can access the same macro set without switching screens. If a provider wants to pull language from a prior visit, the Copy panel in the Macros section lists previous notes by date or by doctor, and the SOAP check boxes let them cherry-pick which sections to carry forward rather than pasting the entire prior note. A quick habit that pays off: spend ten minutes after each new patient type or treatment protocol to encode the recurring language into a macro set. Over a month, that small habit removes dozens of keystrokes and the small cognitive load of reconstructing the same paragraph from memory, and it keeps the note wording consistent across providers who share the same macro set.

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