July 9, 2009 - Managing Signed Forms
(applies to Suzy Dental)

Suzy now has the capability to incorporate handwritten signatures into Word documents and save them for future reference.

Signed documents are stored within Suzy and can be displayed or printed at any time in the future.

The electronic signatures stored in these documents comply with the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) laws, and should be considered legally binding signatures.

To use this feature on a computer running Suzy the following items are required:
  1. A SigLite electronic signature pad from Topaz Systems. Please contact Suzy Support for a list of supported models.
  2. A copy of Microsoft Word (any version going back to Word 97).
The Topaz System T-LBK460-HSB-R is show below.


How to Save and Retrieve Signed Forms

  1. First, Microsoft Word must be installed on the machine to which the Signature Pad will be attached.
  2. Next, the Signature Pad must be installed with the following software (installed in the order listed:)
    1. Topaz Systems Sigplus Basic
    2. Topaz Systems Word and Excel Plug Ins
Find any patient and click on the small clipboard to the right of the patient's address. The following window will appear.

On the left side is a list of the available templates.  These are Word documents which we create that contain special tags used by Suzy to insert names, addresses, dates, etc.  Do not try to alter these documents.  If you need something changed please call us.

On the right side is a list of all the documents saved for this person.  Initially this of course will be empty.  The list is always displayed in reverse chronological order (most recent first). Right now there are 2 types of documents:
  1. General Documents
  2. Treatment Plan Documents
General Documents contain textual information and have a place for a signature.

Treatment Plan Documents are similar but also contain a copy of the users current treatment plan (if one exists).  There are a few print options that the user must choose before the document appears. The menu for these options will appear immediately after the user selects the document.

The document will then open in MicroSoft Word. A small menu will also appear on the rightmost portion of the screen. Users can examine the document and make any allowable changes (such as checking boxes if the document is a questionnaire).  Do not try to make any other changes or save the document from MicroSoft Word.  

Users should now either collect a patient signature by clicking on "Sign It" on the righthand menu or can click "Cancel" to return to the main document menu.

Clicking "Sign It" will cause the following menu to appear.

The Signature Pad is now active. Users should sign the form as shown below...

As users write their name on the pad it will appear on the screen.  When they are finished the screen display will show the entire signature.

Users should now click 'Done' and a different menu will appear on the right side of the screen.

If the patient wants to redo their signature, click "Clear" and have the patient resign the form.  If the signature is acceptable, users should click "Save It".   If not, click "Retry" to resign the form or "Cancel" to abort the whole process.  

If the form has been saved the original main menu will appear showing the form just saved on the top of the right window.

Saved forms are listed in reverse chornological order (ie, most recent forms are first).   To view an old form just double click on it.  The following screen will appear:

Note the window in the center: This is validating the signature.  Click OK to see the document.

If the document had been altered in any way since it was signed the validation will fail and the signature will be removed.  

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