Charting at Nourish

Estimated read time: Approximately 30 minutes

At Nourish, we utilize chart notes to document what occurs in session, record patient updates, and coordinate care with external providers. All charting occurs within your Nourish Provider Portal and must be completed within 48 hours of your appointment. This is a performance metric you will be evaluated on.

You also have access to helpful tools like the Nourish Scribe, an AI-powered tool that generates a session summary to support efficient, high-quality charting.

The following article will walk you through accessing, creating, and completing chart notes in the order that supports your clinical workflow and questions that may arise. Please review carefully so that you feel equipped going into your first session.

All charting is done in the Nourish Provider Portal. To create and access chart notes:

• Navigate to the Home page, where appointments are sorted by date.

• Hover over the chart note icon on the far right of the appointment line:

  • Hover over the chart note icon on the far right of the appointment line item and click "Create chart note" to begin a new one

  • If already started, the icon will say "Open chart note"

  • Once signed and locked, a locked icon will prevent further editing

When you open a chart note for the first time, the system auto-generates insights using onboarding data or prior sessions. It appears in ~15–60 seconds.

This feature helps you:

• Quickly understand patient history, focus areas, and condition-specific information

• Seamlessly review the patient's meal logging activity

• Save prep time for sessions and focus on personalized care

• Seamlessly continue care and build rapport

Check out the demo video for more tips!

The Scribe utilizes your Zoom session to generate a summary, enabling efficient and focused charting. All you need to do is record your Zoom session. Nothing is added to your note automatically — you're in control and can choose which parts of the summary to use.

Dietitians using the Nourish Scribe have shared that they:

• Feeling more present during their sessions

• Charting completed in under 5 minutes

• Have less end-of-day documentation stress

Watch the quick video demo below, and read the Slack announcement here!

If these tools are not populating, refresh your browser:
Mac: Command + Shift + R | Windows: Ctrl + Shift + R

Each chart note is split into two sections to maximize charting efficiency, improve clinical quality, and better organize information collected during session:

• Assessment & Diagnosis – Focus of initial session

• Intervention, Monitoring, & Evaluation – Focus of follow-up sessions

The format follows the Nutrition Care Process, supporting clinical care, billing, and compliance.

Much of the information within the Assessment & Diagnosis section will be pre-populated from the patient's intake form. Review and supplement, as needed.

1. Patient & Family Medical History: Captures relevant information about the patient's current and past medical history. Lifestyle information, labs, other tests, and medication are captured later in the note and can be excluded here. A fully exhaustive list is unnecessary; include what you deem clinically relevant.

2. Height, Weight, and BMI: Record height and weight during the initial session; BMI will be calculated automatically. Update weight as needed.

3. Weight History: If relevant, collect pertinent information on the patient's weight history prior to joining Nourish.

4. Conditions: Document and validate a patient’s primary and secondary conditions to ensure accurate clinical representation, support personalized care, and power condition-specific outcomes tracking. You can read more about Managing Patient Conditions in the Chart Note and watch a video demo here!

   • How to Use It:

     • Initial session:

       • Review and confirm the patient’s primary condition (from the sign-up form) based on clinical judgement

       • Add any secondary conditions that impact care to create a full clinical picture

       • Check the confirmation box to enable chart note sign & lock

     • Follow-ups:

       • Update as needed — You can adjust the condition list at any time based on new information and the list will stay editable in both chart note and patient profile

5. Energy Needs: The energy needs calculator is used to calculate macronutrient ranges for your patients.

   • The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is used to estimate an individual's basal metabolic rate (BMR).

   • You select an activity factor based on the patient's standards activity levels.

   • You have the ability to add (+) or subtract (-) calories based on weight gain or weight loss goals.

   • Energy, protein, carbs, and fat are then calculated off the adjusted number according to AMDR

6. Medications and Supplements: Selectable from a dropdown list gathered from the National Library of Medicine at the National Institute of Health (nlm.nih.gov).

   • To add a medication or supplement, select Add new, and enter the relevant information. You will need to find the medication by typing in the Name field, then add the relevant Dosage, Frequency, Start date, and End date (if the patient is no longer taking the medication), before selecting Save changes.

     • After saving, you will be able to edit the end date of the medication by selecting the three dots next to the medication, selecting Edit end date, and changing to the relevant date.

     • If you need to change frequency or dosage, you should re-add the same medication or supplement again, this time at the different frequency &/or dose.

     • If you are missing a relevant dosage or frequency, you can include the information in Other Patient Assessment field instead.

   • If you are unable to find the medication you're looking for, add it instead to the Other Patient Assessment field.

7. Lifestyle: Lifestyle questions are single-select options, sufficient for compliant charting. Within Lifestyle, view past lifestyle entries by selecting the clock icon next to each section, bringing you to the relevant question in the sidebar.

8. Labs & Tests: To add a new lab or test entry, select Add new and a pop-up modal will appear. Select the relevant lab or test, add the value, and add the date of the lab or test (if unknown, select today's date). To see historical labs & tests, select the clock icon next to the header of the section.

9. Progress Questionnaires: To add a new progress questionnaire, select Add new, choose the questionnaire you want to complete, and answer the questions. View all historical questionnaires by selecting the clock icon.

10. Diagnoses: Nourish documents diagnoses using PES (Problem, Etiology, Signs/Symptoms) statements, a standardized format used in the Nutrition Care Process. Selections are from the 2024 eNCPT (electronic Nutrition Care Process Terminology) standardized language for the PES statement.

    • To add a new PES, select Add new within the section.

      • The Problem list is single select and and cannot be edited after the individual PES is saved.

      • The Etiology list is a dropdown based on your selection for Problem. It can always be edited in the future, but will be final on this particular chart note once signed and locked.

      • The Signs & Symptoms are multi-select based on a category, and you should add More details to better describe the specific situation of your patient. These fields can always be edited in the future, but will be final on this particular chart note once signed and locked.

    • You can see when any diagnoses (PES) were created, and you can also mark the diagnosis (PES) as resolved by selecting the three dots.

    • If a diagnosis is no longer relevant, delete it from the current note. It will remain in your past (historical) notes. In general, deleting a diagnosis should be very infrequent.

You will be automatically routed to the Intervention, Monitoring, & Evaluation section when opening a follow-up session chart note.

1. Patient Update: Only include what was discussed in the specific session. It does not need to be exhaustive, rather, should be a short summary of key topics.

   • If there are updates to any of the patient's medical history, lifestyle, labs & tests, or anything else from the Assessment & Diagnosis, they should be made directly in those questions.

   • Previous patient updates can be viewed by selecting View all. Given the historical storing, do not leave past patient updates within the note.

2. Diet Recall: Record a recent diet history for the patient. If helpful, view past diet recalls by selecting View all.

   • Import patient meal log data from the Nourish app by selecting Import Logs.

3. Interventions: Document what you did to resolve the nutrition diagnosis (PES). There are four possible intervention categories, and you can select more than one. After selecting, add details to the intervention(s) as shown below. (See attached pdf for sample interventions.)

   • Food and/or nutrient delivery

   • Nutrition education

   • Nutrition counseling

   • Coordination of nutrition care

     

4. Short-term goals: Short-term goals are visible to the patient and can be edited and marked complete by both patients and dietitians. Short-term goals should align with the PES and intervention(s).

5. Long-term Goals: Long-term goals are not visible to the patient. Long-term goals should align with the PES and intervention(s). Examples of long term goals include:
   Adequate intake to meet needs and support health
   Improvement or resolution of symptoms (insert symptom)
   Compliance with nutrition plan of care
   Better understanding of individual nutrition needs
   Improved relationship with food or body
   Improved lab value (insert specific lab)
   Decreased physical activity
   Increased physical activity
   Slowed Weight Gain Velocity
   Slowed Weight Loss Velocity
   Weight Stabilization Weight Maintenance or Gradual weight loss

6. Follow-up Plan: Indicate when you plan to see the patient next. This does not need to be exact, but the timeline should align with your recommendation.

7. Appointment Summary: Appointment summaries are required and should include key discussion topics and post-session goals. Clicking Generate summary will produce an AI-generated summary. Be sure to review for accuracy. Upon signing and locking your note, the appointment summary will be sent to patients.

As a reminder, chart notes must be signed and locked within 48 hours. This is a performance metric you will be evaluated on.

Once your chart note is complete:

• Click Sign and Lock to finalize the note

  • This will automatically send the Appointment Summary to the patient

  • If we have a signed Release of Information (ROI) form on file, the chart notes will automatically be shared with the patients external care team provider(s)

The patient sidebar contains supplemental information you may wish to access easily while in session or while charting. The sidebar is accessible via the icon on the right side of your chart note. Collapse by clicking the same button at the bottom.

At the top of the patient side bar, you can see the date of the next scheduled session and easily access message history. Further detail can be opened within the following sections:

• Profile – Patient personal information, tags, conditions, and referral details

• Notepad – Private clinician notes such as details about the patient's life, upcoming events, or reminders about what to discuss in future sessions (information included here is not shared externally).

• Appointments – Past and upcoming sessions along with historical chart notes

• Journal - Easy to review graphs and visuals of the patients daily macros, caloric breakdowns, and meal timing

• Insurance – Patient plan details and claim statuses

• Care team - External providers the patient has shared (therapist, PCP, etc.)

• To-do List – Active, completed, and deleted patient to-dos

• Outcomes – Historical outcomes such as lifestyle data, labs, and questionnaire responses

• Documents - Patient Intake forms and uploaded documents

You can seamlessly book follow-ups without ever leaving your chart note:

• In the sidebar, go to Appointments

• Click Schedule Appointment

• The default date is one week after the current session, though you're welcome to change that to whatever date you wish.