Prepare for the day's patients in a short morning huddle

The situation

Morning prep means checking the schedule, then the lab portal for overnight results, then the messages patients sent late last night, then your task list for what you flagged yesterday. By the time you have been through everything, 15 to 20 minutes are gone and you start the day reacting instead of prepared.

That scattered start follows you into the first visit. You learn about an elevated A1c or a new complaint of knee pain in the room, when it should have been in front of you before the patient sat down.

Steps

1. Scan today's schedule with Sidekick Ask Sidekick for the clinic calendar in Elation with today's date. Look for new patients, complex follow-ups and same-day adds.
2. Check new results for today's patients Select Triage queue on Elation Practice Home and ask Sidekick to open Reports, where lab results land. Triage queue appears once it is turned on for your account. For each of today's patients with a new result, ask for a visit-prep summary with relevant labs and note what to discuss. Make anything critical a Task due today with Mark as urgent.
3. Sort overnight messages three ways Reply now to what cannot wait for the visit. Make what your staff can handle a Task assigned to that teammate or group with Due on today, and make what needs you in the visit a Task for yourself on that patient, also due today.
4. Open the day's Tasks for the huddle In Tasks, filter Due on to today and Status to To do, then select Save filter and name it, for example Due today. Urgent Tasks carry a red Urgent marker, so the team starts with those.
5. Have the list ready each morning In My chat, write an @Sidekick request for the open Tasks due today across the clinic, select the caret beside Send and choose Custom. Set a time before you open and a repeat pattern for your clinic days, then select Schedule, then Send. Each run starts a new My chat thread for the huddle.

The outcome

You walk into each visit already knowing whose results came back and who wrote overnight, so nothing catches you off guard in the room. A calm morning leads to focused visits, complete notes and leaving on time.