Allergies Chart Tab Overview

The Allergies chart tab is where you review, add, edit, and maintain a patient's allergies. It shows the patient's active and inactive allergies, flags drug interactions, and gives you fast ways to add one allergy or several at once. This article walks through each part of the screen.

How to Access

Log in to OfficeEMR > Navigate to EMR > Open a Patient Chart (via OfficeSchedule or Patient Search) > Allergies

Drug interaction warning

When the patient has active allergies that interact with their medications, a red Drug Interactions badge appears next to the screen title, along with a count of how many allergens are involved. The interacting medications are also listed beneath the allergen's name in the list.

Adding an allergy

To add a single allergy:

1. Click in the Search and select an allergen to add box.
2. Type 3 or more letters of the allergen name. Matching allergens from the catalog appear in a list.
3. Your favorite allergens are shown before you begin typing, so common choices are one click away.
4. Select the allergen you want.

What happens next depends on whether Quick Add is on or off:

• Quick Add off — the Add Allergy window opens so you can fill in the details before saving.
• Quick Add on — the allergy is added immediately using your default severity, verification, and note.

Quick Add button

The lightning-bolt button inside the search box turns Quick Add on or off. When it's on (highlighted), selecting an allergen adds it right away using your saved defaults, without opening the details window — the fastest way to record a straightforward allergy. When it's off, the Add Allergy window opens first so you can review the details.

The Add Allergy window

When the Add Allergy window opens, you can set the following:

For recognized allergens, the window also shows reference details — the Drug Class, and the SNOMED and RxNorm codes.

Buttons at the bottom of the window:

• Add Allergy — saves the allergy and closes the window.
• Save & Add Another — saves this allergy and keeps the window open so you can add another right away.
• Cancel — closes the window without saving.

Non-codified allergens

Batch Add (adding several allergies at once)

Use Batch Add (near the bottom-right of the list) to add many allergies in one step:

1. Type or paste the allergen names, separated by commas (for example, Penicillin, Sulfa, Aspirin, Latex).
2. Click Continue. Each name is matched against the catalog.
3. Review the results. For each allergen you can set a severity and symptoms, and set a single verification that applies to all of them.

The review step also helps you handle special cases:

• No match found — you can search for and pick the correct allergen for that name.
• Multiple matches — you can choose the correct allergen from a list.
• Already active — duplicates are skipped and listed so you know.
• Reactivates — an allergen currently on the inactive list is flagged; adding it reactivates the existing entry.

To finish, choose one of:

• Add [N] Allergies — adds every allergen with the severity and symptoms you set.
• Quick Add All — adds every allergen using the shared verification and your defaults, without symptoms.

The allergy list

The list has two tabs, each showing a count of how many allergies it contains:

• Active — the patient's current allergies.
• Inactive — allergies that have been deactivated and are no longer current.

The list shows these columns:

Editing directly in the list

On the Active tab you can update an allergy without opening a window — click a Severity, Symptoms, Notes, or Verify cell to edit it right in the list. To change more than one field at once, use the Edit action to open the full Edit Allergy window.

Organizing the list

Buttons above the list help you organize what you see:

• Expand All / Collapse All — opens or closes the detail section under every allergen.
• Group Interactions — groups allergens by whether they have a drug interaction (and Ungroup Interactions removes the grouping).
• Show Filters / Hide Filters — shows a filter row beneath the column headers so you can narrow the list. When filters are active, Clear Filters removes them.

You can also sort by any column and rearrange or resize columns. To have the system remember your preferred arrangement, save your List Layout from the Settings button (see the Allergy Defaults article).

Editing an allergy

Click the Edit action on an allergy to open the Edit Allergy window. It has the same fields as the Add Allergy window, plus a Last Modified line showing who last changed the allergy and when.

Deactivating and reactivating allergies

• Deactivate — on the Active tab, use the deactivate action to move an allergy to the Inactive list. You'll be asked to confirm.
• Reactivate — on the Inactive tab, use the reactivate action to move an allergy back to the Active list with its current symptoms, severity, and verification. You'll be asked to confirm.

Marking allergies as reviewed

Check the Reviewed box (on the Add / Reviewed bar) to record that you've reviewed the patient's allergies for this encounter.

To see a history of past reviews, open the More menu and choose Reviewed History.

Import Queue

Allergens can be queued for import from other parts of the system. The Import Queue button shows a red count when items are waiting. Click it to review each queued allergen — you'll see the allergen, where it came from, and who created it — and then choose which ones to Add to the chart or Remove from the queue.

Other buttons

• Settings (gear) — opens Allergy Defaults, where you set your preferred severity, verification, favorite symptoms, note, Quick Add behavior, and list layout. See the Allergy Default article.
• Refresh — reloads the patient's allergies, can be helpful when multiple users are in the same chart or data is received via an outside source.
• More menu:
  • Print Report — generates a printable allergy report. You can choose Active Only or Active & Inactive.
  • Reviewed History — shows the record of past allergy reviews.
• Audit Log — shows a detailed history of changes to the patient's allergies.