Looking up who is in front of you, or who is calling, before starting any task.
Foundations Academy · Lesson 6
Hannahware Basics
Hannahware is the practice-management and medical-record system used across Hannah Hospitals for scheduling, Member and Pet information, and charting. Nearly every task in your day passes through it. This lesson is about the judgment that surrounds that work — knowing what the system is for, why accuracy and timeliness matter, and which part of the record is yours to own.
Estimated time
30–40 min
Four modules covering navigation habits, Member information and confidentiality, the check-in sequence, and the PetNurse and Nurse Aide charting partnership.
Lesson objectives
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Describe what Hannahware is used for across a Team Member's day, recognize the home screen layout, and apply the core habits that keep work in the system accurate
- Explain what Member information includes, search for a Member in Hannahware, and describe how confidentiality governs your access to that information
- Sequence the check-in workflow and recognize when to pause and verify before proceeding
- Describe what belongs in a Pet's medical record, and apply the PetNurse and Nurse Aide division of labor when charting
How this lesson works with your onboarding. This lesson builds the concepts, responsibilities, and judgment you need to work in Hannahware well. The hands-on system training — where things live, how your location has things configured, and the exact steps for your role's tasks — happens alongside your manager or mentor during your onboarding shifts, on the live system, with a real workflow in front of you. That is by design: judgment first, then muscle memory.
Prerequisites: Lessons 1–5. Lesson 5's security and confidentiality module carries directly into Module 2 of this lesson. Like Lesson 5, this lesson uses embedded knowledge checks inside each module rather than a single final assessment, and closes with a short reflection.
Module 1
Hannahware Navigation
The habit that prevents the most rework
Find the right record first. Everything after that depends on it.
Hannahware is where the hospital's day is organized and remembered.
Across a shift, Team Members use it to find a Member or a Pet, view a Pet's record and history, see and manage what is scheduled, and document the care that was delivered. Different roles spend time in different parts of it, but the underlying pattern is the same: locate the right record, read or enter information accurately, confirm the entry is saved, and close out cleanly when you are done.
What Team Members Use It For
Reading history, prior visits, and existing plans so your work builds on what came before.
Seeing what is booked, what has arrived, and what the day still holds for the care team.
Entering what was observed, done, and planned so the next Team Member has the full picture.
See It: The Home Screen
Watch this walkthrough of the Hannahware home screen, then use the breakdown below as a quick reference.
Hannahware 101 · The Home Screen
Three Zones, Every Screen
A "Pet ID/Name" quick search you can use from any screen, plus your signed-in name and location on the right.
Global links that follow you everywhere — Member Pets, Member Information, Contact Tracker, Billing, Member Appointments, and more.
Task groups on the Home screen itself — Check In, Appointment Scheduling, Member Tools, Pet Management, Reports, and Team Member Tools & Admin.
A note on this walkthrough. It reflects the current version of Hannahware. Tile names, order, and icons are occasionally updated, and your role determines which tiles and links you see — but the pattern of a quick top search, a left-hand navigation column, and task-grouped home tiles stays consistent.
Practice: Five Navigation Habits
Select each habit to see why it matters.
If you are unsure, stop. Hannahware is a medical record. A guess entered into it does not stay a guess — it becomes history that other Team Members rely on. Asking is always faster than correcting.
Knowledge check
You open a record to document a visit, and the history you see does not look like it belongs to the Pet in front of you. What should you do first?
Module 2
Member Information
Why a phone number is a clinical detail
If we cannot reach a Member, we cannot deliver the care their Pet needs.
At a high level, Member information covers who the Member is and how Hannah works with them: contact details, membership and plan status, the Pets in the household, and communication preferences. It is administrative on its face and clinical in effect.
What Member Information Includes
How Hannah reaches the Member — for appointment reminders, results, and time-sensitive decisions about their Pet.
What the Member's plan covers, which shapes what you can tell them about services and cost.
Every Pet associated with the Member, so the right record is opened and the right Pet receives care.
How and when a Member has asked to be contacted — following it is part of how we show respect.
See It: Searching for a Member
Finding the right Member record is the first step in almost everything you do in Hannahware. This walkthrough shows both ways to search.
Hannahware 101 · How to Search for a Member
Use the "Pet ID/Name" field at the top of any screen when you already know the Pet's exact name or ID.
Open Member Tools → Member Search for a fuller search — useful with a partial name, a phone number, or when you need to review close matches.
A search returns a results list with the Member's name, address, phone number (with the best contact number marked), account status, preferred hospital, and any alert — for example, an account flagged on hold. From the results, row actions let you move straight into the next task:
- Select opens the Member's full profile and every Pet linked to that household
- Placement, Add a Pet, Appointments, and RX Request jump directly to that task for the Member without a second search
A Member's profile splits their Pets into Active Hannah Pets and Inactive/Deceased Hannah Pets — deceased Pets are marked with an asterisk next to their name. Each Pet row carries its own quick links to the medical record and Pet plan.
More than one close match? Households can share an address or a phone number, and names repeat. Confirm you have the right Member — and the right Pet within that household — before you act on anything in the record.
Why Accuracy Matters
- Medical decisions. A Pet's care can stall while we try to reach a Member on a number that is out of date
- Billing. Incorrect plan or contact information produces charges and statements that are wrong, then a conversation nobody wanted
- Appointment reminders. Reminders that never arrive become missed visits and delayed care
- Member trust. A Member who has corrected the same detail three times has learned something about how carefully we listen
Carrying Lesson 5 forward — confidentiality. Member information is protected. Access only what your current task requires, and never share Member information outside approved Hannah channels — not with family, not with friends, not with someone who says they already know the Member. The fact that information is available to you is not the same as permission to use or share it.
Practice: Safe Handling of Member Information
Turn on every practice that is safe. Leave anything unsafe switched off, then check your answers.
Knowledge check
A caller asks you to update the phone number on a Member's account. What must happen before you make the change?
Module 3
Scheduling and Check-in
What the schedule actually is
A plan for putting the right care, the right Team Members, and the right resources in the same place at the same time.
The scheduling side of Hannahware exists so the hospital's day is organized rather than improvised. An appointment is not only a time — it carries an expectation of what will happen, how long it will take, who needs to be available, and what room or equipment is required. When the schedule is accurate, the care team can prepare. When it is not, the day absorbs the difference.
What an Appointment Coordinates
When the Member and Pet are expected, and how much of the day the visit needs.
What the visit is for, which determines preparation and the length of the appointment.
Who needs to be available, including any role required for that specific type of care.
Rooms, equipment, and diagnostics that have to be free at the same time.
Check-in, Conceptually
Check-in is the moment the plan meets reality. Its purpose is to confirm that who arrived matches what was scheduled, to make the arrival visible to the care team, and to surface anything unusual before the visit proceeds. Watch the walkthrough below to see exactly how this looks in Hannahware; the order of the thinking does not change.
- Confirm the Member and the Pet who actually arrived
- Confirm the appointment details match what was expected
- Update the arrival status so the care team knows the Pet is here
- Notify the care team that the Pet is ready
See It: Checking In a Pet
Watch this walkthrough of checking in a Pet in Hannahware, then use the breakdown below as a quick reference.
Hannahware 101 · How to Check In a Pet
Finding and Completing the Check-in
Look up the visit by the Member's last four phone digits, their phone number, and the Pet's name, then select Check Appointment to confirm a match.
A banner shows the matched Pet, Member, appointment time, and visit type — your cue to verify it against who is actually in front of you.
Reason for Visit, today's phone number, and the Presenting Complaint (50 characters max) capture why the Pet is here today.
Selecting Check In moves the Pet onto the day's active list, visible to the care team along with weight and location.
Where a Checked-in Pet Goes Next
Once checked in, the Pet's visit moves through a shared status workflow on the medical record. Anyone on the care team can see where a Pet is at a glance.
LobbyChecked in, waiting
→
MDS CompletedMedical Data Sheet done
→
In Exam RoomMoved back for the visit
→
Pet NurseNursing intake underway
→
Doctor/PTRSeeing the veterinarian
→
Exam CompletedVisit wrapped up
→
Check OutVisit closed
Flag anything unusual before proceeding. A Pet who is not on file, a different Pet than the schedule shows, an appointment type that does not match what the Member expects, or a visit that looks double-booked — these are all reasons to pause and verify with the care team or your manager. Working around a mismatch quietly is how a Pet ends up receiving the wrong visit.
Practice: Put the Check-in Steps in Order
Select the steps in the order they should happen. A step that is out of order will not be placed.
Knowledge check
A Member arrives for a visit, but the Pet with them is not the Pet on the schedule. What should you do?
Module 4
Medical Record and Charting
What the record is for
The chart is how a Pet's care continues when you are not the one delivering it.
A Pet's medical record is the continuous account of that Pet's health at Hannah. It is read by Team Members who were not present, sometimes years later, and it is the basis on which the next decision gets made. Charting is not administrative overhead attached to care — it is part of the care.
What Belongs in the Record
What the Member reports, prior conditions, and what has changed since the last visit.
What was observed during the examination, described objectively.
What was ordered, what was performed, and what the results showed.
What was done, what was prescribed or administered, and the reasoning behind it.
What needs to happen next, by when, and what the Member was told to watch for.
What was explained and agreed to, so the next Team Member does not contradict it.
A Two-Person Job
Charting during an examination at Hannah is a partnership with an established division of labor: the PetNurse examines the Pet and verbalizes findings out loud; the Nurse Aide performs the Hannahware data entry. Neither half works without the other. The PetNurse's findings only reach the record if they are spoken clearly and completely, and the Nurse Aide's entry is only accurate if it captures what was actually said.
This is why reading back matters. If a finding was unclear, ambiguous, or spoken while you were still entering the last one, ask for it again before you enter it. A Nurse Aide who asks the PetNurse to repeat a value is doing the job correctly. A Nurse Aide who guesses at it is not.
Principles of Good Charting
- Enter it promptly. Chart during or immediately after the visit, not from memory hours later. Memory edits itself; the record should not
- Be objective and specific. Record what was observed and measured rather than an impression. "Left ear reddened, Member reports scratching for three days" carries information that "ear looks bad" does not
- Never alter another Team Member's entry. If something is wrong, follow the proper correction procedure so the change and its reason are both visible. Silently overwriting someone's entry destroys the record's reliability
- Treat every entry as continuity of care. Write for the Team Member who will read it next, without the benefit of having been in the room
Practice: Whose Responsibility Is It?
For each responsibility, select whether it belongs to the PetNurse or the Nurse Aide.
Knowledge check
During an examination, the PetNurse verbalizes a finding you did not hear clearly. What is the correct action?
Reflection & completion
Working Accurately in Hannahware
Think about a task you will do in Hannahware in your role. What is one habit from this lesson that will help you do it accurately?
Lesson Complete
You have worked through what Hannahware is used for and the habits that keep work in it accurate, what Member information covers and how confidentiality governs your access to it, the purpose of the schedule and the order of the check-in workflow, and what belongs in a Pet's medical record along with the PetNurse and Nurse Aide charting partnership. Mark the lesson complete once your reflection is saved.
This lesson uses the knowledge checks inside each module rather than a single graded assessment. Your reflection and completion status are stored in this browser only. Hands-on Hannahware training continues with your manager or mentor on your onboarding shifts.