Auto Fill Is Taking a Long Time

A large documentation page can take several minutes to fill. That is normal. Auto Fill types into every field one at a time, opens repeating sections, and waits on searchable pickers (such as diagnosis and standardized test lookups) to return their results. A page with hundreds of fields simply has more work to do than a short one.

Can I switch to another tab while it fills?

Yes. The fill keeps running when the tab is in the background, and you do not need to watch it.

Be aware that browsers deliberately slow down background tabs to save battery, so the same fill can take noticeably longer when you are working elsewhere. SOAP Note Buddy works around most of this, but a fill you leave in the background may still finish later than one you stay on. If you want it done as fast as possible, leave the EMR tab in front.

We will tell you when the fill is finished so you can come back and review it. If you are on another tab or another window when it completes, your computer shows a notification (“Auto Fill complete”), and clicking it brings you straight back to your EHR tab. Nothing appears if you are already looking at the page, since you can see it finish.

This is on by default. To turn it off, open Settings in the extension and uncheck “Notify me when Auto Fill finishes”.

If you never see these notifications, check that notifications are allowed for your browser in your operating system settings (Windows Settings, Notifications; or System Settings, Notifications on a Mac). Focus assist on Windows and Do Not Disturb on a Mac will both suppress them.

”The fill is taking longer than expected”

If you see this message, we stopped waiting for a response from the page. It does not mean the fill failed.

Check the page first. In most cases the fields are already filled, because the filling continues even after we stop waiting. If everything looks right, review it as you normally would.

If the fields are not filled, or only some of them are:

1. Refresh the page and run Auto Fill again.
2. Fill in fewer sections at a time if the page is very large. You can deselect fields on the review screen before confirming.
3. Stay on the EMR tab for the retry, so the browser does not slow the page down.

We are told about this automatically, so you do not need to send a report. If it keeps happening on the same page, contact [email protected] and tell us which EMR and which page you were on, and we will look at it.

The page filled but I did not get the review screen

Review what is on the page. If the values are correct, you can save the note in your EMR as usual. The note may not appear in your SOAP Note Buddy history in this case, so if you want a record of it, run the fill again from the patient’s record once the page is working normally.

This was a known problem in extension version 4.0.7 and earlier on fills that ran longer than about 25 seconds, and it is fixed in newer versions. Make sure your extension is up to date.