Hi theory,
I think you are going to have to rewrite your question in explicit detail. I am also not understanding your question or workflow. We are close to what you are doing in that we triage a patient at times, my CMA forwards the patient to me, and it is in my inbox. I may have three or four charts in the inbox while three patients wait in the waiting room. I am working on one chart with a patient. Now, the part I don't understand is where you say the patient waits while the doctor finishes the encounter. What do you mean by that? To me, that means the doctor is finishing the note, in which case all is well. Or as we do are you saying the doctor is in the room with an encounter (please be more specific -- like the doctor is with a different patient or patient B -- if he/she is), then you simply forward the next patient's chart to that doctor. I don't know what you mean by "we need to continue with that first patient, we cannot write to the same encounter." Why would YOU need to write to that encounter. The doctor would. If he/she had already started that chart then he/she would hit CTRL + S and send it back to the inbox. You can do that over and over. If you are triaging the patient and send it to a room or doctor, you can retrieve it at any time, by going to your outbox. When it is in the doctor's inbox, it is in your outbox until the doctor does something with it.
I can tell you that my CMA will forward a chart to me. I will "forward" to my inbox by using CTRL + S, but that is the ONLY forwarding we have ever done with a chart in nine years. In fact, the only forwarding of a chart between two people is the CMA forwarding the chart to me. Never, ever back to her. Or to anyone.
What you are saying even though confusing is very doable. You just have to describe your workflow to us. And, my guess is you may need to adjust your workflow a bit.
