> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.elationhealth.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The Visit Note Object

> A record of a patient encounter, holding a provider's documentation as categorized bullets alongside the encounter's date, provider, type, and format.

## In the EHR

Providers document an encounter in a visit note from the patient's chart, and the note becomes a chart document recording which patient was seen, by which provider, and when. Each note follows one of several formats, and the format determines which sections the note offers. Documentation is entered into those sections as bullets, each belonging to a category and carrying free text. See [Visit Note Documentation Introduction](/articles/Visit-Note-Documentation-Introduction).

## Working with visit notes via the API

Three behaviors to know before you build against this object.

**Creating a note in the chart from a calendar appointment applies the appointment's configuration to the note; a `POST` builds the note from the payload alone.** In the chart, that carries the appointment type's templates and the appointment reason into the note and populates the bill from the appointment's billing details, known as visit note automation. A note counts as belonging to an appointment when its `document_date` equals that appointment's `scheduled_date`, so pass the appointment's value through unchanged when the note represents a scheduled visit.

**A `type` the practice has not configured is created on write.** `type` carries a name rather than an id, and a name the practice does not already have is added to its configured types on a successful write, where it persists and is offered in the EHR from then on. Send a name the practice already has unless adding one is intended.

**Notes a practice documents in Elation Note are returned by these endpoints as visit notes.** How a note's documentation arrives as bullets follows the practice's configuration: one form carries the note's text as a single `Narrative` bullet, and others distribute it across categorized and nested bullets. No field identifies where a note was documented, so read bullet structure as variable.

## Field notes

* `bullets` accepts a different set of categories per format. See [Visit Note Formats](/articles/rest/patient-document-api/visit-notes/visit-note-formats).
* `checklists` holds the Review of Systems (ROS) and Physical Exam (PE) entries.
* `template` selects the note's layout, called the visit note format in the EHR. Reusable content a practice saves for entry into notes is a separate object. See [The Visit Note Template Object](/articles/rest/patient-document-api/visit-note-templates/the-visit-note-template-object).
* `type` is documented separately. See [The Visit Note Type Object](/articles/rest/patient-document-api/visit-note-types/the-visit-notes-type-object).