Appointment Scheduler: Managing appointments
Schedule, modify, confirm, move, and cancel appointments.
Before you start
- Security access to:
- Appointment—Schedule Appointments
- Appointment—Schedule for Today
- Appointment—Schedule for Week
- Appointment – Update Appointments
- Appointment – Delete Appointments
- Appointment – Move Appointments
- Appointment Scheduler Defaults set to practice preference for tickler file entries.
- Alert Defaults set to track Canceled and Failed appointments, if using.
- Set up the Appointment Scheduler, including staff hours and room permissions
Schedule an appointment
- Patient Clipboard > search for and select the patient > right-click on patient name > Appointment Scheduler
Note: There are multiple windows where you can begin scheduling an appointment. For additional pathways, see the Additional information section below. - Navigate to the appropriate day, time, and room with the Today, Previous Day, and Next Day links at the bottom of the window. Click Go To Date for a calendar.
- Double-click the time slot for the beginning appointment time.
- If starting from the Patient Clipboard, the patient name will automatically fill in. Other pathways, may require you to search for and select the patient.
- Click Yes or No to confirm the selected patient, if appointment started from the Patient Clipboard.
- Select from Client ID drop down to select from your workstation’s recently accessed clients, if a different client needs to be selected.
- Enter IDs or press F2 to search and select the client and patient in the corresponding fields, if needed.
- Acknowledge any client or patient alerts.
- Click Confirm to insert the current system date or manually enter a date.
- Verify, change, or select a primary reason. Acknowledge any scheduling alerts.
- Select or enter a secondary reason, if appropriate. Secondary reason is only available after a primary reason is selected.
- Enter or modify the staff ID of the person seeing the appointment, if not defaulted in or if the staff restricted option is set for this room.
- Adjust time units, if needed.
- Select Staff time units, if using. These units will display the staff icon for each designated time slot and create an alert when scheduling the same staff in different rooms/columns for the same time.
- Enter up to 2 characters in the Prefix field. This field is often used for the initials of the person scheduling.
- Enter details specific to this appointment in Notes.
- Add Appointment items, if using, by entering the item ID or press F2 and search/select from the item list.
- Total price appears in the Amount field above.
- To delete an appointment item, select the item and press Ctrl + D.
- Items transfer to the Patient Visit List when checking appointment in.
- Use of Transfer invoice items to patient visit list now is not recommended, as it immediately sends the items to the Patient Visit List where they will be until the client comes in for the appointment.
- Click OK and acknowledge any additional scheduling alerts like staff not scheduled or staff already scheduled at this time.
Confirm an appointment
- Double-click appointment.
- Make any needed changes.
- Click Confirm.
- Click OK.
- Confirmed by displays the logged in user’s ID.
Note: When an appointment is confirmed, the button changes to Unconfirm.
Modify an appointment
- Double-click appointment.
- Make any needed changes.
- Click Confirm or Unconfirm, if needed.
- Click OK.
Move an appointment
- From the appointment, do one of the following:
- Click and drag appointment to a different time slot within the same day.
- Right-click appointment > Move. Then use Today, Previous Day, Next Day, or Go To to navigate to another day and select the time slot.
- Click Yes or No on the move confirmation message.
- Click Yes or No on the staff change message, if applicable.
Cancel an appointment
- Right-click appointment > Delete.
- Select an option to indicate why appointment was deleted:
- Failed: Client did not show. The number of failed appointments can be tracked in client alerts.
- Cancelled: Client cancelled. The number of cancelled appointments can be tracked in client alerts.
- Neither: Tracking/alerting of reason not needed. This option is used when the appointment was made in error.
- Select Add this appointment to tickler file to store the appointment information in the Tickler File for future reference or to keep track of deleted appointments on the Tickler Report. The check box may be selected by default.
- Click OK.
Additional Information
Alerts
- When scheduling an appointment with a reason for visit set for a number of slots that is greater than available slots, an alert message displays and the appointment length will adjust to the available time slot(s).
- Scheduling across multiple workstations can result in the same appointment slot(s) being selected for an appointment. The first user to begin scheduling will result in a message for other users, that the slot is being scheduled or what number of units are available for your appointment.
Additional appointment scheduling pathways
- Toolbar > Appointment Scheduler icon
- Patient Clipboard > Client or Patient Appointment tab > right-click > New or Update
- Search Clients/Patients > Patient card right-click > Appointment Scheduler
- Check In/Out window > Make Appt button
- Client Invoice > Make Appt button
Appointment details
Information displays on the schedule based on number of time slots used for the appointment:
- 1st appt line: Displays prefix, client name in bold font. For single slot appointments, patient name will also appear in parenthesis, all caps, and in bold font.
- 2nd appt line: Displays patient name.
- 3rd appt line: Displays appointment notes.
- 4th appt line: Displays primary phone number.
- Additional lines: Displays a bullet icon indicating the slot is scheduled.
- Staff icon appears for each time slot a Staff time selection is indicated.
Appointment colors
Appointment colors appear as follows:
- Scheduled appointment first line appears in the reason for visit color.
- Additional slots appear in a slightly lighter shade and with a bullet for any time slots without appointment details.
- Available, templated appointment slots are displayed in the lightest version of the associated Reason for Visit color.
- Blocked appointments appear in the practice designated color.
Cancelled/failed appointments and the Tickler file
- Tracking the number of failed and/or canceled appointments on the client and the related alert can be turned on/off under Controls > Defaults > Practice and Workstation > Alerts: Click to select or deselect Cancelled Appointment and/or Failed Appointment.
- To change the number of missed or Cancelled appointments for the client, double-click the alert under the Client Alerts tab of the Patient Clipboard, and set the number accordingly.
- Tickler File entries will prompt user to use deleted appointment information when scheduling an appointment for the same client/patient.
- Numbers of deleted appointments can be measured from the Appointment Audit report.
Viewing the schedule
- Adjust scheduler view as needed before scheduling appointments. For example, change the specific staff or suite view from the drop-down lists.
- Based on your computer’s Ease of Access keyboard settings, hot-key shortcuts will be underscored and can be used to operate the buttons and navigation links, such as x for Next Day or g for Go to Date.
- Confirmed appointments appear with a check mark to the left of the client name in the schedule. For Pet Health Network Pro subscribers, confirmed appointments appear with a staff ID of PHN Pro.
- Prefix appears to left of client name on the first line of the scheduled appointment.
- Appointment notes appear:
- When hovering the mouse over the appointment.
- When using the View button.
- On the Appointment and Check-in Reports.
- In patient history under check-in icon.
Staff ID and time
- The Staff ID is used on the Appointments tab of the Daily Planner and appointment scheduler reports and should be used for the person seeing the appointment, not the person scheduling the appointment.
- Staff time in an optional feature for scheduling appointments:
- Time slots designated as staff time display a staff icon to the left of each appointment slot (when displaying the schedule by staff) and in the far right staff scheduling status column.
- If the staff member is scheduled at the same time in a different room, messaging appears and clicking Yes or No to continue scheduling is required.
- Hovering the cursor over an icon will display a message that staff presence is required (grey icon), staff is double-booked (yellow icon), or staff is overbooked (red icon).
Scheduling tips
- Refresh the Schedule for Today window before scheduling to ensure no new appointments have been made from other workstations.
- When you press F2 to search and select a client or patient:
- The most recent client or patient is displayed.
- Press F7 or F8 to cycle backwards or forwards through the list of recent clients and patients. The number of available records is determined by your default client and patient settings in Controls > Defaults > Practice and Workstation > Client or Patient.
- Press Delete or Backspace to view the complete list of clients or patients.
- When scheduling an appointment for a patient that has a Tickler File entry, you will be prompted to use the saved previous appointment information. The Staff ID will change from the original if booking into a room restricted to a different staff ID.
- Use appointment items for adding requested services and items to invoice, which will transfer automatically to the PVL when checking in the appointment. The appointment items area can also be used to look up prices while you schedule the appointment.
- Using Transfer invoice items to patient visit list now is not recommended because it will send the invoice items directly to the Patient Visit List when you save the appointment information. If the item isn’t used in the appointment, or the appointment does not happen, you have to remember to manually delete from the PVL to prevent invalid pending charges for the client.
- Boarding Module only: When an appointment is scheduled, an alert appears to notify you if any boarding reservations exist for the patient in the next 30 days
Related reports
- Appointment Audit Report
- Appointments Report
- Appointments Report – Summary
- Tickler File Report
