Reason for Visit: Adding and updating
Reasons for Visit are used throughout the Appointment Scheduler, to check in patients, to monitor inpatients on the Electronic Whiteboard, and can be bookmarked into documents.
Before you start
- Security access to Appointment –Reason for Visit, Appointment – Reason for Visit Setup, Reason for Visit, and Reason for Visit Setup dialogs
Important!
- A Reason for Visit cannot be deleted if it is linked to a patient or client record. Reasons for Visit can be inactivated in these cases.
Reason for Visit setup overview
Complete Reason for Visit setup is accessed in two parts, the list and the associated default settings. Here’s where you can find each setup option:
Controls > Reason for Visit:
- Add/update primary and secondary Reasons for Visit
- Add Alert notes to pop up when scheduling or checking in a patient
- Default the referral recheck and inpatient checkboxes at check-in
- Default check-in/out documents
Controls > Appointment Scheduler > Reason for Visit:
- Add usual amount charged
- Add/Update appointment and text colors
- Default Performed by staff
- Default appointment units for the expected length of appointment
- Default Dr/Asst Time if using overbooking alerts
Add a new Reason for Visit
- Controls > Reason for Visit
- Click New in the Primary reason for visit or Secondary reason for visit area.
- For primary reason for visit, complete the following as needed:
- Enter a description.
- Enter an Alert note.
- Select Referral recheck to have visit counted as a recheck upon check in.
- Select Inpatient to have patient checked in and added to the Electronic Whiteboard.
- Link check-in/out documents
- Enter or change Doc ID or F2 and select.
- Click door icon to indicate as a check in (red arrow) or check out (green arrow) document.
- Click OK to save changes and return to the Reason for Visit List.
- For Secondary reason for visit, enter a description and click OK to save changes and return to the Reason for Visit List.
- Repeat steps as needed for additional reasons for visit.
Update a Reason for Visit
- Controls > Reason for Visit
- Select a reason from the primary or secondary reason for visit areas and click Update.
- For Primary reason for visit, modify the following as needed:
- Description
- Select Inactive, if needed
- Alert note
- Referral recheck
- Inpatient
- Linked Check in/out documents
- Click door icon to change between check in (red arrow) or check out (green arrow)
- Enter or change Doc ID or F2 and select
- Remove a document by using Ctrl + D in Doc ID field
- Click OK to save changes and return to the Reason for Visit List
- For Secondary reason for visit:
- modify the description
- Select Inactive, if needed
- Click OK to save changes and return to the Reason for Visit List.
Delete a Reason for Visit
- Controls > Reason for Visit
- Select the reason from the Primary Reasons for Visit list (if it has not been used) or Secondary Reasons for Visit list.
- Click Delete.
- Click Yes or No to confirm the deletion.
Reason for Visit defaults
- Controls > Appointment Scheduler > Reason for Visit
- Select from list and click Update.
- Enter a value in Usual amount. This is only necessary if you are going to set sales goals and monitor progress with the Scheduled vs. Goals report.
- Click Set Color or double click in Appt Color field to choose a background color.
- Select Black text or White text, based on color choice in previous step.
- Select a staff for Performed by to save steps if this reason for visit is only ever performed by one specific staff member.
- Choose a value for Number of units to set the appointment length. The maximum is 25 units.
- Select which Dr/Staff time units the appointment staff is required to be with the patient if using the overbooking scheduling alerts.
Additional information
General
- Primary Reasons must first be created under Controls > Reason for Visit before they are visible in Controls > Appointment Scheduler > Reason for Visit list.
- Click Include Inactives to view all reasons in the Primary and Secondary Reason for Visit lists.
- Performed by staff is used when scheduling an appointment in a room that is not restricted to a specific staff member and can be changed at time of scheduling.
Secondary Reason for Visit
- Secondary reasons are not associated with a primary reason for visit. They are selected or typed when scheduling or checking in an appointment after a primary reason is selected.
- Set up the predefined secondary reason list with only the most common secondary reasons.
Alert Notes
- An alert note will cause a pop-up window when the reason is selected while making an appointment or checking in a patient. Ex: Do not give food after 10:00p.m. the night before surgery.
- Use Ctrl + Enter to start a new line when entering an alert note.
Reason for Visit colors
- When using Appointment Scheduler templates, the color will appear as a lighter version of the selected color for available appointment slots.
- The first time-slot of each scheduled appointment will use the reason-for-visit color to indicate where the appointment begins and a slightly lighter version for additional slots used for scheduled appointments.
- The selected color is also used to indicate the primary reason for visit on the Whiteboard and Patient Treatments windows.
Time Units and Overbooking
- Time units used for reason for visit defaults is established by the time increment setting in Controls > Defaults > Practice and Workstation > Appointment Scheduler > Hours – Appointment Scheduler.
- The number of time units and Dr/Staff time selections can be modified at time of scheduling.
- The Dr/Staff units indicate when the appointment staff is with the patient. Ex: for a 3-unit appointment, the doctor is actively involved the last 2 slots.
- The time units setting option displays a staff icon and creates scheduling alerts when the same Staff ID is scheduled for more than 1 appointment at the time across all rooms.
- The staff icon appears to the far-right scheduling status column on the Schedule for Today window as black (1 appt booked), yellow (2 appts booked) or red (3 or more appts booked).
- When using the Display staff view option on the Schedule for Today window, the staff icon will appear to the left of each scheduled appointment slot.
Inactivating a Reason for Visit
- A reason for visit cannot be inactivated on currently checked in patients or if used as part of a scheduling template.
- The reason for visit will be cleared on appointments currently in the Tickler File or when you check in a patient appointment that is using an inactive reason.
- Updating past and future appointments will require you to select an active reason for visit.
- Any existing appointments or checked-in patients using the inactivated secondary reason will have the field converted to free-text formatting.
Related Reports
- Appointments report
- Appointments report – Summary
- Census report
- Checked in Census report
- Whiteboard Patient Treatments Report
