This has 4 major areas:
- Schedule - Slots with Scheduled Appointments
- Call List -Default selected list is "To be confirmed "
- Calendar - for Date Selection
- Patient Info - View Details of Selected Slot’s Appointment’s Patient
Choose one of the three radio buttons to set the Schedule matrix in
- Daily for Selected Doctor / Location from List Box
- Weekly for Selected Doctor / Location from List Box
- All Docs. This option displays the schedule slots for 7 Doctors (in 7 columns) for the selected Date / Location
- List Box to select a specific Doctor.
- List Box to select a specific or all Locations.
Block Button: Provides a feature to Block Appointments slots for
the Selected Doctor in List Box. If the Doctor has a Meeting / Conference
/ Emergency then his schedule can be blocked. If there were any Appointments
scheduled in that period, the user will be warned about it. If the Slot
is blocked, the status for existing Patient appointments in that period
will get changed to ‘To Be Rescheduled’ and the Patients will be informed
by email. And any Non Patient Appointments in that period will be cancelled.
(The same rule applies to Doctors Selecting a Vacation under Appointments
> Vacations)
Work Pattern Exception Button:
This button is used to set Work Pattern Exception
for the selected Provider/Resource on selected Location directly from
Appointment Scheule screen. This icon is available only for Daily and Weekly view options.
Note:
Work pattern exception set from this icon will not be displayed on the Appointments > Work Pattern screen.
Print Button: This button is visible only in Daily and Weekly Mode.
Click on this button to take a printout of the Daily / Weekly Appointment
Schedule for the selected Doctor.
Refresh icon: In real life, multiple users could be updating the
Appointments Slots for the same Doctor for the same Date. When a user changes
a Date / Doctor / Mode all the latest schedules are displayed (even if booked
by any other user). It is indeed very interesting to see this in multi user
mode. Note that there is an odd possibility. Suppose the User is in Daily
mode. Some other user has scheduled a number of appointments for same Doc
and same Date. If the first user schedules a valid appointment, the page
will get refreshed with all appointments.
However while scheduling, it might give an error saying “Slot not available”,
while he may not see it on his un refreshed page. In this odd case he can
click on this Button to explicitly refresh the page.
Date Scroll: In a Daily OR All Doc Mode,
the Date Scroll scrolls the current date forward or backward 1 day at a
time. In a Weekly Mode, the Date Scroll scrolls the current date forward
or backward 7 days at a time.
Doc Scroll: Applicable only when the All Docs is selected. This scrolls the Next or
Previous names of 7 doctors working at the clinic.
Time column: The clock times with intervals
(as per settings in property, Appointment Scheduling> appointment.slots_per_hour) are displayed
in this column. The time slots are displayed in 12Hrs or 24Hrs format (Military
time) as per settings in property, Appointment
Scheduling > appointment.militarytime.
To change the interval, click on the heading Time. This opens a pop
up. Select the minutes per slot from the options displayed. Click on OK
to save. The schedule gets refreshed.
Color Legend:
Available: The Slots in the Doctors working hours which are not scheduled.
Booked: If an appointment is taken for a Specific time slot.
Not Working: While the clinic could be open from 8:00 to 20:00, a Doctor could be working from 9:00 to 18:00. In other hours he is Not Working.
Holidays: Clinic Holidays, Clinic Weekly Off, Doctors Weekly Off, Holidays, Vacations.
Blocked: If the Doctor has Blocked certain time from his working hours. (for a seminar, operation)
The available slots for a Doctor can be shown in different colors locationwise. This gives a quick visual information about the different locations where a Doctor could be working on a day. Alternately, the screen could become too colorful and confusing for a novice. A setting in property, Appointment Scheduling > appointment.location_wise_color, decides if the backgound color should be painted locationwise.
The Booked Patient Appointment slots can be shown in different colors encounter typewise. This gives a quick visual differentiation between say patients coming for surgery and for consultation, OR between New and Follow-up patient. Alternately, the screen could become too colorful and confusing for a novice. A setting in property, Appointment Scheduling > appointment.encounter_wise_color, decides if the appointment color should be painted encounter typewise.
- The user can view multiple encounter types on appointment scheduler. On screen Appointments > Work Pattern , for a selected Date, Day and Location, the user can now select multiple encounter types for the selected provider for a selected location and day. Property ' appointment.workpattern.overlap.allow ' is added when set to ' Y ' allows overlap in work pattern.
-
Clicking on the Legend button shows all the colors used as per current property settings.
How to Schedule an Appointment?
There are three ways to invoke a Appointment Schedule pop up, where details can be provided to get the most suitable schedule.
| Double click on an vacant Appointment Slot: | |
| This invokes Appointment Schedule pop up with | |
| Defaut Date as Current Date in Daily and All Docs mode. Default is Column date in Weekly Mode. | |
| Default time as slot time. | |
| Default Doc as selected from List Box in Daily and Weekly mode. Default as Column Doc in All Doc mode. | |
| Default Location as selected from List Box. | |
| Single Click on any slot in Time column: | |
| This invokes Appointment Schedule pop up with | |
| Defaut Date as Current Date in Daily and All Docs mode. Default is Column date in Weekly Mode. | |
| Default time as slot time selected | |
| Default Doc as selected from List Box in Daily and Weekly mode. Default as Column Doc in All Doc mode. | |
| Default Location Depends on Doc, Date & Time. If the Selected Doc is not working at the selected time, Location is taken as Clinic Location. | |
Click on the New Appointment Button  |
|
| This invokes Appointment Schedule pop up with | |
| Defaut Date as Current Date in Daily and All Docs mode. Default is Column date in Weekly Mode. If this Date is less than system date, then system date is considered. | |
| Default time as System Clock Time. Doc = From List Box OR First Column in All Doc mode | |
| Default Doc as selected from List Box in Daily and Weekly mode. Default as Column Doc in All Doc mode. | |
| Default Location as Clinic Location. | |
Note:
An Appointment is also created from Start Encounter option in Patient Encounter
page for walk-in patients.
When an appointment for a Patient having Patient type as ‘DISCHARGED' is scheduled then a warning message “ Patient Status is 'Discharged' ” is displayed.
If a Patient having multiple appointments on the same day schedules another appointment for the same day then an alert message is displayed. The Alert message displays the Appointment timings , Provider name , Appointment type and Status of all the previously scheduled appointments of the Patient on the same day.
To take Recurring Appointments: Double Click on a Booked Appointment cell. The pop up comes up with details of selected Appointment. User can click on the Recurrence button to repeat the appointment as per various options.
To see Appointment Patient Details: Single Click on a Booked Appointment Cell. The Scheduled Patient Name and details will appear in the Botton Left of the screen in the Patient Info Area. The Name is hyper linked to Patient Registration / Insurance screen. It is possible to take appointments for Non Patients. In which case the Name will be shown but it will not be hyperlinked.
Patient Message Button
: It is likely that the Patient has called the front office to report
his health status as advised by the Doctor, or to ask for a Refill. The
front office would like to immediately send a message to the Doctor and
by exception (as in case of Health Status Reporting) add it to the Patient
Medical Records. All this is feasible by entering the details in the pop
up which gets invokded on clicking this button.Status: The possible Patient Status defined in the System are:
- To be rescheduled Set Automatically if Doctor Blocks the time, and an appointment was scheduled there.
- To be confirmed Tentative Booking- If an Appointment is taken more than X days in advance. (X defined in property, Appointment Scheduling > appointment.max_confirmation_days).
- Confirmed Scheduled Appointment If an Appointment is taken within X days in advance. (X defined in property, Appointment Scheduling > appointment.max_confirmation_days)
- Arrived Explictly set by Reception, when the Patient Arrives.
- For CS
- With CS When the Clinical Staff starts an Encounter, by selecting Patient on their Home page.
- Ready for Doctor
- With Doctor When the Doctor starts an Encounter, by selecting Patient on her Home page.
- Ready for Checkout
- Appointment Complete When the Doctor closes the encounter.
- Cancelled by Patient Set by Reception, when Patient calls to cancel an Appointment.
- No Show: If the user marks an appointment as 'No Show' by mistake, then he can rescheduled this appointment and change its status to ‘Schedule'.
Note: When the appointment associated with last preauthorization visit is marked as ‘Arrived’ then an alert,
“This is the last pre-auth visit for Pre-Auth number associated to this appointment” is displayed. Note: The prefixes, VCP to the patient’s name on the Appointment Schedule screen provides patient's additional information such as if patient's Insurance Eligibility Exists for Primary Insurance; the Appointment status is Scheduled and is considered Confirmed. and if the status of patient's Patient Form is filled. The display of these prefixes to patient's name are dependent on the property, scheduler.status.flags . Also, If any of the value is missing in the property then on screen it is replaced with an hyphen ‘-’.
Appointments requested on the Portal are seen by Clinic staff from the Call List. The person taking appointments could have some free time which can be used to make proactive calls / reminders for patients.
Call List button
:
Click to invoke a pop-up and select one of the many Call lists.Call list displays the list of patients to be called and rescheduled if necessary.
Clicking opens a pop-up window with the following options:
- To be rescheduled: Considers List of Patients whose original appointment has to be Rescheduled, because the Doctor blocked the time.
- To be confirmed: Considers List of Patients whose Appointments booked were more than X days in advance. These appointments need to be reconfirmed. This is not done in case of Non Patients.
- PHS due in X days: Considers List of Patients who do not have any Scheduled Appointment AND whose PHS Test is Due in the Next X days. The number of days, X, can be configured in property, Appointment Call List > appointment.calllist.phs_days.
- Vaccination due in X days: Considers List of Patients who do not have any Scheduled Appointment AND whose Vaccination is Due in the Next X days. The number of days, X, can be configured in property, Appointment Call List > appointment.calllist.vac_days.
- Follow-up due in X days: Considers List of Patients who do
not have any Scheduled Appointment AND whose Follow up Date is Due in
the Next X days. The number of days, X, can be configured in property, Appointment Call List
> appointment.calllist.followup_days.
“Scheduled Appointment” phrase has been used to mean Appointments with Status as “Scheduled”.
Calendar: To see the Schedule Slots for a specific date, click on that date in the Calendar.
The calendar displays the Clinic Weekly Off and Holidays. Use the buttons:
<< To see the previous year
>> Next Year
< Previous Month
> Next Month
(T) To go to Run Date (Today)
Patient Information:
When the user (Single) clicks on any appointment block in the scheduled area, the Patient (Or Non Patient) details appear in this area. And if the Patient does not have any Insurance Or has to make a Co Payment, it is displayed on top of the Scheduling area. We had also noted that while scheduling a new Patient Date of Birth / SSN was not mandatory, but they are required before starting his encounter.
The Patient Name is hyperlinked. Click on this to open the Patient Registration form, which in turn has buttons to enter Address / Insurance details. If the Appointment was for Non Patient the Name is not hyperlinked. This area also displays the Patient Age, Sex, Primary Doctor and Telephone Numbers.
The receptionist is expected to click on the Patient's appointment when he walks into the Clinic. This will prompt for Insurance details / co payment if required.
Patient Alert button
:This option is typically used by the front office to maintain Alerts about Patients who don't keep appointments or do not pay. The front office can enter the comments here. On taking any appointment for this Patient this button on mouse over displays existing Alerts.
Note: At times it helps to be aware of Patients who are regular with No Show appointments and who are most of the times cancelling scheduled appointments. A scheduled process, generatePatAlert4PatcancelledAppt keeps track of these appointments and also the count for individual patients. If a patient reaches a certain count (decided by the Clinic) then on the Appointment Schedule screen as well as on Encounter screen, at the time of taking an appointment User gets a Patient alert about the number of times the Patient has either cancelled appointments or had a No Show appointments. The alert is not displayed for the multidoc appointments. Create Lab Order button
:This button is displayed only when the selected Patient does not have a live encounter. The user can click on this button to go to CPOE > Lab Order page and order Labs for the Patient
Change Appointment Status button
:When the patient arrives at the clinic, the receptionist will set the Appointment status to Arrived. This will also start a New Encounter for the Patient. The process will fail and error will be reported if:
- The Date of Birth, SSN is not entered for this Patient.
- There is already an Open encounter for the Patient, so a new one cannot be started.
- The Appointment is not for Run date.
This revised status will get refreshed on the logged-in Doctor / Nurse's Homepage.
Copayment button :
Once the Patient 's status is changed to Arrived, till the Encounter is completed, this button is visible. Click on this to enter the Copayment actually made by the Patient.
Patient Alert icon: Click on the icon to add new Patient alerts and display them, required by the front office while taking appointments, it can be also viewed from Encounter and Billing screen as well.
In Patient alert user can defined date range that is Effective From date and Upto Date details for the alerts. Also user has a provision to delete Patient alerts created by them.
Note: Delete option is not available for Users without the PatientAlertDelete role assigned.
Patient Notes icon: Click on the icon to write adhoc notes and add it to the Patient's Medical Record. This screen comes up with the current encounter Patient name populated by default. The user can edit / select any other Patient if required. The notes are flagged as added by the logged in user. Notes can be deleted by Sender Or All Docs as per properties. A Note can be deleted within specified number of days (in properties) only. Check the properties under Patient Notes.
legal icon: This icon is enabled after the Patient record is saved.
A patient needs to sign a number of documents that:
- Authorize the doctor to physically examine his body
- Indemnify the doctor against any advice or procedure
- Authorize the practice to charge him personally in case the insurance company rejects claim.
- A practice can have similar or more legal documents, which have to be defined in the Group Master (System Groups). The Code indicates primary filename of the legal document. The extension is assumed to be "doc". The filename starts with 'W' if any ,witness is required for signing the document.
The purpose of this option is to list all documents signed by the patient. The signed documents are physically stored in the practice.
Move Appointment: The Move Appointment icon is available or visible if the property, scheduler.status.flags is not blank i.e. some value has been assigned to it. To move an appointment, Select the appointment that has to be moved; Click on scissor or Move Appointment icon, notice that the selected appointment is highlighted in green. Double-Click on the destination time-slot to move the appointment; the Appointment Scheduler popup is invoked to help User schedule the appointment in the new time-slot.
Note:
- Move Appointment icon is NOT available for supporting appointments
- User has provision to change the'Provider' and the 'Location' of the appointment.
- The Move Appointment icon is available only for Appointments with statuses such as 'To be confirmed'; 'Tentative'; and 'Scheduled'.
Hint: Text messages regarding Patient’s upcoming appointments that are scheduled from Patient Portal are sent on Medic's cell phones. Text messages are sent only to those Medics whose availability is defined in Location Master.