The Appointment Schedule screen is mainly divided into 5 sections, as follows:
- Top Band
- Call List
- Schedule
- Calendar
- Patient Information
The Top Band displays dropdown options and various icons which help to add a new appointment, search an appointment, view patient appointment history or patient receipt, etc. This band consists of the following:
Search Appointment for dropdown: Appointments can be booked for registered patients as well as non-registered patients from the Appointment Schedule screen. Hence, the Search Appointment for dropdown list consist of two options: Patient and Other. Patient is selected in this dropdown by default.
Search Appointments icon:
If the Patient option is selected in the Search Appointment for dropdown, then clicking on this icon invokes the
Patient Appointments search list popup.
This search popup displays all the appointments in Scheduled status.
Click on any appointment from the search list to navigate to that appointment.
If the Others option is selected in the Search Appointment for dropdown, then clicking on this icon invokes the
Other Appointments search list popup which displays all the non-patient appointments in status Scheduled status.
Note:
- The Patient Appointments search list popup can be configured using the admin level property search.patappt.table.
- The Other Appointments search list popup can be configured using the admin level property search.nonpatappt.table.
Add New Appointment:
Clicking on this icon invokes the Appointment Schedule popup to schedule an appointment for a patient/non-patient.
Patient Appointment History:
Clicking on this icon first invokes the Patient search list popup.
Click on a patient to invoke the Appointment History popup to view the appointment history details of the patient.
Patient Receipt:
Clicking on this icon first invokes the Patient List search popup.
Click on a patient to invoke the Patient Receipt popup to view the receipt details.
Call List: Appointments requested by patients from the Portal are seen by clinic staff on the Call List. Clinic staff can make proactive calls/reminders to those patients and reschedule their appointments if necessary. The default option selected here depends on the admin-level property appointment.calllist.defaultoption. Clicking on the Call List Options
button invokes the Call List popup.
The following fields are displayed on this popup:
- Period: Select a time period from the dropdown options.
- From & Upto Dates: This option is provided to select specific dates.
- Provider:
Select a Provider from the Medics popup invoked on clicking the Provider Search
icon.
This field is displayed on the popup only when the admin-level property ts.appointment.calllist.select.provider is turned On. - Location: Select a location from the dropdown. This field displays Not Applicable when Health Maintenance Due, Vaccination Due, Follow Up Due radio buttons are selected. For all other options, this field displays a list of all the active locations. The following options are available as radio buttons:
- Health Maintenance Due:
Considers all patients with Health Maintenance due within the selected period.
The HM Search icon invokes the multi selection All Ordersheet Tests search popup.
If tests are selected from the popup, then only those tests are considered for display on the call list.
- Vaccination due in X days:
Considers all patients who do not have any scheduled appointments and whose vaccination is due in the next X days.
The number of days X can be configured in the property appointment.calllist.vac_days.
The Vaccines Search icon invokes the multi selection Vaccines search popup.
If vaccines are selected from the popup, then only those vaccines are considered for display on the call list.
- Follow Up Due: Considers all 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 the property appointment.calllist.followup_days.
- Appointments to be Rescheduled: Considers all patients whose original appointment was rescheduled. This type of appointments are displayed in the call list only when the property appointment.nochange.onblock is turned Off.
- Appointments to be Confirmed: Considers all Patients whose appointments were booked more than X days in advance. These appointments need to be reconfirmed. This is not done in case of Non Patients.
- Upcoming Appointments: Considers all patients with scheduled appointments within the selected period.
- Wait Listed Appointments: Considers all patients with wait appointment within the selected period.
- Requested Appointments: Considers all patients who requested an appointment from Patient Portal.
- Ignore Patient from the list if Reminder Sent checkbox: Select this checkbox to ignore those patients from the Reminder Call List who have already been informed by e-mail.
button.
This option is not available for Health Maintenance Due, Vaccination Due and Follow Up Due options.
The Patient column displays the name of the patient as a hyperlink which opens the Appointment Schedule popup for the appointment on click.
The Details column displays the details of the appointment like Provider, Date and Time of the appointment in the tooltip.
The maximum number of rows displayed on the call list can be defined in the admin-level property appointment.calllist.maxrows. If the appointment listed in To Be Rescheduled call list is scheduled from the call list, then an email notification for it is sent to the patient. The email template used is Appointment Rescheduled Email.
The call list selection is retained for the current session. Once the user logs out and logs in again the call list option selected by default depends on the property appointment.calllist.defaultoption.
To see the scheduled appointments for a specific date, click on that date in the calendar displayed on the left side of the Appointment Schedule screen. The calendar also displays the clinic weekly off days and holidays. The <<, < , (T), > and >> options can be used to see previous year, previous month, current day's date, next month and next year respectively. The calendar goes back up to 10 years. Users can select a future date from the calendar depending on the property appointment.max_days. If user selects a date exceeding the days mentioned in the property value then a validation message: Cannot take Appointments from: <Selected date> is displayed.
The Patient Information section displays remains blank unless a user clicks on any appointment. When any booked appointment slot is clicked, this section displays details of the patient (or non-patient). This section consists of the following:
Patient Name: The patient's name is hyperlinked and invokes the Patient Information popup when clicked. The name is not hyperlinked in case of non-patient appointments. The patient's date of birth, gender, telephone number and Primary Provider's name are displayed below the patient's name.
Patient Info: A click on this icon invokes the Patient Contact popup which displays the patient’s information. The template of this popup is the one defined in the admin-level property appointment.patientinfo.template. If this property is blank, then the template defined in the property patient.contactinfo.template is used.
Icon Drawer:
This icon displays all the applicable icons for the selected patient's appointment as follows:
Patient Alert:
This option is typically used by the front office to maintain alerts for patients who don't keep appointments or do not pay on time.
The front office staff can enter their comments in the Alerts popup.
In Patient Alert, users can define a valid date range for the alerts.
Patient Alerts can also be deleted from the Alerts popup.
Notes:
- The delete option is available only for Users having the PatientAlertDelete role assigned.
- At times, it helps to be aware of Patients who often have No Show appointments or who often cancel 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, a patient alert is displayed about the number of times the patient has either cancelled appointments or had No Show appointments. The alert is not displayed for multi-doc appointments.
Patient Notes:
Click on this icon to invoke the Patient Notes popup and write adhoc notes and add them to the patient's medical record.
If no appointment slot is selected and no encounter is currently open, then the Patient Notes popup displays the Patient List search popup on click and notes can be viewed after
selecting a patient from the popup.
If no appointment slot is selected but an encounter is currently open, then the Patient Notes popup displays the name and notes for the patient whose encounter is open, by default.
If an appointment slot is selected, then the Patient Notes popup displays the name and notes for the patient whose appointment is selected.
The notes are flagged as added by the logged in user and can be deleted within number of days specified in the property
ptnotes.delete.within.days either by the sender or by all docs depending on whether the property
ptnotes.delete.bysender.only is turned On or Off.
Patient Billing Notes:
On clicking this icon, the Patient Billing Notes popup is invoked which can be used to add, display, print or delete Patient Billing Notes.
Create Lab Order:
This icon is displayed only when the selected Patient does not have an open encounter.
The user can click on this button to go to CPOE → Lab Order screen and order lab tests for the patient.
Create Radiology Order:
This icon is displayed only when the selected Patient does not have an open encounter.
The user can click on this button to go to CPOE → Radiology Order screen and order radiology tests for the patient.
Login Info:
A click on this icon invokes the User Login Details popup which can be used to generate login credentials for the patient.
Insurance:
A click on this icon invokes the Patient Insurance popup which can be used to add or edit the patient's insurance.
Current Encounter:
A click on this icon navigates the user to the patient's encounter screen.
If an existing patient has an old open encounter, the on clicking this icon for the patient’s new appointment, an alert message:
No Encounter for this Appointment. Do you want to still go to Encounter Page? is displayed.
Clicking on the Ok button navigates user to the latest open encounter of the patient.
Insurance Eligibility:
A click on this icon invokes the Insurance Eligibility popup and displays insurance eligibility details.
Legal Documents:
This icon is enabled only after the patient record is saved.
The purpose of this option is to list all documents signed by the patient.
The signed documents are physically stored in the practice.
A click on this icon invokes the Legal Documents popup which displays a number of documents that a patient must sign, that:
- Authorize the Provider to physically examine their body.
- Indemnify the Provider against any advice or procedure.
- Authorize the practice to charge them personally in case their insurance company rejects a claim, etc.
Order Sheet:
A click on this icon invokes the Order Sheet screen in a popup which can be used to quickly order Lab, Radiology, Consult, Procedure tests as well as Prescription.
Employer Protocol:
A click on this icon invokes the Protocol Tests popup which displays the protocols defined for the patient's Employer.
Telemed icon:
This icon is made available just next to the appointment status and is displayed only for Telemedicine appointments.
On mouse hover, the meeting ID is displayed as a tooltip.
On clicking the Telemed icon, a dialog box containing the Zoom meeting URL is displayed, which can be copied and further used to initiate the video consultation.
Mark Arrived: Clicking on this icon marks the selected appointment as Arrived. This icon appears disabled if any future dated appointment is selected.
Copayment:
This icon is displayed once the patient's appointment status is changed to Arrived till the encounter is completed.
Click on this icon invoke the Patient Payments popup and enter the copay amount paid by the Patient.
This icon is not displayed for Other type of appointments.
Patient Workflow:
A click on this button invokes the Patient Workflow popup where the appointment status can be changed.
This revised status gets refreshed on the logged-in Provider/Nurse's Home page.
When the patient arrives at the clinic, the receptionist/front office will set the appointment status to Arrived. This will also start a new encounter for the patient. The process will fail and an error will be reported if:
- The Date of Birth and SSN is not entered for the Patient.
- There is already an Open encounter for the Patient, so a new one cannot be started.
- The Appointment is not for Run date.
Move Appointment:
This icon is displayed only 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 and click this icon.
The selected appointment becomes highlighted in green.
Double-click on the destination time slot to move the appointment.
The Appointment Schedule popup is invoked and the appointment can be scheduled in the new time slot
Note:
- The Move Appointment icon is NOT available for supporting appointments.
- The Provider and location of the appointment can be changed while moving 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 a 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. Schedule Option Band: The Schedule Option Band consists of four radio buttons which can be used to set the appointment schedule display mode:
- Daily: To view daily appointments for selected Provider, location and date.
- Weekly: To view weekly appointments for selected Provider, location and date. The dates displayed in this mode depends on the value configured in the admin-level property appointment.col_offset.
- View: Select this radio button to schedule/view the appointment(s) respective to the Providers in one flexible view. On selecting this radio button, the Appointment Schedule screen displays 7 active Providers at a time. Users can view Providers depending upon the location as well. Using 'Previous' and 'Next' arrow keys, users can navigate to previous/next Providers screen.
- By Location: Select this radio button to schedule/view the appointment(s) respective to the location(s) in one flexible view.
The availability of this radio button is dependent on the property appointment.bylocation.screen_mode.
On selecting this radio button, the Appointment Schedule screen displays 7 active locations at a time.
Use the Previous
and Next 
arrow keys to navigate to previous/next location.
Location dropdown: The Location dropdown is present for Daily and Weekly modes and displays a list of all active locations in the Location Master. All locations is displayed as the default option in the dropdown.
Block Time:
A click on this icon invokes the Block Time popup which allows users to block appointments slots for the Provider selected in the dropdown on the Appointment Schedule screen.
A Provider's schedule can be blocked in case of a meeting or conference or emergency.
If there are any scheduled appointments in the period selected from the Block Time popup, then a warning is displayed.
If the slot is blocked, then the status for existing patient appointments in that period is changed to To Be Rescheduled and patients are notified of the same via email.
Any non-patient appointments in that period are cancelled.
(The same rule applies to Providers selecting a vacation under Appointments → Vacations screen).
Work Pattern Exception:
A click on this icon invokes the Work Pattern Exception popup which is used to set work pattern exception conditions for the selected Provider/Resource on the selected location
directly from the Appointment Schedule 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 Appointment Schedule:
Click on this button to print the daily or weekly appointment schedule for the selected Provider.
This button is visible only in Daily and Weekly view options.
Refresh icon:
Click on this icon to refresh the Appointment Schedule screen.
In real life, multiple users could be updating the appointments slots for the same Provider for the same date.
When a user changes a date, Provider or view mode, all the latest schedules are displayed (even if booked by any other user).
Suppose a user schedules a valid appointment.
After the appointment is scheduled, the page auto-refreshes with all appointments.
However, if another user tries to schedule an appointment for the same date and time slot, the system may display a slot not available error,
while the user may not see it on their un-refreshed page.
In this case, they can click on this icon to explicitly refresh the page.
Timezone dropdown: This dropdown is displayed only when the property prognocis.telemed.timezone.enable is turned On and allowed telemedicine service states are defined for the selected Provider on the Provider Master screen. This dropdown list includes distinct values of timezones for the states that are selected from the Allowed States for Telemed popup on the Provider Master. Select the required timezone from the list and the appointments are displayed as per the selection on the Appointment Schedule screen. If the timezone is changed from this dropdown, the scheduled time for the appointments also changes. For example, if there is an appointment booked for a 10AM time slot as per PST timezone and a user changes the timezone to EST from the Timezone dropdown, the same appointment is then moved to the 1PM timeslot as per the EST time zone.
Note:
The Timezone list is available only for Telemedicine Providers.
Allowed telemed service states:
This icon is enabled only when the property prognocis.telemed.timezone.enable is turned On and allowed telemedicine service states are added on the
Provider Master for the selected Provider.
Click on this icon: to view the selected states on the Allowed States for Telemed popup.
This icon is available only for Daily and Weekly view options.
Note:
The Allowed telemed service states icon is enabled only for Telemedicine Providers.
Date Scroll: In Daily or All Doc view modes, the Date Scroll scrolls the current date forward or backward 1 day at a time. In Weekly Mode, the Date Scroll scrolls the current date forward or backward 7 days at a time.
Doc Scroll: When the All Docs view mode is selected, the Doc Scroll scrolls the next or previous 7 names of Providers working at the clinic.
Time: The clock times with intervals (as per the settings in property appointment.slots_per_hour) are displayed in this column. The time slots are displayed either in 12Hrs or 24Hrs format (Military time) as per settings in property appointment.militarytime. To change the interval, click on the Time heading, select the required time duration per slot from the options displayed on the Select Minutes per Slot popup and click on OK to save. The Appointment Schedule screen refreshes and the new slots are displayed.
Color Legend: Appointment slots can be displayed appointment slot-wise, location-wise as well as encounter type-wise. Clicking on the Legends
button invokes the Legends popup which displays all the colors used as per the property settings.
- Appointment Slots:
Following are the types of available appointment slots:
- Available - The slots in the Provider's working hours which are not scheduled.
- Booked - The slots for which an appointment is taken.
- Not Working - The slots where the Provider is not working. For example, if a clinic is open from 8:00AM to 20:00PM, and a Provider is working from 9:00AM to 18:00PM, then all hours outside of the working hours are Not Working.
- Holidays - Clinic Holidays, Clinic Weekly Off, Doctors Weekly Off, Holidays, Vacations.
- Blocked - The slots which the Provider has blocked from their working hours (for a seminar, meeting, operation, etc.)
- Location: The available slots for a Provider can be shown in different colors location-wise. This gives a quick visual information about the different locations where a Provider could be working on a day. The property appointment.location_wise_color, decides if the backgound color should be displayed location-wise. The location-specific color of appointment time slots is displayed only if the property appointment.enctype.slotcolor property is turned Off.
- Encounter Type: Scheduled patient appointment slots can be displayed in different colors encounter type-wise. This gives a quick visual differentiation between say patients coming for surgery and for consultation, or between new and follow-up patients. The property appointment.encounter_wise_color decides if the appointment slots should be displayed in the color defined on the Encounter Type Master.
Note:
Users can view multiple encounter types on the Appointment Schedule screen.
On the Appointments → Work Pattern screen, for a selected date, day and location, users can select multiple encounter types for a Provider for a selected location and day.
The property appointment.workpattern.overlap.allow when turned On allows overlap in the work pattern.
There are three ways to invoke the Appointment Schedule popup where details can be entered to get the most suitable schedule:
- Double click on a vacant appointment slot:
This invokes the Appointment Schedule popup with:
- Default Date as Current Date in Daily and All Docs view modes. 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 the Time column:
This invokes the Appointment Schedule popup with:
- Default 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 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 Add New Appointment
icon:
This invokes the Appointment Schedule popup 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 can also be created from the Start New Encounter option on the patient Encounter page.
- If an appointment is scheduled for a patient having patient-type as DISCHARGED, then a warning message Patient Status is 'Discharged' is displayed.
- If an appointment is scheduled for a patient having multiple appointments on the same day, then an alert message is displayed which shows the details of all the previously scheduled appointments of the patient for the same day.
- Double click on the cell in which the appointment is to be rescheduled. The Appointment Schedule popup is invoked which displays the appointment details.
- Select the alternate date/time/Provider/location and click on the SCHEDULE button to rescheule the appointment.
- Double Click on a booked appointment cell. The Appointment Schedule popup is invoked which displays the appointment details.
- Click on the Reurrence button to invoke the Recursive Appts for <Patient> popup.
- Define the recurrence pattern and range and click on the ok button.
Click on a booked appointment cell. The patient name and appointment details are then displayed in the Patient Information section in the bottom left corner of the Appointment Schedule screen. The name is hyperlinked and invokes the Patient Information popup when clicked. The name is not hyperlinked in case of non-patient appointments.
Patient Message:
It is likely that the Patient has called the front office to report their 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 possible by entering the details in the popup which gets invoked on clicking this button.
Status: Following are the possible patient appointment statuses defined in the system:
- To be rescheduled - Set automatically if a Provider blocks the time and an appointment was scheduled there.
- To be confirmed - For tentative booking if an appointment is taken more than X days in advance (X is defined in the property appointment.max_confirmation_days).
- Scheduled - If an Appointment is taken within X days in advance (X is defined in the property appointment.max_confirmation_days).
- Arrived - Explicitly set by reception/front office staff when the Patient arrives for their appointment.
- For CS
- With CS - When a clinical staff starts an Encounter by selecting a patient on their Home page.
- Ready for Doctor
- With Doctor When a Provider starts an encounter by selecting a patient on their Home page.
- Ready for Checkout
- Appointment Complete - When a Provider closes the encounter.
- Cancelled by Patient - Set by reception/front office staff when a patient calls in to cancel an appointment.
- No Show - If a patient fails to show up to the clinic for their appointment. If a user marks an appointment as No Show by mistake, then they can rescheduled this appointment and change its status to Scheduled.
Note:
When an appointment associated with the 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:
According to the values set in the property scheduler.status.flags, the letters V,C and P are displayed as prefixes to a patient's name on the Appointment Schedule screen.
These prefixes provide additional patient information such as V=Patient's Insurance Eligibility exists for Primary Insurance;
C=The Appointment status is Scheduled i.e. appointment is confirmed; and P=Patient Form has been filled.
If any of the values is missing in the property then on screen it is replaced with a - hyphen.