Making Appointments

These instructions relate specifically to the Block Appointment Scheduling Add-On module. If you do not have this module, please see the Month-At-A-Glance topic instead.

If you haven't already done so, please be sure to read Appointment Calendar Overview, and Visit Category Overview before reading this topic.

Summary

An appointment is placed on the calendar by selecting an available time slot for a provider, selecting the employee, and entering a visit category. the program will block out the slots on the calendar that will be required for the visit. The time required is taken from the visit category, but can be changed for a specific visit.

What would you like to do?

See an Appointment Record

Schedule an appointment for a practitioner

1. Find and highlight the time slot for which you want to schedule the appointment, then:

2. Search for and select the appropriate employee, or add the employee to the database.

3. Type in the code for the desired visit category and press the TAB key OR click the table icon to the right of the Category field. Search for and select the appropriate visit category.

4. When you select the visit category, an INSTRUCTIONS tab will appear at the top of the window. Click on this tab and read the instructions for the appointment.

5. Take any action indicated by the instructions. This might include recording authorization information in the Notes field or asking about optional activities to be included on the visit. If optional activities are to be included, you can do one of two things.

• List in the Notes field the activities to be selected when the patient is checked in.

• Click the Encounter button and select the activities right now by double clicking those to be included.

6. Add to the Notes field any other information you have that will be needed when the patient is checked in.

7. Verify the amount of time required for the appointment. If needed, change the default number of minutes.

8. Click the NOTES tab to see notes about the patient entered on the Patient Demographics window.

9. If you have selected the wrong company for the visit, change it.

   1. Click the Company button to display a list of all companies this patient is associated with.

   2. Highlight the one you want and click Select,

      -OR-

   3. Click Private Practice.

10. Optionally, enter a Bill Physician or Referred By physician. These will carry to the visit record when the patient is checked in. To enter either field, click the table icon beside it, then search for and select the entry you want.

    If the selected Provider has a Billing Physician already setup (linked) with it, that physician will auto-fill in the field "Billing Physician". Users still have the ability to override the auto-filled entry by selecting another Billing Provider using the table icon to the right.

11. If patient insurance information is available at this time, click the INSURANCE tab and enter it.

12. Click OK. If you have double or triple booked, the program will ask you to confirm. Click Yes.

The details of the appointment are displayed in the window at the right side of the screen in the [Appointment Details] pane. If you entered a note, an asterisk will be displayed to the right of the visit category in the Appointment Details box on the right of the calendar.

Double book an appointment

The software has the capacity to record up to 5 appointments at the same time for the same provider or resource. Instructions for double booking are provided below. If you double book, only the initial appointment will be displayed in the Calendar grid, and it will be highlighted in red. However, all the other booked appointments are displayed on the right side on the [Appointment Scheduling] window in the Appointment Details.

To double book a block of time:

1. Right-click the in the block with the start time for the for the new appointment. (They do not have to start at the same time.)

2. On the pop-up menu, click New Appointment.

3. Enter the new appointment.

4. When you exit, you will be asked if you want to double-book. Click Yes.

5. On the calendar, the double-booked slots will be red. If you highlight one, both appointments will show in the [Appointment Details] pane on the right.

6. Since an appointment might completely cover the other, the display in the [Appointment Details] can be treated as if it were the appointment.

   • You can drag it to another time slot.

   • You can double-click to view or edit the appointment.

   • You right-click on it, then click Log a Visit on the sub-menu that pops up, to check the patient in.

Move an appointment on the same day

An appointment can be dragged and dropped in a different slot on the calendar. If moving to a different provider, first make sure the provider or resource to whom you want to move the appointment, is one of the four currently displayed on the calendar.

An alternative way to move is to drag the appointment from the [Appointment Details] pane on the right. This is especially useful for double booked blocks where the appointment you want to move might be hidden by another appointment.

1. Highlight the appointment to be moved, either under the provider or in the [Appointment Details] pane.

2. Drag and drop the appointment to the new time slot or new provider. Note: When dragging, the tip of the arrow determines which time slot will be used for the moved appointment.

3. When you release, the [Enter Appointment] window will pop-up to show the new information.

Re-book the appointment to a different day (supervisor or patient calls to re-book)

1. If needed, document the original schedule as a Cancellation or No Show. If the original schedule is NOT a Cancellation or No Show, it is easier to delete the schedule record and start over to book a new appointment.

2. Follow instructions to schedule a New Appointment.

Copying and pasting appointments

When scheduling follow-up appointments, the patient may require more than one appointment to be scheduled. To make it easier to schedule one or a series of follow-up appointments, the software lets you "copy and paste" an appointment into an unlimited number of future time slots. To do that, make the initial appointment in the normal manner. Then, right click the mouse on that appointment to copy the contents of that appointment (the patient, company, visit category and time required), then navigate to the next date and time slot and right click to drop the appointment into the new time slot. The same copied appointment can be copied to as many dates as desired.

To copy or cut and paste appointments:

1. On the calendar, right click the appointment you wish to copy or cut.

2. Click Cut Appointment or Copy Appointment.

   • Note: When you cut an appointment, it will not be immediately removed! Only when you paste it into its new location will it be removed from the old location. This is to make sure that a ringing phone does not cause you to lose an appointment by failing to paste after cutting it. Be clear the to completely remove an appointment, you should continue using Delete Schedule as you have in the past.

3. Move to the correct date for the appointment and right click the proper time slot under the desired provider.

4. Click Paste Appointment. the program will display the appointment record.

5. Click Save.

Email appointment Notification:

If the Clinic System Parameter for appointment Email notification is checked, users will have the capability to send an Email verifying a new, changed, or canceled appointment. See Set Up Clinic System Parameters.

The Send Notification Email to Patient button may be selected at any time. An email will be automatically sent by the system to the patient's email address on file within the clinic database (in Net Health Employee Health and Occupational Medicine). The subject of the Email will be: "Appointment Notification". If an appointment is created, changed, or canceled, and the user selects "Save", the system will prompt you asking if you want an Email Notification sent.

Once the Email is sent, the Enter Appointment window, General tab will display a message in red denoting the date and time the Email was sent and the USERID of the sender.

If the Email notification fails in any way, a error message will display:

Schedule a recurring appointment or exception

Document a cancellation or no show

Common Mistakes

The most common mistake made on the appointment calendar is changing the date on an appointment when there is a cancellation instead of marking the existing appointment as "Canceled" and re-booking the new appointment. In Occupational Health, it is especially important to have a record of cancellations. It is not uncommon for employers to complain about the amount of time it takes to get an injured employee back to work. If the patient has been canceling appointments, and thereby stretching the treatment period, you need to be able to document the cancellations for the employer to make clear the source of the delay.

See Also