Scheduling |
The Scheduler is where most activity begins in the front office.
If there is a note entered in the appointment, it will appear. Otherwise rest your cursor above the appointment to display all notes and preferred information as determined by settings in the Program Preferences screen, Schedule Settings tab.
A red box indicates the time interval closest to the current time.
Scheduling an Appointment When a new patient calls for an appointment, double-click a time slot.
If this is a returning patient, select his or her name in the Patient field. If this is a new patient, skip the Patient field and enter the person's name, phone number, assign a provider; enter as much information as you have available.
Assign a resource.
The Color gives you information about the patient. For instance, if this is a new patient, choose the color that signifies a new patient. These colors are assigned meanings in the Program Preferences screen.
The Note section is particularly helpful for storing information for new patients. Right-click and select Insert Date to enter today's date. Then enter all the basic information you need from a new patient, such as whether he or she is the subscriber, benefits, Social Security Number, Group Number, insurance plan name, insurance contact phone number, date of birth, etc. This gives you enough information to call the insurance company and get the rest of the information necessary for processing claims for this patient.
If the patient is in pain or just needs or wants to book an earlier appointment (should one become available), click Place on ASAP List. The patient's name is added to the ASAP list. See ASAP List for information concerning this feature.
When a patient is getting a crown or a bridge and you are waiting for it to come back to the office to apply, use the Lab Case box to indicate when the lab case is delivered to the office. When you click this box, a new icon is added to the patient's next appointment in the Scheduler to show that the lab case has been received.
(OK, so the lab work doesn't match the procedure code shown. You get the idea.)
In the Service Codes for this Appointment section, enter the expected procedures to be performed during the appointment. Returning patients will probably have a treatment plan already established. Click Add from Treatment Plan to choose from the established plan or plans. See Treatment Plans. For common procedures, you can click Add from Multicode, which enters a set of related procedure codes. See Multicodes.
When a new patient comes in for the first appointment (and you can tell because there is a person icon next to the name), you can create the permanent patient file. Right-click the appointment and choose Create the patient file. You can also click the appointment once and the Create the Patient File option becomes available in the Option bar. This opens the Patient Information window. See Patient Information for particulars on using this window.
With the patient in front of you, you can get the rest of the information necessary for a complete patient record, such as address, employment, etc.
Be sure to click Save Changes to preserve the appointment particulars.
When the patient information is complete, right-click the appointment and change the status to Ready. The person in the back office sees that the patient is ready (because there is a green dot next to the name) and he or she comes out to call the patient back. Teamwork!
When the patient is finished and checking out, you can schedule a new appointment, print a Walk-Out receipt, and mark the appointment Complete.
After marking the appointment Complete and then saving your changes, the program immediately asks which transactions need to be posted. Click Post All or Mark individual transactions and click Post Selected.
Posting Appointment Transactions When you click Complete and Save Changes in the Appointment Entry screen, the program automatically opens the Post Appointment Transactions screen.
Choose the transactions to be posted and click Post Selected or click Post All to process all transactions. If you leave the Billing field blank, the program creates a new billing number for these transactions. You can add these transactions to an existing billing number by selecting it in this field. If a billing number has been selected and you want to create a new billing number, click the new billing icon
Changing Appointments Suppose a patient calls and says he can't make the scheduled appointment tomorrow, could you change it to Thursday? Changing an appointment date and time is very easy. Highlight the appointment and right-click the mouse. Choose Add to Clipboard. The appointment is added to the top left corner of the Scheduler. Change the Scheduler to the new date, click and drag the clipboard appointment to the new date and time.
But wait, it gets better. If a whole family calls in and needs all five appointments changed to a new date, you can do that very easily also. Add each appointment to the clipboard, then change the date and click and drag each to its new date/time.
Appointment Icons When looking at appointments in the Scheduler, an icon (or sometimes two) appears to the left of the patient's name. Except for the last two, these icons tell you immediately the status of the appointment.
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