Seamless Integration

In addition to integrating seamlessly with other areas of PracticeStudio, the Appointment Scheduler allows you to register new patients on an abbreviated Patient Registration form, send out reminders via mail, email, or text messaging, and manage appointments for multiple resources—or even for multiple appointment books.

Multiple Appointment Books

Manage multiple appointment books (if you want to keep Physical Therapy appointments separate from other appointments, for example).

Customizable Look and Functionality

• Create and maintain resources:
  • Create resources for people (providers, nurses, etc.) and/or for rooms (Surgery, Exam 1, etc.); each resource has its own column on the appointment book (and thus its own appointment slots).
  • Specify the number of concurrent bookings the resource will allow for each appointment slot and choose either Standard or Wave Scheduling.
• Create and maintain tasks:
  • Specify the length of time the task typically takes, which resource(s) can perform the task, the time of day during which the task can be scheduled, and whether the task will book more than one resource (either simultaneously or one after the other, with or without down time between them).
  • Choose from thousands of color combinations when determining how the task will appear.
  • Select the routing slip that will print when a patient is scheduled for the task and checks in for his/her appointment.
• Create Events as opposed to appointments for activities that recur (e.g. morning break, lunch, hospital rounds, etc.):
  • Specify scheduling restrictions; day, time, and frequency of the event; duration; and on which resource column(s) the event will appear.
  • Choose from thousands of color and pattern combinations when determining how the event will appear on the book.
• Create day notes that apply to an entire day and that appear at the top of the appointment book.
• Customize the display settings:
  • Display interval (e.g. 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, etc.),
  • Which resources will appear on the appointment book,
  • The number of resources that are visible at one time on the screen (if not all are visible at once, access to additional resources is available from tabs at the bottom of the screen), and
  • The days and times at which appointments can be scheduled.

Calendar Views

View a calendar for the entire month and navigate to a particular date simply by clicking on it; or open the extended calendar, which allows you to select dates up to 16 months in advance.

Scheduling Multiple Appointments Simultaneously

Schedule a single appointment or multiple appointments at the same time:

• Specify the amount of time between appointments, the time of day that is best for the patient, and the number of future appointments that need to be scheduled.
• View open appointment times (as well as how many appointments are already in each time slot, if concurrent booking is allowed), and select the time slot you want.

Moving Appointments

• Move a single appointment by dragging and dropping it onto a different time slot on the same day, for the same resource or a different resource.
• Move all of a resource's appointments on one day to the same resource on a different day or a different resource on the same day.
• Move an entire day's appointments to a different day.

Patient Registration Integration

• Check patients in without leaving the Appointment Scheduler: review basic information about the patient's balance, current appointment (if any), and insurance plans.
• Automatically begin tracking the patient's current location in the clinic as soon as he/she is checked in.
• See at a glance whether a patient is checked in, whether a patient has future appointments, and whether an appointment has notes.
• Register new patients (i.e. walk-ins) without leaving the Appointment Scheduler by filling out an abbreviated Patient Registration form.

Waiting List

Maintain a waiting list that provides instant access to the patients' names, incidents, birth dates, existing appointment details (if any), phone numbers, and appointment notes:

• View the name and code of the next patient on the waiting list at all times, or access the full waiting list with a single click.
• View the waiting list automatically any time you cancel or move an appointment and that time slot opens up.

Reminders

Generate appointment recall and reminder messages:

• Search for recalls by task, resource, Dx code, or the amount of time that has passed since the patient's last visit.
• Send customized recall and reminder messages via mail, email, and/or SMS text messaging.

Daily Summaries and Reports

View or print appointment summary information:

• No show, cancellation, and walk-in activity on any given day, and/or
• Previous appointments, future appointments, no shows, cancellations, and walk-ins for any patient.

Generate appointment reports and letters:

• Future appointments for a single patient,
• All cancelled appointments, no shows, or scheduled appointments that occurred within a specified date range,
• Appointment follow-up letters, and/or
• Letters informing patients that they missed an appointment, that you plan on contacting their insurance carriers because of multiple missed appointments, or that their claims might be at risk for denial because of one or more missed appointments.