Double clicking on an appointment in the Appointments module brings up the following appointment editing window:
Procedures
The large procedure list showing in
the middle of the window shows the patient's treatment plan along with completed
procedures having the same date as the appointment. From this list, procedures
are selected to attach to this appointment. Procedures are simply selected by
clicking on items in the list to either add or remove them from the appointment.
If a needed procedure is not on the list, there are a couple of options. The
'Quick Add' list is very useful when the procedure does not require a tooth
number. Clicking on 'Quick Add' adds the procedure to the treatment plan and
selects it. The quick add list is set up in Definitions. The
other way to add a procedure would be to go to the patient Chart and add it to the
treatment plan from there.
Time Bar
The slider at the left is for the
time, with the total time also showing at the bottom (120 min). The time needed
for the appointment is figured automatically based on the procedures selected,
but can be changed using the slider if needed. If the time was changed manually,
you can have Pract-Eze Dental recalculate the automatic time by clicking on the 'Calc
Time' button. By entering a value in 'adj time', the automatic time calculation
will be adjusted. The time pattern is also shown in the slider. The slash is
assistant time, and the X is provider time. Clicking on a slash or an X toggles
it to the other.
Time Calculations
How automatic time is
calculated: Every procedure has a time pattern as part of its definition. See Procedure Codes
for more information on setting up initial time patterns. If there is only one
procedure selected for an appointment, the time pattern for that appointment is
simply the time pattern for that procedure. For each additional procedure, the
time patterns are combined following these rules: each additional procedure is
shortened by 20 minutes before being added; the first and last time units are
removed. For this reason, all procedures should have a time pattern of at least
20 minutes with the first and last unit being a slash. For example, if you had 3
procedures, an MOD amalgam (/XXX/), an extraction (/X/), and a crown prep (/XXXX////), the resulting time pattern
would be /XXXXXXXX////, with the
first first three X's being the amalgam, the fourth X the extraction, the last
four X's and three slashes the crown prep, and the slash on each end standard.
If there is a combination of X's and slashes, all the X's are grouped at the
beginning of the pattern. If the appointment time needs to be adjusted, the
amount of time can be entered in the "Adj Time" box. For instance, if doing two
simultaneous crown preps, it would make sense to enter "-40" to shorten the
appointment by 40 minutes. For an appointment that is anticipated to be
difficult, "30" could be entered to lengthen the appointment by 30 minutes. When
time is added or subtracted in this manner, the X's and slashes are kept in the
same proportions as the original appoinment. If you wish to set the appointment
length manually, this can be done by simply dragging the time slider. In this
case, you may wish to also put the time into the note section of the appointment
so that if someone else accidently changes or resets the time, you will be able
to see what it was originally.
Status List, Unscheduled Status , and
Confirmed
In the status list, the status will be 'scheduled' if the
appointment has been scheduled in the Appointments module. It will be 'complete'
once it has been marked complete. The process of setting an
appointment complete is covered in another section. If you are accessing
this window from the Unscheduled list,
then the appointment will be status 'unsched list' and will not be present in
the appointment book. See that section for more information. The 'ASAP' status
means that an appointment is scheduled and is in the Appointments module, but
that the patient is available sooner and would like to come in if an opening
becomes available. The ASAP functionality will be extended in a future
version.
The Unscheduled Status is used from three different areas: the Unscheduled List, Recall List, and Planned Appointment Tracker. By changing the unscheduled status, you can easily see why the appointment has not been scheduled and whether to call the patient or not. The items in this list are set up in Definitions.
The Confirmed list is the list that you defined in Definitions. Each item has a corresponding color that will show in the time bar on the left of each appointment. The confirmation can be changed here, but is usually changed directly from the Appointments module screen because it is faster. Either way, you will have the patient's phone number and telephone notes available for easy reference.
If this is a new patient who has never had an appointment before, then check the New Patient box at the upper right.
Clinic, Dentist, and Hygienist
At the upper
right, you can assign a Clinic (if using
clinics), Dentist (Provider), and
Hygienist (Provider). If the appointment is being scheduled in an Operatory with an
assigned clinic, dentist, or hygienist, then those values are assigned to be the
same as the operatory. Every appointment must have a Dentist. There can also be
a Hygienist. When an appointment is marked complete, the procedures on the
appointment automatically get assigned to the dentist or hygienist. For
instance, if an appointment is made for an exam, xrays, and a prophy, the exam
can be assigned to the dentist, while the prophy and xrays get automatically set
to the hygiene provider. To setup which procedures will automatically be
assigned to the hygienist, go to the Procedure Code
edit window. Each code has an option for "hygiene procedure". If the appointment
does not have a hygienist selected, all procedures get assigned to the
dentist.
Lab Cases
There is a section for entering the
status of a lab case to the right. If there is no lab case, you can leave the
status as none. If there is a lab case, it will either be sent or received. In
either case, the status will show in the Appointments module in the second line
of the appointment, right after the patient name. It will say either "LAB SENT"
or "LAB RECEIVED". As lab cases come in, the status can be changed from sent to
received, so that anyone can easily tell by looking at the Appoinment screen
whether there are any lab cases that are needed for a certain day and whether
they are in. Guidelines on how to schedule procedures involving mulitple
appointments are in the Lab Cases section.
Dental Schools
The Dental Schools
options will only be available if you have enabled the dental school features in
Easy Options. Each
appointment belongs to one course, and is graded individually. The grades for
all appointments are averaged at the end of the course. Students (Providers),
are blocked from being able to edit these fields.
Comm Log
The Comm Log is used to
track all phone calls related to appointment scheduling. The same list can be
seen from any appointment for that patient, including the Planned appointment,
and the Recall List.
You would not normally make an entry in this list for something as trivial as
confirming an appointment. But for most other situations, it makes sense to make
an entry here. That way, you can easily see a history of appointments that were
rescheduled, cancelled, etc. This also helps so that you don't accidently call
the patient too often to try to get them in for their appointment. If you call a
patient repeatedly who has already indicated that they wish to wait for some
reason, then you would risk losing that patient. And similarly, if a patient
says that nobody called them for their recall, you will be able to tell
immediately whether that is true by reviewing the phonecall history.
Task List
A Task List can serve
many functions. You can use a task list to keep track of appointments that need
followup or appointments of a certain type. To put an appointment on a task
list, you must first create a task list for that purpose. Set the Object Type of
the task list to Appointment. You can do this for multiple task lists. Then,
when you are in the appointment edit window above, you can click the "To Task
List" button to attach this appointment to the task list of your choice. One
other option to keep in mind is that you can use a Patient task list instead of
an Appointment task list. This might be an easier way to keep track of some
types of appointments because the "To Task List" button for patients is
available directly on their Account screen, so it
can be more efficient.
Audit Trail
Every time an appointment gets
scheduled, moved, deleted, or edited, an entry is automatically made in the Security audit trail
with the exact date, time, and user who made the change. The audit trail also
stores all changes to the patient account and many other sensitive functions.
Usually, the audit trail is only available to an administrator. But for
appointments, everyone has access to the audit trail. Clicking the audit trail
button at the bottom will give you a list of all appointment entries for the
current patient. The list will not be limited to the current appointment, but
will include all appointments for the patient.