Use Contact Lists with Appointment Books

Contact list features are also available from the Multi Column appointment book on the ‘Activity Bar’ as shown below:

The patient information displayed within the contact list and the tool buttons on the right are the same as the options from the Marketing menu.

The advantage of using the contact lists feature from the Multi Column appointment book is that appointments can be quickly and easily booked for the patient.

Booking Contact List Appointments in the Multi Column Appointment Book

1. From the Multi Column appointment book, click on the ‘Contact Lists’ tab.

2. If not already displayed, select the required contact list using the drop-down combo box on the bottom left hand side of the tab.

3. Click on the required patient entry and drag the patient entry directly into the ‘View Day’ area of the Appointment book at a suitable time (see picture below):

4. When the entry is dragged to the day area to make an appointment, it will be automatically marked as ‘Completed’ and removed from the contact list.

NOTES: If an appointment is made for a patient on a Contact list, a message will pop up advising of this. By clicking ‘Yes’ to the message the Contract list will be automatically updated. The remaining patients under the ‘Contact List’ tab can also be easily contacted by clicking on the appropriate icon in the contact list toolbar (bottom right of the contact list tab) and following the steps above. If the patient has a recall service listed in their Recalls Tab, this will be used to book the appointment. If the patient does not have a recall service, the appointment will be booked using the default recall service set from the ‘Configure’ menu, ‘Recalls’ option. If this has not been previously set, a prompt will appear to do this when booking the first appointment from the contact list.

SMS Replies and the Contacts Tab

Patients contacted by SMS will have the appropriate cellphone icon(s) in the 'Contacts' tab of the contacts list they are part of. If you are using SMS Replies and a patient replies by SMS text, there will also be a date in the 'Reply Date' column, with the text in the 'Reply Text' column. If this text matches the keywords for a contact list, and your EXACT is configured to automatically update the appointment book for SMS appointment confirmations or cancellations, then no further action is required.

If the reply text does not match a keyword, you can manually process the reply via the "Match SMS Reply" window. You can choose to match the reply to a contact list, an appointment, or discard it.

1. Open the Single Column appointment book if it is not already open.

2. Close or minimise any other windows that are open.

3. If the contact list window is not already open, select the required contact list from the ‘Administration’ menu, ‘Contact Lists’ window.

4. From the ‘Window’ menu, select ‘Tile’. This will rearrange the screen to display both the Single Column appointment book and contact list at the same time as shown below:

5. Click on the required patient entry and drag the patient entry directly into the ‘View’ Day area of the Appointment book at a suitable time.

6. The appointment can then be treated the same as for the Multi Column appointment book.