Moving the Patient to Departure
- Craig Obee
IMPORTANT: EXACT must be informed at which stage the patient is within the workflow by means of the patient status: Arrived - In the Chair - Departure.
All software procedures are based on these stages, so failure to "inform" EXACT of the stage will inhibit the possible tasks for the following stages.
For example, if the Provider does not register an arrived patient as moved to the chair (in the software), EXACT understands the patient to be sitting in the reception area, so the Provider is then unable to Charge the patient, and the Receptionist is unable to process the patient departure.
After treating the patient, Providers need to start the Departure process to trigger the final phase of the Appointment Workflow and enable the receptionist to complete the Departure Task List:
To move a patient to Departure
You can also move the patient to departure by right-clicking the patient appointment in the appointment book > Mark as Complete.
See Resetting and Editing Appointment Status.
Start the Departure process by either of these means:
Double-click an Appointment to open the Edit Appointment window in which to Specify Treatment Appointments for Departure.
- or -
Select a treatment or appointment and click the Charge or TC button. You will be prompted "Should the patient's appointment be marked as "Complete?". Select Yes. This will change the icon on the Appointment Book from a patient on a chair to a HAND.
- or -If the Appointment Book sidebar is enabled (under Configure > User Settings > Display sidebar), click the chair icon to complete the appointment. This will change the icon on the Appointment Book from a patient on a chair to a HAND.
Follow the prompts for processing the departure. These may include:
The Appointment Workflow window, in which to specify future appointments, or
The Set Recalls window, if there are no planned treatments.
When you complete the move to Departure, the Departure List appears in the Main screen. The Receptionist deals with the listed tasks to complete the workflow.
Specifying Planned Treatment Appointments for Departure
In this procedure Receptionists secure confirmed planned treatment bookings while the patient is being processed through departure.
An alternative is Specifying Planned Treatment Online Booking, where patients who cannot or will not commit to bookings are issued a web site address for self-booking online.
Configuration required
The options for specifying treatment appointments are set in a software configuration area.
Overview
With the patient in the chair, Providers set guidelines for the future planned treatment appointments that they want for the patient.
When the patient moves through to Reception to depart the practice, the Receptionist is prompted in the Departure List to schedule these planned treatment appointments, following the Provider's guidelines.
How Providers specify what they want for Patient planned treatment appointments
Appointment planning starts with the Provider control of the Planning area in the Chart tab:
Once the Provider moves the patient to Departure, the Provider will be prompted by means of the Appointment Workflow window to specify appointment details for the incomplete appointments:
Check if you want the Receptionist to Book this appointment.
Type an Expected Time that the appointment will take.
Either accept the default or specify a Booking Interval - a minimum period before the appointment.
Type any additional Notes as an explanation for the Receptionist.
How the Receptionist sees these specified details
These details will then display in the Departure List in the Main screen, and will be used by the Receptionist in scheduling the appointment.
Notice how the completed fields propagate through to the Departure List in this example:
Option for the Provider to print the Invoice
For charging, the Provider may be prompted to print the patient Invoice, whether to Surgery printer or Receptionist printer:
Note that it has a Preview facility for viewing online before printing.
Enabling Patient Online Booking of Planned
Ideally Receptionists secure bookings from patients when the patients depart Reception. However, this is not always possible, and an alternative is to empower the patients to later self-book online.
Receptionists may be prompted in the Departure Task List to issue patients with a web address for later patient self-booking of planned treatment appointments, if Providers meet certain requirements to make this work.
To meet Provider requirements for patient planned treatment online booking
The practice must have Appointment Workflow configured because a Planned Treatment Online Booking link can only be sent from its Departure Task List at the point of Patient checkout. There is no other way to send it.
A Patient requires an Appointment for Today’s Date.
The Patient requires a Treatment Plan on the Chart Tab, and a minimum of one appointment Planned, with time specified for the Service.
Only Patient planned appointments on the Chart Tab that are marked as To Be Booked will show in the Departure Task List, so Providers must know to tick this checkbox. They must also ensure that the planned treatment has an estimated time (duration). EXACT calculates the sum of the planned services per appointment, and this displays in the Edit Appointment screen Expected Time field:
When charting, the Provider needs to specify to Book this Appointment:
A) Double-click the Appointment to open the Edit Appointment window.
B) Check (tick) the Book this Appointment checkbox and complete all other details in the screen.
C) Check that the appointment has an Expected Time (duration), calculated automatically as the sum of the services' Estimated Times.
D) Click OK.
Specifying Recall Appointments for Departure
Configuration required
The options for specifying recall appointments are set in a software configuration area. See Configuring Recall Appointments.
Overview
If a Provider does not plan future treatments for a patient in the chair, the software can prompt for details of recall appointments instead. The Provider specifies details, which appear as a recall booking prompt on the Receptionist's Departure Task List. i.e. instead of booking planned treatments, the Receptionist books recall appointments.
How Providers specify what they want for patient recall appointments
With the patient in the chair, if the Provider does not plan future planned treatment appointments for the patient, when he/she moves the patient to Departure, the software can automatically display a Set Recalls screen, which the Provider is prompted to complete.
How the Receptionist sees these specified details
When the patient moves through to Reception to depart the practice, the Receptionist is prompted in the Departure List to schedule these recall appointments, following the Provider's guidelines.
Notice how the specified fields in this Set Recalls example propagate to the Departure List, for processing by the Receptionist:
How the Receptionist schedules these recall appointments
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