Moving a Patient to the Chair

The Arrivals Door is a critical element in the Appointment Workflow, through which a practice tracks and controls the journey of each patient appointment through the practice.

It is particularly pertinent to the Clinician role in the Appointment Workflow.

When the receptionist marks the patient as arrived a stickman will appear at the door for the provider of that appointment. The appointment Clinician will need to be logged in to see the Door/Stickman.
Hober over to reveal the tooltip which shows patient details and how long they have been waiting.

Double-click on the Door symbol to open the Patient Preview window as shown in the example below:

This window displays the following information:

The patients who have arrived, and their arrival time.
The room they have been assigned to (if the practice has more than one room).
The service that is scheduled (if it has been selected).

If patients have yet to arrive, it instead shows the list of patients booked for the day.

The window also shows the wait time. This is calculated using the appointment time if it is later than the arrival time, otherwise the arrival time is used. If several patients arrive at the same time, the wait times are different unless the patients have the same appointment time.

When a patient is selected (by clicking on the patient name once) this window displays the following information:

The patient’s name and details
The time of their appointment
The time they arrived
The appointment length
How long they have been waiting
The purpose of the appointment
An appointment history for the patient
Notes about the patient and this appointment
NOTES:
The parameters that control the "stickman" and the timer for this are found in File, Providers, Select a provider and go to the Appointments tab. The settings can be different per provider.
This window can also display the patient's photo if the EXAMINE or EXAMINE-ID (an additional EXACT Video Integration system) software is installed. This allows patient photos to be captured using a digital camera/webcam.

Selecting the next Patient

Double-click the Arrivals Door icon:
Select the next patient, by highlighting them within the list:
Click the Move to Chair button to inform EXACT that you are accepting the selected patient in the chair.
The animated figures on the toolbar now display a stick person in a dental chair, to the left of the Arrivals Door:
In the Patient Preview window (above), the stick figure icon will also change to a stick person in a dental chair:
The stick person in the chair represents the patient in your chair; any stick people remaining at the door represent patients who are still waiting.
Click the View Patient button to return to the chart window and begin treatment.

Returning a Patient to the Waiting Room

Some scenarios for returning a patient to the waiting room:

A Clinician wishes to examine a patient while the current patient waits for an anaesthetic to take effect.
The Clinician asks the patient to wait in the waiting room while a dental technician prepares something for treatment.
The patient requests a break in a lengthy procedure.

When a patient is returned to the waiting room, their 'stickman' indicator will not animate again for this appointment. This is because animations are for patients who have arrived, and a patient who has been returned to the waiting room is no longer in the Arrived state.

To return a patient to the Waiting Room

With the patient’s record open, double-click the arrivals door icon:
This will open the Patient Preview window, with the patients listed:
Highlight the patient whom you wish to return to the waiting room, and click the Return to waiting room button.
Consequences to note:
In the appointment book the patient will also be displayed as a stick person rather than as a stick person in a dental chair .
The patient will be represented on the toolbar as a stick person waiting at the door, but without any animation. i.e. the symbol does not warn you of long wait time!
When a patient is returned to the waiting room, their 'stickman' indicator does not animate again for this appointment because animations are for patients who have arrived, and a patient who has been returned to the waiting room is no longer in the Arrived state.

Viewing the records of another Patient

You may wish to view the details of a patient who you are seeing the same day. To do this:

Double-click the Arrivals Door icon in the toolbar:
Select the option: Show All Appointments
Select the patient in the list then click the View Patient button.
This does not affect any other patients' records, nor change the icons for waiting patients or those undergoing treatment.