NHS Prototype Appointments

An appointment is required for a COT - it is advisable to create it before the COT. Any patient starting an NHS COT must have an appointment in the appointment book for the day of their visit. If a patient ‘walks in’ to the practice without an appointment it is advisable to create one in the system before creating the Course of Treatment. If there is no prior appointment, EXACT will prompt you to create it during the COT.

Linking a COT to an appointment (required)

All COTs must have a related appointment, so practitioners are only able to continue with a COT if it is linked. Each time that a practitioner completes any one of the NHS treatment items in Treatment Plans, EXACT checks whether the current appointment is linked to an appointment in the book.

If it is, EXACT uses the planned appointment.

If not, it pops up a screen for to either

Link to an existing appointment, or
Create and link an appointment. (if you already have an appointment booked, you won't see this button)

You will then see the appointment at the top of the Course Of Treatment area, with the current time and the current user:

Charting the Required Treatment

After completing the Full Risk Assessment you need to chart any treatment that is required, if you have not done so already.

Booking IC Appointments via Appointment Workflow

EXACT suggests an approximate appointment date in the patient chart.

Because Interim Care (IC) Appointments are not integrated into EXACT's record system and automated processes, best practice is to book them in advance in order to save time and effort later.

Procedures for Incomplete Appointments

When to TC and when to Mark As Incomplete

If items in an appointment cannot be finished during the appointment and you know that the patient will not be returning, TC at this point.

If items in an appointment cannot be finished during the appointment and you know that the patient is likely to return,

mark it as incomplete.

Scenario: Eight Dental Team Actions were planned for an appointment, but by the end of it only two of the eight are completed, leaving six incomplete.

To deal with an Incomplete Appointment

Right-click the Appointment header line.
From the right-click menu, select Mark Appointment Incomplete...
In the Treatment Plan Completion screen, click OK.
EXACT then moves the completed actions to history with an AutoNote showing that it is incomplete, sets the actions as un-editable, and creates a New appointment populated with the incomplete Actions:
NOTE: Although these assessment actions are now split across multiple appointments, EXACT is still able to correctly calculate the cumulative fields for the Summary Full Risk Assessment.
Continue the treatment or appointment as necessary.

To reverse Appointment marked as Incomplete

Right-click the Appointment header line.
From the right-click menu, select Undo Mark Appointment Incomplete
The appointment items then become editable and are shown in black text:
The items that were initially moved to a New appointment remain in the New appointment but you can optionally drag them back to the initial appointment.