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Appointment Workflow

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Purpose

Continuous oral health in a cycle of treatment

Appointment Workflow facilitates a continuous cycle of treatment, to the benefit of both the practice and the patients.

Planned Treatment example:

Current patients are a primary market

Current patients comprise a productive target market for reselling services because

  • the practice already has a relatively intimate relationship with them based on a degree of trust,

  • the sales cycle for reselling is exceptionally short, and

  • the effort to prospect for further business from existing patients is minimal.

Retaining patients by means of automated workflow

The Appointment Workflow facility enables a practice to

  • retain patients for further oral health work by ensuring that they always have future appointments booked,

  • automate the practice workflow for retaining patients,

  • define and integrate the required Provider (Dentist, Hygienist) and Receptionist tasks within the workflow,

  • track participant compliance in the workflow and produce compliance reports,

  • continuously improve workflow by viewing and acting on relevant compliance report statistics.

Arrival Tasks List

When Receptionists go to register a patient as "arrived" an Arrival Tasks List displays outstanding procedures and reminders for that patient:

 

Departure Tasks List

Receptionists use a Departure Task List on the Main screen:

This tasks list is configured by means of an Appointment Workflow Wizard that specifies required departure tasks that the Receptionist must carry out.

Prompting for custom options

Besides standard tasks, the Appointment facility can require the Receptionist to perform further custom tasks such as:

  • To wish the patient Happy Birthday for any birthdays within the following week.

  • To issue a brochure on practice special offers for the next 6 months.

  • To issue a list of services offered by the practice.

  • To discuss discounts offered for patient referrals.

  • To direct patients to the comprehensive practice website where they can view special offers and be further educated on the benefits of various dental services.

  • To sign-up the patient for a newsletter.

  • To request the patient complete an evaluation form on the practice's customer service.

Features

From v12.10 the Appointment Workflow includes a task (at both patient arrival and patient departure) for Receptionists to secure Marketing Consent from patients:

 

 

Triggers and constraints by role enforce a standard procedure

The Appointment Workflow depends on specific sequential actions from both Receptionists and Providers.

 

The Receptionist must accept the patient into the workflow so that EXACT knows that the patient is being processed, and can then make possible further Appointment Workflow functions.

The patient can only be moved to the chair by the Provider to whom that patient has been assigned in the appointment book. This ensures that the patient only comes to the chair when that Provider is ready.

The Provider must move the patient to the chair (in the software), so that EXACT understands the patient has left Reception and is with the Provider, and then makes possible the software functions such as Charging and Move to Departure.

The entire appointment workflow can be managed by one Practitioner

Prior to EXACT v12.2 the appointment workflow tasks were differentiated by roles of Receptionist and Provider, based on Login, and no single role could manage all appointment workflow functions.

A single Provider can conduct all tasks, which empowers single-practitioner practices:

 

The Provider advances patients through the workflow by reconfiguring the appointment double-click and by manually resetting patient status in the appointment workflow, as explained below...

Arrivals Task List

The Receptionist is presented with a comprehensive electronic list of tasks per arriving patient:

 

Departure Task List on the Main screen

A Departures task list integrates with appointment books, and lists the tasks for the Receptionist to complete during a patient's departure.

 

For example, here the Receptionist is viewing a task to issue a brochure:

 

Optionally hide the Departure Task List per User

Clinicians or other users who have no need to view the Departure Task List in their view of the Main (Appointment) book can opt to disable this sidebar based on their User Settings.

  

  Departure Task List Enabled              Departure Task List Disabled

(See Disabling the Departure Task List for a User)

Integration with Clinipad

Clinipad functionality integrates seamlessly into the appointment workflow, providing an electronic means of capturing data and signatures, by both practitioners and patients.

Manually reset the patient's status in the appointment workflow

It is possible to manually reset or change a patient's appointment workflow status to either

  • Booked (not yet in the workflow)

  • Arrived (has been processed through reception and is now awaiting clinical treatment)

  • In the Chair (being treated in the Clinic - only the assigned Provider can change the patient to this status)

  • Complete (has been treated and is now in reception being processed through departure)

  • Checked Out (completed the workflow)

See Resetting and Editing Appointment Status

Providers have three ways to "Move Patient to Chair"

  1. Configure the appointment double-click action in User Settings.

    Configure > User Settings: Double Click on Appointment.

     

  2. Right-click the appointment in the diary and select Move to Chair from the right-click menu.

  3. (Conventional) Double-click the Arrivals Door icon.

Easy to vary the aggressiveness of the patient resell and retention strategy

The Appointment Workflow is configurable across various parameters, so a practice can vary the aggressiveness of its patient resell and retention strategy.

Automated prompts

For each stage of the workflow, automated prompts ensure that personnel do not overlook Appointment Workflow tasks. For example,

  • During charting, when they create patient treatments, Providers are prompted to set appointment requirements.

  • During patient departure, Receptionists are prompted to actually schedule these appointment requirements.

Workflow auditing

All prompted tasks are audited against user names. For example, if a Dentist fails to set an appointment requirement when prompted to do so, it will be recorded as a workflow failure against that Dentist's name.

Workflow reporting

The Appointment Workflow Compliance Report provides valuable analysis of Appointment Workflow success, and identifies instances where there was a failure to complete the Appointment Workflow. The report can be scheduled, exported to .CSV format, and it can be set as a favourite for quick access.

Custom tasks

Custom tasks can be configured for the Departure tasklist. For example,

  • Issue patient with practice services brochure.

  • Check if patient is registered with the practice website.


Benefits

By collecting marketing consent the practice ensures that it complies with increasingly strict rules around patient data collection and management, as formulated in the following regulations:

UK, Ireland and Netherlands: the EU-driven General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679)

Australia: The Spam Act 2003

New Zealand: The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007

Appointment Workflow includes a task (at both patient arrival and patient departure) for Receptionists to secure Marketing Consent from patients:

 

 

Appointment Workflow requires no registration or payment

Appointment Workflow is included with EXACT software.

Increase income

Increase practice income by marketing further services to your patients while they are still on the practice premises. This is a highly effective means of reselling standard services, and selling value added peripheral services and products.

Furthermore, because the Appointment Workflow integrates marketing strategies directly in the practice workflow, practice personnel become generally more marketing-aware.

Automation saves time

Save time with an Appointment Workflow that automatically integrates the screen inputs of all participants (this is not possible by means of a paper-based workflow).

Quick information capture for busy Receptionists

The software enables quick information capture without the need to manually open patient records. For example:

  • Enter Email and Phone details in a popup screen.

  • Drag appointments directly into the Appointment Book.

Commit patients to long term oral health

Optimise patients' oral health by effectively committing them to ongoing treatment.

Systematic standard procedure for departure

The departure workflow defines a consistent, systematic professional standard procedure, against which all participants are measured in their degree of compliance.

Measurement enables continuous improvement

("You can only effectively improve that which you can properly measure".)

All workflow tasks are audited per participant, and by means of a compliance report, you can track participant compliance to the workflow This objective measure can be used for multiple purposes including performance improvement, reason or evidence for disciplinary action, identification of training needs, and identification of operational bottlenecks.

Flexibly optimise the departure process

Because the configuration wizard allows for custom options, you have the flexibility to creatively optimise the departure workflow.

Receptionist does not need to leave the Main screen

The Departure List displays as a pane in the Main screen, so there is no need for Receptionists to leave this screen in performing the required tasks.

Use as a training aid for new staff

The Departure Task List provides strong guidelines and establishes good habits in new staff.

Family Appointment tasks

In both the Arrival Task List and the Departure Task List, members for a family appointment are listed individually, with outstanding issues listed per individual. This provides an effective means of covering all bases for all members of a family passing through the practice.

 

Requirements

Software version

  • The Appointment Workflow was introduced in EXACT v10.16.

  • The Arrival Tasks List is available from version 11.3SP1.

  • The planned treatment online booking integration is available from v11.3 SP3.

  • The Resetting and Editing Appointment Status functionality is available from v12.2.

  • The Marketing Consent prompt for both Arrivals and Departure Tasks Lists is available from v12.10.

 

If the practice uses Locations, practitioners must understand the implications for the exit workflow

From v12.9 onwards, a practitioner who selects a Location when logging in to the practice will only see Departure Task List (exit workflow sidebar) patients for that Location. Patients from other Locations will not display on that practitioner's exit workflow.

So if a patient is configured for Location A but is incorrectly booked for Location B, that patient will not show in the exit workflow for logged-in Location B practitioners.

To process that patient, a practitioner will need to first log out of Location B and log into Location A. To avoid this inconvenience, focus efforts on correctly recording patient preferred locations, and on correctly booking patients to their preferred locations.

 

Users must understand the actions required by Receptionist and Provider

The Appointment Workflow depends on specific sequential actions from both Receptionists and Providers.

If the Receptionist fails to accept the patient into the workflow, EXACT does not know that the patient is being processed, so further Appointment Workflow functions are not possible.

A patient can only be moved to the chair by the Provider to whom that patient has been assigned in the appointment book (not by the Receptionist, nor by another Provider).

If the Provider fails to move the patient to the chair (in the software), EXACT understands the patient to still be waiting in Reception, and software functions such as Charging and Move to Departure are consequently not possible.

 

Configuration

  • Specify the default recall services by means of Configure > Recalls.

  • Appointment Workflow only uses the multi-column appointment book, which must be enabled in Configure > Practice settings > Appointment Books:

     

  • Within Appointment Books you also need to Enable Appointment Workflow (shown above), as this is disabled by default (by default there is therefore no Departure List).

  • The Appointment Workflow must be correctly configured by means of an Appointment Workflow Wizard before it becomes operational in the Provider workflow and will appear as a Departure task list on the Main screen.

  • The Departure Task List has a feature where the first available appropriate appointment (that meets the requirements specified by the Provider) is automatically listed for the departing patient. If this function proves to be software resource-intensive there is an option to replace it with a simpler Search link. 

  • EXACT will automatically prompt the Receptionist to Collect Mobile number if a patient has the SMS Mobile field un-checked in the Patient File. To reduce such prompts, practitioners who record patient details should always check (tick) this box. 

Requirements for planned treatment online appointment booking integration

To use the planned treatment online booking integration all requirements will need to have been met for online appointment booking (see Requirements of Online Appointment Bookings), and the practice will need to have been configured for planned treatment online booking (see Configuring Planned Treatment online booking)

 

IMPORTANT: What you can see and do in the software interface depends on your role within the work flow and your access rights in the system. So if you try to click a button to perform an action and nothing happens, it may be because 1) you have the wrong role for performing that action, or 2) you don't have rights to perform it. For example, a Dentist can see the patient retention Departure Task List on the Main screen, but cannot perform these tasks because as per the configuration, they are handled only by the Receptionist role

 

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