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Appointment Search Old (archived)OldOlO

Owned by sarah.whiteacre (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Mar 22, 2021 by Craig Obee
12 min read

 

Multi-location Appointment Search

Available from EXACT v12.10, and upgraded in v12.11. See: Multi-location Appointment Search

This applies to practices that have multiple Locations configured under the same practice, and who therefore need to make bookings across these locations.

With multiple Locations configured patients can book with their preferred Provider regardless which location that Provider is located.

Receptionists can also offer a wider range of appointment options for multiple Providers across multiple Locations.

The Provider dropdown/s instead of showing the preferred Providers now lists all Providers:

Where there are no Rooms, the Location (LOC) is indicated against each Provider:

 

Where Rooms are enabled, the location (LOC) shows alongside the room name instead:

 

Even with the Provider-Location specified, you can still override the Location:

Booking Summary: A summary of the booking information displays alongside the Booking button:

 

Select times to include or to exclude

By default the search is set to include (Times Between).

You can also opt to search on exclusion (Times Outside of).
For example, search for times outside of school hours.

Appointment Search Window - one click to instantly toggle the patient's Day Preference:

By default the search is for the patient preferred days, as specified in the Patient File Recalls Tab, but with a single click you can instantly toggle results between different days of the week, with no time delay for processing/recalculation.

Appointment Search from the Clipboard

To search for a an appointment slot from the Clipboard

  • Click the Search icon:

    or

  • Right-click the clipboard > Search.

When the Search dialogue opens, follow normal Search procedures as covered in Using the Appointment Search Window.

Appointment Search from the Hold List

See Searching from the Hold List

Search for co-ordinated appointments

If you search for two or more appointments simultaneously, EXACT co-ordinates their times, which is useful for family appointments. See Co-ordinating multiple patient appointments

 If you have Clinics enabled, there are Clinics and Spaces options

 

 

The suggested time in the Appointment Workflow (Departure Task List) utilises this same Appointment Search Window

Click Appointment Search icon to open the Appointment Search Window.

Two Provider Types can be rostered per room

 

 

Overlapping Blocks and Clinics are now more clearly represented in the display

 

 

Right-click Menu has more functionality

 

The right-click menu caters to multiple Providers per room, so that you can specify which Provider you wish to delete or edit.

The right-click menu also caters to adding Clinics and Blocks.

 

 

EXACT correctly associates Providers when you drag appointments

 

Benefits

  • Appointment Search works intuitively with the way that Receptionists conversationally book appointments with patients.

  • It starts sensibly with identifying the most convenient session (morning, afternoon, evening or night) on a particular day.

  • The search is fast and intuitive - in a best-case scenario a Receptionist can book the best appointment gap for the patient in just 3 clicks: select Session > select Time > Book the appointment.

  • The Appointment Search is particularly beneficial for practices with complex appointment books, especially those with clinics, blocks and rooms used by more than one provider type (e.g. Dentist and Hygienist).

  • In practices with multiple Locations, practitioners can optionally search across the Locations for any appointment that suits a patient.

    • This includes searching by Provider or by Room:

       

      • Practitioners can also search for a single Provider across multiple Locations.

        This applies where Providers may for example work some days of the week in one location and on other days work in a second location.

        It can also apply where Providers work in clinics across multiple floors of a building, where each floor is configured as a Location.

      • The returned results clearly differentiate optimum appointment gaps (adjacent to other items in the book, so there is no chance the that the appointment will be located in the middle of a large gap) and standard gaps (that may have gaps on either side). Appointment Search users can try to book patients for the optimum gaps, but then fall back on standard gaps if necessary:

      • The algorithm processes searches faster than previous versions, and automatically takes into account patient preferences.

      • Providers can be rostered in a single Room so long as they are of different types (Dentist plus Hygienist).

Initiating Appointment Searches

Searching from the Appointment Workflow

(Requires that Appointment Workflow is configured and functional)

To open an Appointment Search window from the Departure Task List

From the Appointment Workflow Departure Task List, click the Search icon

to open the Appointment Search window, pre-populated with first available times, from where you can modify the parameters and book the appointment.

To open the first available appointment slot in the Appointment Book

  1. Click the "First available" hyperlink to display the first appropriate free slot in the Appointment Book.

  2. Drag the hyperlink into that slot in the book.

Searching from the Clipboard

From EXACT version 12.2 it is possible to use the newer appointment search dialogue from the Clipboard and Hold List, both of which also have a right-click context menu.

To search for an appointment slot from the Clipboard

  1. Click the Clipboard icon / name repeatedly until you see listed the appointment for which you want to search:

  2. Then either

    • Click the Search icon:

      • OR Right-click the clipboard > Search.

  3. When the Search dialogue opens, follow Search procedures as described in Using the Appointment Search Window.

  4. To search for ALL clipboard appointment slots

    Right-click the clipboard and select Search All from the context menu.

    The Appointment Time Search window displays result options for all clipboard appointments:

     

Searching from the Hold List

Overview

The Hold List is a temporary storage area for appointments.

Moving appointments to the Hold List

Drag appointments from the appointment book to the Hold List at bottom right of the screen, or drag them to the clipboard, which causes them to also display in the Hold List.

Functionality

From the Hold List you can Edit a selected appointment, Add an appointment, Delete appointments from the list, Search All appointments, or Search for appointment slot options for a single appointment.

Search All is a simultaneous search to locate slots in the Appointment Book. Use it for co-ordinating multiple patient appointments for multiple people, which enables the booking of family appointments.

If two or more appointments are placed on the Hold List or Clipboard and you select Search All, then the original multi-appointment search function will be used. In all other cases the modern single appointment search applies.

See Co-ordinating multiple patient appointments

NOTES:

Appointments placed in the Hold List are not saved when you close the appointment book. If you try to close the appointment book and there are appointments in the Hold List, a warning will appear. You then have the opportunity to place these appointments in new slots or to click Yes and permanently delete them.

If an appointment listed in Hold List becomes deleted, invalid or completed, when you attempt to drag it to the appointment book you will see a message 'The corresponding planned treatment on the patient's chart tab has either been completed or no longer exists. Do you still wish to book this appointment?' Click YES to still book the appointment and link it to the Chart tab. Click NO to not book the appointment.

SEE ALSO: Using the Clipboard

 

 

Appointment details.

Patient name | planned treatment service codes | appointment duration | Appointment Category colour swatch (if a category is set for the appointment) - hover the mouse over the box to see what the category is | Appointment Payor displayed as a colour swatch (hover your mouse cursor over the colour swatch for a tooltip description)

If no category is set for the appointment then only the colour swatch showing payor will be present.

Start Date.

The earliest date from which to find appointments.

If you are searching from the hold list or clipboard, the Start Date will default to today.

If you are searching from the Appointment Workflow departure task list, the start date will be the earliest bookable date for either the recall or the appointment in the treatment plan.

You can change the date by either typing a new date into the box, or clicking on the calendar and selecting a new one. You will not be able to select or enter a date that is earlier than the earliest bookable date.

Change this the date as required, but note these conventions:

  • This date can only be after today.

  •  

  • Appointments default to the earliest date that the clinician specified (e.g. 7 days time)

Selected date and session, displaying times over 6 hours and the booking button.

The first available session opens immediately to speed booking. It shows available times over six hours for a particular date.

There are four possible six hour-sessions:

Morning (6am to 12pm) Afternoon (12pm-6pm) Evening (6pm- Midnight) Night (Midnight to 6am)

Sessions only show if 1) they have available time and 2) they meet the search criteria.

If you click any other session,

  • this current recommendation closes and your selected session opens

  • in the background the appointment book shows the selected date and time, so that you can get a more detailed look at the session if necessary.

The display for an open session shows the times over six hours:

Click one of the available times to be ready for booking. In the background the appointment book will centre on this time.



Booking details for the current selections:

For the selected time, these are the options for rooms, providers and clinics.

Normally it is not necessary to use the dropdown menu because the optimum option is already selected by default.

Click the dropdown menu if you need to select an alternative to the default.
As with the grid times, where there is a choice the optimal bookings will be shown in bold, and non-optimal booking (where a gap will be left in the book) are shown in light blue.

If you click a different time the options in this Book Appointment row changes appropriately.

If the appointment is already selected to be in a particular room, this will be defaulted; if not it will be set to Any Room.

Optionally use this Location dropdown to select a Location:

Your selection may be different to the Location specified at top left of the screen. If you select a Location that EXACT calculates is inconsistent (for example, the selected Provider won't be at that Location), you will see a Warning message with a prompt to continue:

 

Select the Book button when you and the patient agree that all selected appointment options are suitable:

You will immediately see the following:

  • the search window will close,

  • provided the correct providers are currently shown in the appointment book, you will see the appointment that you booked in the diary at the chosen time.

Available sessions for the displayed dates. Click a session to

  • View available start times in the Appointment Search window.

  • View that session in the appointment book (in the background).

Click Previous Page or Next Page to display other dates/sessions than are currently on display.



EXACT has the means to co-ordinate multiple patient appointments, which is particularly useful for family appointments.

To co-ordinate multiple patient appointments from the Hold List or from the Clipboard

This is typically for family appointments.

  1. Drag or Add patient appointments to the Clipboard or Hold List:

     

     

     



  2. Either

    Right-click > Search All in the clipboard:

     

    - or -

    In the Hold List right-click > Search All or select the Search All button

     

    ... to display the Appointment Time Search window:

     

  3. If the patients cannot attend an appointment until after a certain date, enter this in the Search From field.

  4. In the Search For field, enter the number of days within which to search (counted from the Search From date).

  5. In the From and Until time fields, enter the time range the patient prefers or is available for.

  6. Check (tick) the weekdays that the patients prefers to attend. The default is the overlap between the patient Day Preferences configured in each Patient File.

  7. If the patients prefer a particular Provider, highlight the Provider's name.

  8. If there are particular clinics that are appropriate for the treatment, check (tick) the button, otherwise accept the default of Search all times.

  9. Click the

    Search button.

    EXACT will search for and display appropriate times.

     

  10. Ask the patients which of the displayed times suits them, then click to highlight it. Notice that there are incompatible times if the second patient's availability is blocked out by the first patient's selection.

    Requirement: You need to select compatible times for all patients before clicking the Book button.

  11. Click the

    button to create the patient appointments.

    The appointment is created in the appointment book, and the entry is removed from the Hold List and the Clipboard.

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