There are several Scheduler-specific lookup lists:
- Appointment Status
- Appointment Status Colors
- Appointment Types
- Appointment Resources
- Encounter Form Styles
Appointment Status and Colors
Some examples of appointment statuses are:
- Active
- Appointment Kept
- Confirmed
- Did Not Show
By default, when you create a new appointment, the status will default to Active. Several of the status designations are required by the system and cannot be deleted. Others can be deleted, but not if there are any appointments in the system that use that status. If you would like to add your own custom status entries to this list, you may.
Each Appointment Status is assigned a color, which you can select or change. When you assign a status to an appointment, the status color will appear on the left edge of the appointment in the appointment grid. If you want to use a color that is not already present in the color pick-list, you can add new colors to that list from Appointment Status Colors on the Scheduler Lookups menu.
Appointment Types
When you enter each appointment, you must designate its type. The appointment’s type determines whether or not the appointment:
- Will appear on the Appointment Check-In List, which is a report you can print to check-off patients as they appear for their appointments.
- Can be imported as a service on the currently open daysheet to save the time and bother of having to create service entries manually.
- Will appear on each provider’s Encounter Form report.
In addition, you can specify the duration of each type of appointment so that as soon as you select the Appointment Type while entering a new appointment, the appointment’s duration will automatically be set as well.
Appointment Resources
Appointment Resources are allow you to allocate resources such as rooms, test kits, specific media, or anything else related to providing scheduled services that may be in limited supply. If, for example, there are a limited number of play therapy rooms, you should create an Appointment Resource for each one and be sure to link one of the playrooms to any appointment that requires its use. By doing so, you will prevent accidental double scheduling of that resource.
Appointment Groups
Appointments can be scheduled for a group of patients, such as a therapy group or a family group, rather than creating separate appointments for each patient in the group.
Encounter Form Styles
Encounter Forms are paper records of services provided to patients. In organizations that use these forms, they are an efficient way for providers to communicate billing information back to the billing staff. When the patient visit is complete, the provider simply checks off the service(s) rendered, fills in the appropriate boxes if she received any payments directly, and submits it to the billing staff for entry in the daysheet. The encounter form also contains the provider’s insurance identifiers, the patient’s insurance and diagnostic information to make it possible for a patient to file their own insurance using a copy of the form.
To specify which services you would like to appear in the service list on the form, use the Nav Bar to go to Scheduler Lookups > Encounter Form Styles. You can create as many Encounter Form Styles as you like, with each style specifying its own list of services. See Creating Encounter Form Styles for detailed instructions.
