For a practice to be organized and communicate well, staff should have a shared understanding of how appointments need to be created and managed. Below is a detailed breakdown of how to create and manage appointments for a fluid scheduling system.
In this article you'll learn about:
> View Video Below<
Appointments are created in the scheduler which can be accessed by clicking the calendar icon 
in the top right corner.
For more information on the Scheduler, please see the following articles:
To create an appointment, choose the correct date and time slot then click in the calendar to initiate the appointment.
You'll see an appointment window with the fields that need to be filled in.
Note: obligatory fields for appointment creation are:
- Patient
- Type
- Visit reason
- Duration
If any of these fields are not populated, you'll get an error message.
Billing Type
Select whether an insurance claim can be submitted for the appointment by choosing one of these options:
- Elective (default option): select for a cash-based treatment which insurance will not reimburse. Selection advises billers they can ignore these appointments.
- Insurance: select for an insurance-covered treatment which insurance MAY reimburse. Selection advises billers they should file claims for these appointments.
- Unsure: if it is not clear whether or not the treatment can be submitted for an insurance claim, this selection advises the biller to make the determination.
- Non-Billable: select for an appointment which does not incur an invoice. Examples include a follow up appointment, which is usually free, or multiple appointments scheduled for a single patient visit. In the second case, the first appointment would capture the billable claims and the second appointment would be non-billable as a continuation of the first appointment.
Location
Select the location where the appointment will take place. Locations are added in Practice Profile.
Provider
Select the provider who will meet with the patient for the appointment. Providers are added in User Accounts.
Room
Select the room where the appointment will take place if rooms have been configured for the location. Rooms are added in Schedule Settings.
Resources
Select the resource or equipment needed in the room for the patient appointment. Resources are added in Schedule Settings.
Appointment Type
Select the type of appointment being scheduled:
- Virtual Consult
- Virtual Followup
For more information on how to configure virtual appointments, please see the following article:
- Phone Consult
- Consultation
- Pre-treatment
- Procedure Treatment
- Follow up
- Blocked time: used to designate when staff are unavailable for appointments
Patient
When an appointment type is selected, the patient input field will appear. Search for patients by first or last name, phone number, date of birth, or email.
To create a new patient account, click the + icon.
Input the patient demographic information for the new patient account then click Save.
For more information on patient demographics, please see the following article:
To edit an existing patient's demographics, click the edit icon.
Credit Card on File
This feature requires integration with a merchant services partner to be activated.
If the patient has a credit card(s) on file, the card information will display and credit cards can be added.
For more information on credit cards on file, please see the following articles:
Referral Source
This field will show you how the patient found out about your practice. The field is disabled in the appointment window. You can add/edit referral sources in patient demographics.
Related article:
Visit Reason
Select the visit reason/treatment for the appointment. The list of visit reasons is determined by treatments activated in Treatment Setup for the chosen location.
For more information on Treatment Setup, please see the following article:
Duration
The appointment duration will auto-populate if configured in Treatment Setup and will be cumulative for multiple treatments in a single appointment. Appointments can be configured by 15 minute increments and be booked for a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 10 hours.
Status
Statuses of the appointment can be the following:
- Scheduled: default status when appointment is created
- Confirmed: patient or staff have confirmed patient will show for appointment
- Cancelled: patient or staff have cancelled patient for appointment
- Message left: staff have left a message trying to contact patient
- Waitlisted: staff have waitlisted a backup appointment for same time slot
- No show: patient did not arrive for appointment
- Time-block: provider is not available for appointments
- Reserved (not confirmed): a hold on time slot for a patient appointment
- Rescheduled: patient has scheduled for a preferred time slot
Reminder
Select a date when both the scheduler and the provider will be reminded of this appointment via dashboard notification. Be sure to leave information in the Notes of what action needs to be taken on that date for the appointment.
Notes
Document general information about this appointment for staff to see in the Notes field. All notes are visible to staff only when hovering over the appointment or opening the appointment. Be sure to document reasons why the appointment was Waitlisted or a Reminder was set.
In all appointments scheduled for treatment with notes (you can add notes in the Practice Account > Treatment Setup), the content of the note will display in the Notes field of the appointment.
After completing all appointment inputs, be sure to indicate whether or not to notify the patient of any updates by toggling Yes to "Send update email?" question.
If you want the patient to receive an email with the details about the appointment, select Yes.
After that click Save&Close or Save&Continue to create the appointment.
Save & Close button saves the information stated in the appointment window and closes the pop up to return to the scheduler.
Save & Continue button saves the updates to the appointment and retains the pop up in order to start the patient encounter note.
Note: If the radio button Send update email? is set to Yes and updates were made to either Start Time, Location or Appointment Status, an update email will be sent out every time you click either Save & Close or Save & Continue buttons.
A notification confirms that the appointment was successfully created.
Note: Provided that the "Send update email?" question is set to Yes, the update emails are sent out If you change the following:
- start time
- location
- status to rescheduled, canceled, waitlisted or no show.
The appointment will appear in the calendar.
Video
Content Timelines per Minute:
00:00 - 00:06 - Introduction
00:07 - 3:52 - Creating an appointment
3:53 - 3:55 - Wrapping up