Overview
This guide has been created to give you the details on how Appointments are set up in PatientNow. Covered in this guide include the Appointment Codes (which are how appointments are classified for reporting), Appointments, Reminder Templates, Confirmation Reasons, Cancellation Reasons, and Appointment Resources.
We have also prepared an Appointment Cheat Sheet that can be downloaded, printed and placed at the front desk for reference. Click on the button below to download the Cheat Sheet.
Appointment Codes & Colors
Adding An Appointment To The Schedule
Note - If your location has set up Treatment Pathways, you may need to schedule from the Treatment Pathways tab.
To schedule a patient appointment, navigate to Workflow | Scheduling | Scheduling – Daily tab.
Navigate to the correct day and time using the navigation tools at the top of the tab.
Warning: patientNOW uses the patient in focus to schedule. To make sure that you don’t schedule the wrong patient, ALWAYS select Clear Patient before scheduling.
Double-click on the correct resource day/time for the appointment.
Select the correct patient.
When the Add Appointment window appears, complete the information.
Appt Type: When selected, this will set default values for Duration, Reason, and Comments.
Coordinator: Only used when Treatment Pathways are set up and there are multiple coordinators in the office.
Date and Time: These are set automatically to the date and time on which you double-clicked to start the appointment.
Facility: Please ALWAYS check that this is correct.
Provider: This is set automatically to the resource on which you double-clicked to start the appointment
Reason: Filled in by the appointment type (Sculptra in this example); add detail as appropriate.
Comments: Put important notes specific to that patient in this area.
Procedures of Interest: If the patient has areas of interest that are different from their current appointment, select them here.
Appointment Resources: If more than one provider will be involved, or if a specific room or equipment is required, make sure they are selected on the Appointment Resources tab.
Consultation Appointments
To find the appointment type you want, click on the "Filter" or the "Search" in the chart below. For ease of use, you may want to conduct your search by Appointment Name or ApptCodes.
Appointments
To find the appointment type you want, click on the "Filter" or the "Search" in the chart below. For ease of use, you may want to conduct your search by Appointment Name or ApptCodes.
Appointment Reminders
Note: You must have the System Email Settings configured before reminders will be sent.
Warning: Text and Email Appointment Reminders will only send if the patient has consented to receive them. Check the Patients | Registration/Billing, Consent Information tab to see if a patient has consented.
Navigate to Administration | Data Tables, Appt Types tab
Reminders Configured by Appointment Type
patientNOW’s Appointment Reminders are specific to the Appointment Type selected in each Patient Appointment. Navigate to Administration | Data Tables, Appt Types tab – Appointment Reminders subtab to configure.
Edit The First Reminder
Highlight the First Reminder under the Reminder title.
Note: If you are happy with the settings for the First Reminder and would like to use it on all of your Appointment Types, you may select the Set to All Appt Types. The First Reminder information on this Appointment Type will REPLACE any First Reminder information on ALL other Appointment Types. The system will prompt you that the replacement will occur. Please read any system message completely before selecting OK.
Enable Text and/or Email: If you wish to have at least one Appointment Reminder sent to the patient, select the Enable check box. Then, check the Text or Email box to tell the system to send one or both. Note: You may send both a Text and an Email, but you are not required to send both.
Time Prior to Send
Note: If the appointment date is under the Time Prior to Send when the appointment is created, the reminder will send immediately. For instance, if the Appointment Date is November 1, today is October 30, and the reminder is set to send 1 week prior, it will send as soon as the appointment is created.
- Appt Creation: This allows you to send an email immediately when the appointment is scheduled (after a 5-minute delay). This was added in version 7.0.193 in the first quarter of 2020.
- Appt Date: Normally only used for third reminder to send a text to the patient the day of the appointment.
- Days: You may select the number of days prior to the appointment to send the reminder (e.g. 1 Day prior is the day before the appointment). If you select 0 days, you may select the number of hours before the appointment to send the reminder. So if the patient has an appointment at 11:00 AM and you have the reminder set to go 0 days and 4 hours prior to the appointment, the reminder will send at 7:00 that morning (unless the Appt Sending Time on the Appt Reminder Settings tab is set later than 7:00 AM).
- Weeks: You may select the number of weeks prior to the appointment to send the reminder (e.g. 2 weeks prior to the appointment is 14 days prior).
Text Reminder: This section allows you to draft a reminder text to be sent to the patient, including a Confirmation Code. Some things to remember:
- The text message may be truncated by some carriers, split by others, and delivered in it’s entirety by others. Keep the message as short as possible.
- If you select the Confirmation Code, the system generates the code when the reminder is sent. So, one patient may have 3 for their confirmation code and another may have 1.
Email Reminder
- Select the Email Template to use for the Appointment Reminder for this Appointment Type.
- Select the Check-in Document Template Package configured in Administration | Document Packages to attach to the Reminder Email.
Set To All Appointment Types
If you have configured the first and second reminders for this appointment type and would like to copy them to the remaining appointment types, you may use the Set to All Appointment Types button. Note: You must select Save Modifications before selecting Set to All Appointment Types.
Appointment Confirmation Reasons
Default Appointment Confirmation Reason: Confirmed by Staff
Default Email Appointment Confirmation Reason: Confirmed by Reminder Email
Default Text Appointment Confirmation Reasons: Not Set
Appointment Cancelation Reasons
Default Appointment Cancellation Reason: Not Set
Require Create Invoice Prompt on Canel or No Show?: No
Appointment Resources
patientNOW recognizes 3 types of schedule resources: Person (e.g. Dr. Evans, or Amy), Location (e.g. Procedure Room) and Equipment (e.g. Fractional Laser). You must configure Appointment Resources in order to schedule patients.
Warning: patientNOW does not allow you to delete configuration items because they may already be assigned to a patient. However, you may disable them so that they will not appear in patientNOW in order to be selected.
Note: This page includes generic Add, Edit, and Disable Functionality
- Add New: opens a new record at the bottom of the window with all of the fields empty. Please carefully review the existing descriptions to see if one of them may work BEFORE adding a description to the system
- Add as New: must be selected to save the information after completing the empty Add New screen. May be selected when an existing record is in focus and you wish to create a copy of that record instead of creating a new, blank record.
- Save Modifications: must be selected when you have made changes to an existing record and you wish to save the changes.
- Disable: select the disable checkbox and select Save Modifications.
Add Appointment Resource
Navigate to Administration | Data Tables, Appt Resources tab
Select Add New.
- Resource Name: This is the common name for the resource (e.g. Dr. Evans, Room 2, FNA Laser). Note: If the Resource is a person, you will need to attach this Appt Resource to the Provider on the Back Office | People/Places, Providers tab.
- Description: You may enter a more detailed description of the resource in this area.
- Resource Type: Select Person, Location, or Equipment.
- Grid Text Color: This is the color of the text that will appear on the schedule for appointments scheduled on this Appointment Resource. Text includes, but is not limited to: patient name, appointment type, and appointment reason.
- Schedule Bkgd Color: This is the color for the default schedule for this Appointment Resource; this color will display on the schedule for this resource unless the resource is out-of-office or a Schedule Block overrides the default schedule.
- Order: This is the order from left to right in which the Appointment Resources will appear. For example, the resource with Order = 1 will appear to the left of the resource with Order = 5.
- Disabled: When this is selected, the Appointment Resource will no longer appear on the schedule. All past appointments will still show that they were with this resource, but no new appointments may be scheduled.
PatientNow Resources
Below are links to the PatientNow Support Library in reference to Appointments:
Below are links to the PatientNow Support Library in reference to Appointments:
Below are links to the PatientNow Support Library in reference to Appointments:
Below are links to the PatientNow Support Library in reference to Appointments:
Below are links to the PatientNow Support Library in reference to Appointments:
Below are links to the PatientNow Support Library in reference to Appointments:
