missed appointments

[mbusinelle]

How do you handle missed appointments in your offices?  For instance, the appt history only shows the last three missed appointments.  How do you show more than that?

Is there a way to create a popup that would show the patient has multiple missed appointments?  

[debi_peterson]

The count will always count the total of missed appointments, but there is no way to make PW display more than the last 3 occurances.

[mbusinelle]

Do you know what other offices might do to keep up with this? Since the last three may be excused, what if the patient has 6 that were last minute. Any thoughts?

[sonyap]

I am dealing with this right now.  We just went chartless on 6/1/21 and I just realized that we have nowhere to "write" this anymore.  Previously the clinical staff would write "canceled last minute for crown prep #2" or "no-showed hygiene visit" in the progress notes. 

Now I'm trying to figure out who will be doing this and where (if at all).  So if you are chartless and create a "note" (or multiple notes - hygiene vs. restorative, excused vs. not excused) that can go in the history, maybe at some point you can sort by that?

[jdowner]

@sonyap 

A good way to track the reason for Appointment cancelation or deleting an appointment is to use a form that is linked to the system event of deleting the appointment. 

To create the form:

1. Go to Experts > Automation Experts > Responses > Forms
2. Click Define new at the bottom. 
3. Enter the Form Name (Description).
4. Choose the Form type
   1. I suggest for this type of information the option for "Unique copy" as the Form type. 
5. Click on Add question to begin creating your form questions/answers. 
6. Once all questions are created click on Test to see what it looks like and confirm it's how you want it. 
7. Once it's satisfactory, click on OK to save the form. 

Here are a few screenshots of a reference version I have in my own data set. 

To set this form as part of the system event; 

1. Go to Experts > Automation Experts > Events > System Events
2. Select the needed System event.
   1. In this case, you will want one or more of these options
      1. Appt book sched | Delete appt made in error
      2. Appt book sched | Remove appt on pending page
      3. Appt book sched | Cancel appt/move to pending
      4. Appt book sched | Cancel appt w/o move to pending
3. Click on Define AutoLinks at the bottom
4. In the Current autoLinks windows Click Add.
5. Select the option for "Add form to patient" and click OK.
6. Select the Needed form that was created and click OK.
7. For the question "Is this response optional?" Select No.
8. For the question "A System event is generated twice....When would you like your response to occur?" Select When the task is completed.
9. Nothing additional is needed in the AutoLink for <Form name>. Click OK.
10. Repeat steps 3 through 9 for each system event you need this to be linked to. 
11. Click Cancel to close the autolink list. 
12. Click Close to close the System event list.

This will cause that form to come up each time an appointment is canceled and fits the system event type you linked the form to. You will enter the appropriate information and it would save the form to the patient's history on their clipboard. 

If you want assistance in setting this up let me know and I'll gladly assist. 

[mbusinelle]

Is there a way to make this work for reschedule now?  If someone calls in to reschedule, we still need to be able to attach a note saying why they reschedule.  That way, if it happens several times we can not reschedule them anymore.  @jdowner 

[sonyap]

Thanks for the detailed step by step @jdowner !

Is it possible to make this a little more streamlined by adding a choice to the RP contact drop-down menu?  One titled "cancels/no-shows" or "Missed appointments" ?  Then we can add the details in the "Comment" box.

[jdowner]

@sonyap 

I'm not 100% what you are referring to when you say the "RP contact drop-down menu." Is this a custom form that guys have in your system?  If it is a custom form, the form itself should be easy to edit and add additional questions/options. I'd be happy to connect with you and take a look at that potential. 

The only other thing that comes to mind with that wording is the history window and adding a contact to it. Which unfortunately we do not have the ability to add additional options and would have to be presented to Dev as a potential new option to add.  

@mbusinelle 

Yes, we can make it so that it is an option when choosing to reschedule an appointment.  In the system events list that the form would be linked to, you'd most likely want to link it to either "Appt book Sched | Start Reschedule normal appointment," or "Appt book sched | Start reschedule pending appointment." Or both depending on your need. 

This would make it so the form comes up when you choose the option to reschedule an appointment. Normal being from the Appointment book, and Pending being from the pending page. 

[sonyap]

@jdowner 

This is the RP contact drop down menu I was referring to.  To my knowledge this is a PW feature, not something custom created.

[jdowner]

Ok, that goes with the second thing I was thinking then, This is the same as adding a contact from the history list on the clipboard.   We do not have a way to add additional options to that list. It would be something that would need to be added by development.