Chapter 4. Appointment Scheduling

Transcription

1 Chapter 4 Appointment Scheduling

2 All appointment info entered/saves in Scheduling Module Book Application: schedule, reschedule, and cancel (appt. and meetings) See Handout of Applications

3 Book Appointments Building on Chapter 3 Common methods of booking appointments Phone call When patient checking out from an office visit (OV) Verbal and nonverbal communication important, good phone skills Schedule moduleàbook tab (application): patient and non-patient appointments (meetings) Three methods: Directly in Book application Using Find: search for next available appt. time based on appt-type Using Force: allows to double book or book during different appt-type slot Enter a CC from list of favorites or manually type it in Activity 4-1, 4-2, 4-3 in Workbook

4 Reschedule & Cancel Appointments Two ways to reschedule appt: Book application Find button Activity 4-4, 4-5 in workbook Upcoming appt. are canceled in the History application Click on appt. you wish to cancel and select View Appt. and then cancel it from Appt. Detail window that appears Activity 4-6 in workbook

5 Non-Patient Appointments Meetings and out-of-office times (vacation, training) Scheduling moduleàbook application Activity 4-7 in workbook

6 Add Patient to Wait List Patients who would like an appt. sooner than their currently scheduled appt. Patient must have a future appt. scheduled in order add to wait list When adding to wait list, you must provide appt. type, provider, location EMR will flag available appt. that match the criteria Several places to complete this Book appàscheduling mini-menu Boo appàbook appt. window Action menus in the appointment list Appointments tab in Clinical Today Managed under Home moduleàdashboard tabàwait list; from there you can reschedule a patient s appt. and also remove patient from the list Activity 4-8 in Workbook

7 Daily Schedule Month Application (in Scheduling module) Displays a glance of the number of appt. scheduled for each day of a particular month Calendar Display Under Month app. Gray days-provider unavailable Allow you to view appt. in the format of a small date book calendar Shows appt. time, patient s name, ID number, appt. type, duration, CC Can be generated for multiple providers for either one day or one week

8 Family When multiple family members want to book appt. on the same day Scheduling moduleàfamily app (tab) Helpful in a pediatric office as multiple patients may be linked with one responsible party Generates one statement for all patients linked to the responsible party Can also view upcoming appt. for all family members that are linked together

9 Advanced Application Enable booking appt. in accordance with predetermined parameters established by the practice Prevents overbooking and scheduling conflicts Multi-resource appointment: requires two or more resources in 1 visit; see the provider and also have an ultrasound Can also reschedule and cancel existing appt. here Scheduling moduleàadvanced tab

10 Recalls Reminders to patients that an appointment needs to be booked rather than scheduling a future appt. Can generate letters for any recall that is tracked in the EMR Manually link an appt. to recalls when booking the appt.; in the case where a patient recall already exists and pt. schedules an appt. for the same type as the existing recall Once recall is linked, it becomes inactive rather than open; but should the pt. cancel the appt., the recall becomes open again Activity 4-9 in workbook

11 History EMR maintains a detailed history of all appointments, including those that are canceled or rescheduled Scheduling moduleàhistory tab 4 different sections Pending Appt. Previous Appt. Cancelled Appt. Rescheduled Appt.

12 TeleVox Missed appt. are a significant concern to medical offices: lost revenue, continuity of care compromised, etc. Appointment reminder system that is automated; also has a confirmation system Two main steps Sending an electronic appointment list to TeleVox Viewing the results of the automated calls made by TeleVox From the list, you can confirm or cancel the appt. Practice is only charged for those calls that go through

13 Check In Patients Must happen when patient arrives for appt. EMR then verifies that pt s. billing and demographic info is complete Will display patient alert dialog box if there is missing info Check In Patients in the following locations Scheduling moduleàbook app (using mini menu drop down feature) Appts. Button in the Name Bar DashboardàAppointment List Clinical TodayàAppointment tab Activity 4-10 in workbook

14 Create a Batch Used for setting defaults for both Financial and Clinical components Financial batch establishes defaults and assigns a name to a group of financial transactions that are entered into the EMR; example: charges, payments, adjustments Helps identify a group of charges or payments and helps runs reports to balance against the actual charges or payments entered

15 Create a Batch Clinical batch settings are typically set up only once and used to set preferences and pre-populate fields common to the office workflow Activities related to searching for a patient or scheduling a pt. do not require to have a batch open; however, for activities related to clinical and financial, you will need to have a batch open The Batch application enables you to set up operator preferences based on the workflow for your role-reduces the number of clicks required to get from one app to the next Activities 4-11 and 4-12 in workbook

16 Accept a Payment Payments on Account (Pmt on Acct) app is used to record pt. payments Typically you will accept a pt s. co-pay at the check-in process (predetermined flat fee that an individual pays for health care services in addition to what insurance covers) Access Payments on Account in the following locations Scheduling moduleàbook tabàleft-click on appt. to display Scheduling Mini-Menuàselect Payment link Name BaràAppt. buttonàaction menusàpayment link Transactions moduleàpmt on Acct tab Transactions moduleàcharge tab Activity 4-13 in workbook

17 Print Payment Receipts After entering payment information Transaction moduleàreceipts tab Shows patient s previous balance, activity of charges and payments for that date of service, new patient balance Activity 4-14 in workbook

18 Run a Journal Must run a journal prior to posting your batch to verify that you have entered all the financial transactions correctly Once you have verified your balance with your journal, post the batch Journals provide a summary of financial transactions; example: charges, payments, and adjustments Typically, each operator who enters financial transactions into the EMR should run a journal for his/her batch before posting Once a batch has been posted, the transactions linked to it are locked in the system and must be reversed to be corrected; you can do this in Transactions moduleàedit app Can run a journal that meets certain criteria (filters) Posted batches are accessible anytime so you can access and old journal from Reports appàfinancial reportsàhistorical Journal link; don t have to save paper copies of journals Activity 4-15 in workbook

19 Post a Batch Once journal is balanced, can post a batch Locks the transactions permanently Activity 4-16 in workbook