As part of the Practice Management system, the scheduler has many unique features. This article explores some of those. Here is a video on YouTube describing the process and the instructions are below.
The below screenshot shows the view when you initially log into the scheduler. Please note the day and date at the top of the screen, the name of the provider at the top of the column (you can have several of these), and the red box denoting what time it is at the time you are looking at the screen.
In the next screenshot, the month and year are shown at the top of the screen as well as the Add Appointment selection to the right of the screen:
Below shows the pop-up screen that is received when clicking on the month option at the top of the calendar to the right of the scheduler. This allows you to move from month to month easily.
This screenshot shows the pop-up screen that is received when clicking on the year option at the top of the calendar. This allows you to move from year to year easily.
The next screenshot shows the options at the bottom of the calendar that will allow you to skip 14 or 90 days or six months. It will also allow you to return to the current date:
When getting started in the Scheduler, the first thing you will do is either double-click on the time you want to schedule an appointment, click on Add Appointment or press F8 on your keyboard. Any of these options will take you to the time you have highlighted on your screen for the provider that is highlighted.
In this Appointment Entry screen, the important fields have been circled. You may select an existing patient, or leave the Patient field blank. This would allow you to put a person on the schedule without making them a patient yet. This is what they will look like on the schedule. Please note the document symbol indicating that they are not yet a patient.
The other icons that will be seen on the scheduler are:
By moving the patient through the steps, it will change the icon on the schedule to match the current status.
There are several ways to remove a meeting from the calendar. Deleting it using the left side-bar or right clicking on the appointment removes all traces of it from the calendar, so that is probably only done in the case of someone who is not actually a patient. Be aware that if the patient has already entered the reminder system (email, SMS or Patient Communicator), they may continue receiving reminders for the deleted appointment. Deleting an appointment will also eliminate reporting if you want to track no-shows and cancellations.
The second way is to cancel the appointment, which gives you an option as to why the appointment was canceled. The same with a missed appointment. Those two options will show in the patient appointment entry screen as a tally:
In the Patent Information screen, the appointments are broken out by reason:
There are several ways to move an appointment within scheduler. The first is to copy the appointment to the clipboard:
This will place the appointment at the top left of the screen and allow you to search for a place to put that appointment on the calendar:
As you can see, the appointment is not immediately removed from the calendar. You will then navigate to the place on the calendar where you want to put the appointment and then drag and drop the appointment into the slot where you want the appointment:
The appointment will now be gone from its original position on the schedule.
The second way to move an appointment is to highlight the appointment which will allow you to drag and drop it on the schedule. The four-headed arrow will appear and the appointment can be moved anywhere on the screen.
The third way to move an appointment is to double-click on the appointment which will bring you this screen:
By hovering over the date, you can choose the date you want to drag it to and change the time, then save your changes to the left. This will move the appointment to the new location, removing it from the original location.
Another way is to Find Open Time Slot.
That will bring you to this screen:
In this filter, the search is for an appointment in the next month on either Tuesday or Thursday between 8 and 10 AM.
After clicking Find Open Time Slot to the left, you will be taken to the next opening on the schedule:
You can then either add the appointment or find another time slot in which to place the appointment. This feature can be combined with any of the methods to move an appointment.
If you have questions regarding this functionality of TotalMD, please contact our support or training departments at 800-613-7597 Option 2 for Support or Option 3 for Training. If you would like a printable copy of this article, please contact Training at Option 3.