Process Appointments

Processing your patient appointments as "Kept", "Missed", "Changed", "Canceled", or "Deleted" provides you with a way to collect statistics that help you identify trends for both your practice and individual patient compliance. At the very least, we highly recommend that you process appointments as kept and missed.

Get Started

Flag Statuses that Require Appointments - Enable the Appointment Required option for each description in your Status table that should have an appointment scheduled with your office. When you process an appointment for a patient in a status that requires an appointment, you are given rescheduling opportunities, including placing the patient on your Needs Appointment list. See "Status Table" for details.

Process Other Appointments While Scheduling New Appointment - As you schedule a new appointment for a patient, you can process previously scheduled appointments directly from the appointment confirmation window. Note that only the earliest-scheduled appointment is available for processing here.

Right-Click A Scheduled Appointment to Process It - Right-click an appointment in your schedule and select Process Appointment.

Process Previous Appointments with Drag and Drop - When you drag an appointment from a Grid bar onto a scheduling grid, you have the opportunity to individually process all other appointments already scheduled for the patient.

Process Appointments from Appointment History - You can open a patient's Appointment History, and change the appointment status to process it. Auto-Events and rescheduling options are not available when you process appointments in this manner. (See "Appointment History" for details.)

Processing Options

When you process an appointment, the details are added to the patient's Appointment History. In addition, depending on how you processed the appointment, the patient's status, and whether additional appointments are scheduled for the patient, you may have the opportunity to schedule a recall appointment for the patient, or add the patient to your Needs Appointment list.

The recall and Needs Appointment list rescheduling opportunities are not available when you process an appointment from the patient's Appointment History.

Kept - Process an appointment as "Kept" when the patient has completed the appointment as scheduled.

Grid Screen Options - Appointments that have been processed as Kept can appear dimmed on your schedule, or can be removed from your schedule entirely. If the appointments appear on the schedule, you can hover over them to view the details and open the patient folder, just as you can with currently scheduled appointments. In addition, the amount of doctor time assigned to that appointment remains visible on your Grid Scheduler. (See "Grid Scheduler Properties" for details.)

Rescheduling Options - When you process an appointment as Kept for a patient who has no other appointment scheduled, and whose status requires an appointment, you have the opportunity to schedule a recall appointment for the patient, or add the patient to your Needs Appointment list.

Missed - Process an appointment as "Missed" when the patient did not appear for the appointment, and did not call to cancel or change the schedule.

Rescheduling Options: Appointment Required Status - When you process an appointment as Missed for a patient whose status requires an appointment (whether or not they have other appointments scheduled), you have the opportunity to schedule a recall appointment for the patient, or add the patient to your Needs Appointment list for the missed procedure. The original missed appointment will be recorded in the patient's Appointment History.

Rescheduling Options: No Appointment Required Status - If the patient is in a status that does not require an appointment, you do not have the rescheduling opportunities. The patient will not be added to the Needs Appointment List, and the notation No Appointment Required will appear in the Summary on the Patient tab of the patient folder. The original appointment will be recorded in the patient's Appointment History.

Canceled - Process an appointment as "Canceled" when the patient contacted you to cancel an appointment.

Rescheduling Options: Appointment Required Status - When you process an appointment as Canceled for a patient whose status requires an appointment (whether or not they have other appointments scheduled), you have the opportunity to schedule a recall appointment for the patient, or add the patient to your Needs Appointment list for the missed procedure. The original canceled appointment will be recorded in the patient's Appointment History.

Changed - Process an appointment as "Changed" when the patient contacted you to change an appointment date or time.

Rescheduling Options: No Other Appointments - When you process an appointment as Changed for a patient who has no other appointment scheduled,and whose status requires an appointment, you have the opportunity to schedule a recall appointment for the patient, or add the patient to your Needs Appointment list.

If you click the X at the top of the rescheduling box to ignore the message, and the patient is in a status that requires an appointment, that patient is added to the Patients Without Appointments section of your Needs Appointment List. If the patient is in a status that does not require an appointment, the patient will not be added to the Needs Appointment List, and the notation No Appointment Required will be added to the patient folder.

Rescheduling Options: Other Appointments - When you process an appointment as Changed for a patient who has other appointments scheduled, you do not have any rescheduling opportunities. The original appointment will be removed from the scheduling grid, and recorded in the patient's Appointment History.

Deleted - Process an appointment as "Deleted" when you have scheduled an appointment in error.

Rescheduling Options: No Other Appointments - When you process an appointment as Deleted for a patient who has no other appointment scheduled,and whose status requires an appointment, you have the opportunity to schedule a recall appointment for the patient, or add the patient to your Needs Appointment list.

Rescheduling Options: Other Appointments - When you process an appointment as Deleted for a patient who has other appointments scheduled, you do not have any rescheduling opportunities. The deleted appointment will be removed from the scheduling grid, and recorded in the patient's Appointment History.

Batch Process Appointments

Use the Grid Tools Process Appointments option to batch-process all old appointments at once. (An old appointment is one that is still on a scheduling grid dated before today.)

Open Process Appointments Window - Grid Scheduler toolbar > Grid Tools arrow > Process Appointments.
Process Old Appointments - The first old appointment appears in the window for your review. Select the appropriate processing status for the appointment. Then, click Next and Previous to toggle through all old appointments, selecting the appropriate processing status for each.
Save Your Changes - Click Exit to save the changes you have made and close the editing window.

More Information

Print Old Appointments Report - Run the Old Appointments report to see the list of patients whose scheduled appointment date has passed, and has not yet been processed from your scheduling grid. This might mean the patient missed the appointment, or that you simply have not yet processed it. The report is printed in chronological order (with the oldest missed / outstanding appointments appearing first), and includes the date, time, and procedure that was scheduled, as well as the patient phone number. The report matches your Old Appointments grid bar. See "Old Appointments Report" for details.

Award Patient Reward Points - Use the Patient Reward Points section of the Auto-Events tab of your Procedure table to assign the number of points to apply or deduct from a patient's point total when an appointment is processed as kept or missed. See "Auto-Events" for details.