How to set up Preferences in Calendar
In order to set the Calendar Preferences in your Organization you need to do the following:
1. Go to Tools | Organization | select your Organization | select Calendar under Preferences in the Organization Details page.
2. A New Calendar window will open, set the business hours of the Clinic by updating relevant fields**.**
– By default new appointments are assigned to: If a practitioner is selected as default then this name will be visible on the appointment page under For option automatically while taking new appointments. Also, this can be changed manually from the appointment page.
– Allow multiple Appointments in a Timeslot: This permission allows multiple Appointments in the same time slot. So you can double book, triple book and so on.
– Enable various features on Appointment only after the Patient has been checked in the waiting room: You might want to put in an internal policy which restricts any action on an appointment, till such time the Patient is checked in. Enabling this feature allows such a policy to be put into effect.
– Auto Update Appointment Status on Billing: It will automatically change the Appointment status from Scheduled to Waiting when you generate an Invoice for the Patient from the Calendar screen.
– Auto Mark Patients as a ‘No-Show’ if they remain ‘Scheduled’ at the end of the day: Sometimes when a patient does not turn up, the front desk forgets to mark them as a ‘No Show’. Not marking them as ‘No Show’ means there are no follow up actions done on such patients ex: reminding them to come in or offering to reschedule their missed appointment. To prevent human errors from impacting Clinic revenues,  just switch on this preference. It will make Clinicea check your Calendar every night and move those Patients that did not turn up, and remain marked as ‘Scheduled’ or ‘Confirmed’, to be changed to ‘No Show’.
– Auto Checkout Patients who remain marked as ‘Engaged’ at the end of the day: Similarly, patients who came in and were marked as ‘Engaged’, will be auto checked out, once the Clinic has closed for the day, again eliminating human errors from scheduling.
– Allow user to select a 2nd Resource in the Appointment: This lets you select the second Resource when Scheduling an Appointment. A good use is when you make an appointment with a Patient, and want to also book a Room (Resource 1) as well as a Portable Equipment (Resource 2).
– Always prompt the Staff to book the ‘Next Appointment’ when doing a ‘Check-Out’: A common mistake at the front desk is at the time of Patient Check-Out. The Patient is often not asked for their preferred date for the next appointment. Doing so will put the automated reminder system into play, helping to bring the Patient back to the Clinic. We have made it easy, by automating a prompt for the ‘Next Appointment’ for the Patient, at the time of Check-Out. Your front desk staff need not remember anymore, just enable this preference.
– Make it mandatory for Staff to note the ‘Service’ when booking an Appointment: You can configure Clinicea to make it mandatory for the Staff to enter the Service in the Appointment at the time of booking Appointment. The Service can automate the billing, as well as the medical workflow in the EMR.
– Allow searching for leads when making an appointment: This option allows searching for unregistered but probable patients on the calendar page.
– Hide no-shows and cancelled appointments: This option allows hiding the patient’s name from the calendar page who have not shown up or have cancelled the appointment. It leads to a more clutter-free screen.
– Enable Staff/Resource Paging in the Calendar (Applicable only in Day view): This option can be used by multi-specialty clinics or polyclinics where the number of staff taking appointments is high and their appointments need to be shown together in the calendar. More details about this option can be found in how to view multiple resources in the calendar.
– Auto Add Staff/Resource on the Calendar if it is used in a New Appointment
When making an Appointment if you select a Practitioner or Resource in it that has not been selected on the scheduler, then the system will auto add a column for that Practitioner/Resource, if this preference is ON.
– Highlight Patients who have waited for minutes: You may want to be alerted if a Patient has waited longer than what you consider acceptable. Mention this threshold here _Ex: 15 minutes._ What happens is that, in the Waiting Room Section of the Calendar, you get to see the number of minutes a Patient has waited for. The moment that waiting period touches your preset threshold, the waiting time for the Patient turns red and gets highlighted from that point on.
This is an ever-growing list of appointment preferences, go over how preferences can lead to automation and considerably reduce manual work.
3. You will be automatically directed to the Organization Details window, now click on Save.
4. Once the preferences have been saved, most of the changes you made can be seen on the Calendar right away. Ex: Business hours if changed will appear in white and the non-business hours will appear in grey. Since the clinic closes at 06:00 pm, therefore, all time slots 06:00 pm onward will appear in the colour grey.
Other preferences may require you to sign out and sign back in, to come into effect.
1. Go to Tools | Organization | select your Organization | select Calendar under Preferences in the Organization Details page.
2. A New Calendar window will open, set the business hours of the Clinic by updating relevant fields**.**
– By default new appointments are assigned to: If a practitioner is selected as default then this name will be visible on the appointment page under For option automatically while taking new appointments. Also, this can be changed manually from the appointment page.
– Allow multiple Appointments in a Timeslot: This permission allows multiple Appointments in the same time slot. So you can double book, triple book and so on.
– Enable various features on Appointment only after the Patient has been checked in the waiting room: You might want to put in an internal policy which restricts any action on an appointment, till such time the Patient is checked in. Enabling this feature allows such a policy to be put into effect.
– Auto Update Appointment Status on Billing: It will automatically change the Appointment status from Scheduled to Waiting when you generate an Invoice for the Patient from the Calendar screen.
– Auto Mark Patients as a ‘No-Show’ if they remain ‘Scheduled’ at the end of the day: Sometimes when a patient does not turn up, the front desk forgets to mark them as a ‘No Show’. Not marking them as ‘No Show’ means there are no follow up actions done on such patients ex: reminding them to come in or offering to reschedule their missed appointment. To prevent human errors from impacting Clinic revenues,  just switch on this preference. It will make Clinicea check your Calendar every night and move those Patients that did not turn up, and remain marked as ‘Scheduled’ or ‘Confirmed’, to be changed to ‘No Show’.
– Auto Checkout Patients who remain marked as ‘Engaged’ at the end of the day: Similarly, patients who came in and were marked as ‘Engaged’, will be auto checked out, once the Clinic has closed for the day, again eliminating human errors from scheduling.
– Allow user to select a 2nd Resource in the Appointment: This lets you select the second Resource when Scheduling an Appointment. A good use is when you make an appointment with a Patient, and want to also book a Room (Resource 1) as well as a Portable Equipment (Resource 2).
– Always prompt the Staff to book the ‘Next Appointment’ when doing a ‘Check-Out’: A common mistake at the front desk is at the time of Patient Check-Out. The Patient is often not asked for their preferred date for the next appointment. Doing so will put the automated reminder system into play, helping to bring the Patient back to the Clinic. We have made it easy, by automating a prompt for the ‘Next Appointment’ for the Patient, at the time of Check-Out. Your front desk staff need not remember anymore, just enable this preference.
– Make it mandatory for Staff to note the ‘Service’ when booking an Appointment: You can configure Clinicea to make it mandatory for the Staff to enter the Service in the Appointment at the time of booking Appointment. The Service can automate the billing, as well as the medical workflow in the EMR.
– Allow searching for leads when making an appointment: This option allows searching for unregistered but probable patients on the calendar page.
– Hide no-shows and cancelled appointments: This option allows hiding the patient’s name from the calendar page who have not shown up or have cancelled the appointment. It leads to a more clutter-free screen.
– Enable Staff/Resource Paging in the Calendar (Applicable only in Day view): This option can be used by multi-specialty clinics or polyclinics where the number of staff taking appointments is high and their appointments need to be shown together in the calendar. More details about this option can be found in how to view multiple resources in the calendar.
– Auto Add Staff/Resource on the Calendar if it is used in a New Appointment
When making an Appointment if you select a Practitioner or Resource in it that has not been selected on the scheduler, then the system will auto add a column for that Practitioner/Resource, if this preference is ON.
– Highlight Patients who have waited for minutes: You may want to be alerted if a Patient has waited longer than what you consider acceptable. Mention this threshold here _Ex: 15 minutes._ What happens is that, in the Waiting Room Section of the Calendar, you get to see the number of minutes a Patient has waited for. The moment that waiting period touches your preset threshold, the waiting time for the Patient turns red and gets highlighted from that point on.
This is an ever-growing list of appointment preferences, go over how preferences can lead to automation and considerably reduce manual work.
3. You will be automatically directed to the Organization Details window, now click on Save.
4. Once the preferences have been saved, most of the changes you made can be seen on the Calendar right away. Ex: Business hours if changed will appear in white and the non-business hours will appear in grey. Since the clinic closes at 06:00 pm, therefore, all time slots 06:00 pm onward will appear in the colour grey.
Other preferences may require you to sign out and sign back in, to come into effect.
Updated on: 16/06/2023
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