User Guide — Building Schedule Templates

 

A schedule template defines the types and order of appointment slots within a block of time. It also determines how you search for and book patient appointments.

 

Think of a template as a stencil. The cutouts on the stencil represent the pattern of appointment slots in your template. Tracing the cutout of the stencil on paper is like applying a template. The pattern of the stencil is revealed on paper the same way appointment slots in a template appear on your calendar.

 

If you don't like a stencil, you can use scissors to change the shape of a cutout or add a new one, but this cannot affect the designs you've already traced onto paper.

 

Every schedule template must be assigned to a provider. You can also assign your templates to departments in order to better organize them.

 

Schedule template versus provider schedule

Depending on the structure of a provider's schedule and the variability in appointment slot patterns, a provider can have many different schedule templates, but each provider in your practice has only one provider schedule. The provider's schedule is the result of one or more template applications.

 

When you modify a template, you must reapply it to the provider schedule

Any changes you make to a template already applied to specific dates will not be reflected on the schedule. Just as you trace the new version of the stencil to see the new design, you must re-apply a modified template to the provider's schedule in order for the changes to appear in the provider's schedule.

 

 

Schedule templates can be classified as generic or specified. You produce very different outcomes depending on which kind of template you create.

• Generic schedule templates create open appointment schedules that allow patients to be scheduled into any available appointment slot. Instead of associating time slots with appointment types, a generic template indicates the blocks of time into which appointments can be scheduled.
• Specified schedule templates create appointment schedules with a precise pattern of appointment slots that determine which appointment types can be booked into which blocks of time.

The more defined a provider's appointment schedule, the more likely capacity and productivity will suffer due to the difficulty of matching patient appointment types with available appointment slots.

 

athenahealth recommends open scheduling using generic templates because it enables a practice to:

• Optimize resource utilization, which contributes to higher revenue realization
• Increase patient satisfaction thanks to greater appointment availability
• Manage templates and schedules with greater efficiency and flexibility
• Managing schedule changes

After a schedule is created, two kinds of changes are common:

• Changes to the template itself (which could include appointment slot patterns or start/end time changes)
• Changes to the days/dates to which templates have been applied  

Note: Updating a template does not change the provider's schedule. To change the provider's schedule, you must re-apply the changed template to the provider's schedule.

 

 

You can design the calendar by month and think first about templates and then about providers. For example, suppose that Dr. Smith has one template that applies to the Main St. office in which she sees patients. Two months from now, she is going to see patients on the 1st, 3rd, 10th, 12th, 15th, 26th, 28th, and 30th. To build a template for Dr. Smith:

1. On the Build & Apply Templates: Existing Templates page, locate the correct template.
2. Click apply.
3. On the Build & Apply Templates: Set Recurrence page, select the correct range of dates and select the Main Street department.
4. From the Recurrence Type menu, select "Monthly."
5. Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and select every date on which to apply Dr. Smith's template.
6. Click Preview. Review the results carefully, and make any changes needed.
7. When you are satisfied, click Apply to apply the template to the dates you selected on the provider's schedule.