Manage Appointments

If a provider needs to cover schedules for another provider (due to sickness, vacation, etc.), follow these steps to change the provider for one or more appointment slots.

Note: When you change the provider for an appointment slot, provider availability is not verified, possibly causing double-bookings. Before you begin, make sure that the new provider is available for the appointment.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Ensure that the new provider is available for the appointments.
3. Set filter fields to select search criteria for the appointments that you want to change.
4. Click Filter Appointments.
   The appointments that match your search criteria appear in the Appointment Slots table.
   
5. Select the appointments that you want to change, or select the Check all slots for all providers? option.
6. Scroll to the bottom of the Appointment Slots table, and select the new provider from the Change provider menu.
7. Click Change Checked Appointments. The new provider is reflected in the appointments list.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Set filter fields to select search criteria for the appointment slots that you want to change.
3. Click Filter Appointments.
   The appointments that match your search criteria appear in the Appointment Slots table.
   
4. Select the appointments that you want to change, or select the Check all slots for all providers? option.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the Appointment Slots table, and select the new slot type from the Change slot type menu.
6. By default, the Change slot type function changes the appointment type of open slots only. To change the appointment type for filled slots, as well, select the include booked slots option.
7. Click Change Checked Appointments. The new slot type is reflected in the appointments list.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Set filter fields to select search criteria for the appointment slots that you want to delete.
3. Click Filter Appointments.
   The appointments that match your search criteria appear in the Appointment Slots table.
   
4. Check all slots for all providers? — Select this option to select all slots for all providers, or select the appointment slots that you want to delete. (Booked slots show the patient name, ID, and phone number in the Patient column.)
5. Scroll to the bottom of the Appointment Slots table, and select the Delete slots option.
6. Click Change Checked Appointments. The selected unscheduled slots are deleted from the list. The selected booked slots are frozen and marked for cancellation/rescheduling.
   
   Note: If you delete a slot with a booked appointment, the appointment appears on the Appointment Cancellation Worklist (this worklist appears in the Task Bar when you click a linked number in the Appts to Resched column of the Workflow Dashboard). When you delete unbooked slots, they appear disabled in the list, with an audit history link that you can use to see who deleted the appointment slot and when it was deleted.

Note: When you freeze a booked slot, the appointment is not cancelled and it is not moved to the Appts to Resched column of the Workflow Dashboard. When you unfreeze a slot, it becomes available for scheduling.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Set filter fields to select search criteria for the appointment slots that you want to freeze or unfreeze.
3. Click Filter Appointments.
   The appointments that match your search criteria appear in the Appointment Slots table.
4. Check all slots for all providers? — Select this option to select all slots for all providers, or select the appointment slots that you want to freeze or unfreeze.
5. Freeze slots — Scroll to the bottom of the Appointment Slots table, and select the Freeze or Unfreeze option.
6. Freeze slots reason — If you selected the Freeze option, select the reason for freezing the slots from the menu.
   In the Appointment Slots list, frozen slots display a z in the Status column, and the freeze reason appears in the Notes column.
7. Click Change Checked Appointments.
   Frozen slots are unavailable for appointment scheduling and do not appear on the Schedule Appointment page. If a slot that contains a booked appointment is frozen, it continues to appear in the appointment schedule, but the slot is unavailable for future scheduling.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Scroll down to the Add Appointment Slot heading.
3. Department — Select the department.
4. Provider — Select the provider.
5. Appointment type — Select the appointment type.
6. Date — Enter or select the date of the appointment slot.
7. Start time — Enter the start time for the appointment slot in this format: hh:mmAM/PM (for example, 8:30AM or 4:00PM).
8. Duration — Enter the duration of the appointment slot in minutes, for example, 15, 30, or 45.
9. Click Add Slot. The new appointment appears in the Appointments Slots table.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Use the filters at the top of the page to search for the nonpatient time appointment to which you want to add a note.
3. Click Filter Appointments. The appointments that match your criteria appear.
4. Find the appointment to which you want to add a note.
5. Notes column — Click add note. The Add Appointment Note page appears.
6. Enter a note.
7. Click Add to add the note. The Manage Appointments page reappears, showing the new note.

After notes are added, you can view them on the Manage Appointments page and on the Today's Appointments worklist.

• On the Manage Appointments page, the notes appear in the Notes column.
• In the Today's Appointments worklist,
• Click TODAY for a specific provider.
  The notes appear in an extra column on the far right.
• Click THIS WEEK for a specific provider. Select the Show Appointment Notes option at the top of the page, then click Refresh.
  The notes appear in the corresponding appointment slot on the schedule.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Use the filters at the top of the page to search for the nonpatient time appointment for which you want to edit a note.
3. Click Filter Appointments. The appointments that match your criteria appear.
4. Find the appointment for which you want to edit a note.
5. In the Notes column for that appointment, click edit. The Update Appointment Note page appears.
6. To edit the note, enter your changes in the box and click Update. You return to the Manage Appointments page, where you can see the note that you just edited.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Use the filters at the top of the page to search for the nonpatient time appointment from which you want to delete a note.
3. Click Filter Appointments. The appointments that match your criteria appear.
4. Find the appointment from which you want to delete a note.
5. In the Notes column for that appointment, click edit. The Update Appointment Note page appears.
6. Click Delete. A warning appears, asking if you are sure that you want to delete the note.
7. Click OK. You return to the Manage Appointments page, where you can see that the note you deleted is gone.

Note: Your practice must have the athenaCommunicator GroupCall service enabled to create the list.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Use the filters at the top of the page to search for the patient appointments that you need.
3. Click Filter Appointments.
   The appointments that match your search criteria appear in the Appointment Slots table.
4. Select the appointments for the GroupCall messages.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
6. Campaign — Select the GroupCall campaign from the list. The list displays campaigns in alphabetical order; only the appropriate campaign types appear.
7. Click Send Messages.
   

To run a custom campaign from the Manage Appointments page, you must have configured at least one custom campaign on the Campaign Builder page.

Note: When you create a manual custom campaign, the campaign does not usually send messages the same day. If you need to send urgent messages about cancelling appointments, use the standard Immediate Cancellation or Weather campaign available in the Campaign Library. For more information about the Immediate Cancellation and Weather campaigns, see User Guide — GroupCall.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Use the filters at the top of the page to search for the patient appointments that you need.
3. Click Filter Appointments.
   The appointments that match your search criteria appear in the Appointment Slots table.
4. Select each patient appointment to include in the campaign. You can also click the box below the All? option to select all appointments for a specific provider, or you can select the Check all slots for all providers? option to select all appointments in the table.
5. Freeze slots — Scroll to the bottom of the Appointment Slots table and select the Freeze option.
   Note: To make sure that no appointments are scheduled in the selected time slots by office staff or via online scheduling, freeze the appointment slots before you launch the campaign.
6. Freeze slots reason — Select the reason for freezing the slots from the menu.
7. Campaign — Select the Custom (Manual) campaign that you created from the list.
8. Click Send Messages.

If you need to cancel and reschedule a group of appointments, you can run an Immediate Cancellation campaign from the Manage Appointments page to send messages to the selected patients. The campaign messages inform the patients that they need to reschedule their appointments on the Patient Portal or by calling your office.

Note: Your practice must have the athenaCommunicator GroupCall service enabled to send campaign messages, and you must have a configured Immediate Cancellation campaign.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Use the filters at the top of the page to search for the patient appointments that you need to cancel and reschedule.
   For example, if you need to reschedule appointments for one physician for a week in June, you can select the physician from the Provider menu and specify the date range.
   
3. Click Filter Appointments.
   The appointments that match your search criteria appear in the Appointment Slots table.
4. Select each patient appointment for which you want to send a message. You can also click the box below the All? option to cancel all appointments for a specific provider, or you can select the Check all slots for all providers? option to select all appointments in the table.
5. Freeze slots — Scroll to the bottom of the Appointment Slots table, and select the Freeze option.
6. Freeze slots reason — Select the reason for freezing the slots from the menu.
7. Click Change Checked Appointments.
   Frozen slots are unavailable for appointment scheduling and do not appear on the Schedule Appointment page. If a slot that contains a booked appointment is frozen, it continues to appear in the appointment schedule, but the slot is unavailable for future scheduling.
8. Campaign — Scroll to the bottom of the Appointment Slots table and select the Cancellation campaign from the list.
   Note: If your practice has more than one cancellation campaign, make sure to select the correct campaign from the list.
9. Click Send Messages.

If you need to cancel and reschedule a group of appointments due to inclement weather, you can run a Weather campaign from the Manage Appointments page to send messages to patients. The campaign messages inform the patients that they need to reschedule their appointments on the Patient Portal or by calling your office.

Note: Your practice must have the athenaCommunicator GroupCall service enabled to send campaign messages, and you must have a configured Weather campaign.

1. Display the Manage Appointments page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Scheduling, click Manage Appointments.
2. Use the filters at the top of the page to search for the patient appointments that you need to cancel and reschedule.
   For example, if you need to reschedule appointments for the next 2 days due to a blizzard, you can specify the date range in the Date range field.
3. Click Filter Appointments.
   The appointments that match your search criteria appear in the Appointment Slots table.
4. Select each patient appointment for which you want to send a message. You can also click the box below the All? option to cancel all appointments for a specific provider, or you can select the Check all slots for all providers? option to select all appointments in the table.
5. Freeze slots — Scroll to the bottom of the Appointment Slots table and select the Freeze option.
6. Freeze slots reason — Select the reason for freezing the slots from the menu.
7. Click Change Checked Appointments.
   Frozen slots are unavailable for appointment scheduling and do not appear on the Schedule Appointment page. If a slot that contains a booked appointment is frozen, it continues to appear in the appointment schedule, but the slot is unavailable for future scheduling.
8. Campaign — Scroll to the bottom of the Appointment Slots table and select the Weather campaign from the list.
   Note: If your practice has more than one Weather campaign, make sure to select the correct campaign from the list.
   
9. Click Send Messages.

When you freeze appointment slots on the Manage Appointments page, the slots are marked as "Frozen," and a "z" appears in the Status column for the slots. Frozen slots are unavailable for appointment scheduling and do not appear on the Schedule Appointment page. When you unfreeze a slot, it becomes available for scheduling.

If a slot that contains a booked appointment is frozen, it continues to appear in the appointment schedule, but the slot is unavailable for future scheduling. The frozen appointment is marked with a "Z" on the Today's Appointments worklist to indicate that the slot is frozen and cannot be rebooked.

Frozen appointment slots are not deleted

When you freeze a booked slot, the appointment is not cancelled and it is not labeled Requires cancellation on the Manage Appointments page. Also, the frozen appointment is not moved to the Appts to Resched column of the Workflow Dashboard.

Only these actions place an appointment in the Requires cancellation status on the Manage Appointments page:

• Manually deleting the slot on the Manage Appointments page.
• Rolling back or modifying the schedule template that contains the slot.

Deleting a booked slot freezes the slot

When you delete appointment slots on the Manage Appointments page,

• Unbooked slots are deleted. When you delete unbooked slots, they appear disabled in the list, with an audit history link that you can use to see who deleted the appointment slot and when it was deleted.
• Booked slots are frozen and marked with the Requires cancellation status. The appointment appears on the Appointment Cancellation Worklist (this worklist appears in the Task Bar when you click a linked number in the Appts to Resched column on the Workflow Dashboard). The appointments in this list are frozen but not yet cancelled. They remain in status f (filled) until you cancel them (via the Cancel Appointment page).