Multi-Resource Scheduling

 

Note: To schedule a patient using an appointment set, the multi-resource scheduling feature must be enabled, and at least one appointment set must exist for the scheduling department.

1. Display the Multi-Resource Scheduling page: On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Schedule Appointment. On the Schedule Appointment page, click Multi-Resource.
2. Provider group — If your practice uses provider groups, select the provider group from the menu.
3. Department — Select a department.
4. Appointment set — Select an appointment set.
   The appointments that make up the selected appointment set are displayed in the Appointment fields.
   Note: You configure appointment sets on the Appointment Sets page. You cannot change the components of an appointment set on the Multi-Resource Scheduling page.
   The Department and Appointment set menus work in tandem to restrict the selection of appointment sets available for a department and, conversely, the departments available for a selected set.
   Note: You must select a department or an appointment set; you cannot leave both fields unspecified. athenaOne warns you to select either an appointment set or a department to begin the search.
5. Start search from — You can specify the first possible day and date for the appointments; the default search is from today.
6. Time of day — You can specify a range of times for the appointments; the default search is for all hours of the day.
7. Day of week — You can specify days of the week for the appointments; the default search is for any day of the week.
8. Click Search for Same-Day Availability.
   
9. Use the calendar to select a day with available appointments for this appointment set. You see one of the following:
   • Department's appointment list for the selected date.
   • Option to select Use first available appointment set or Manually schedule appointments.
     Note: If you select the Use first available appointment set option, athenaOne shows you the earliest possible time for the first appointment; this time may not be the best one for two or more appointments that you want to schedule as close together as possible. If the option presented is not optimal, select the Manually schedule appointments option to locate appointments that are closer together.

10. Select the appropriate appointment slots for the multi-resource appointments.
11. Click Schedule Appointment(s).
    The Appointment Saved page appears.
    Note: athenaOne warns you if the appointment set cannot be scheduled. Possible reasons for this warning include:
    • You forgot to schedule a component.
    • You scheduled the components out of order.
    • You did not accommodate the required time lag.
      
12. Click Save Information.
13. To print the appointment information, click Print Appointment.

Note: By default, athenaOne creates a billing slip for each appointment for the same patient on the same day. If you want athenaOne to create a billing slip only for the first of multiple appointments, contact the CSC by selecting Support > Create Case or Call in the Main Menu.

1. Display the Multi-Resource Scheduling page: On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Schedule Appointment. On the Schedule Appointment page, click Multi-Resource.
2. Use the fields at the top of the page (Department, Start search from, Time of day, Day of week, provider / resource, and appointment type) to establish the criteria for your multi-resource appointment slot search. You can search for up to five different providers or resources and appointment types at the same time.
3. Click Search for Same-Day Availability.
   The one-month calendar view (upper right) automatically reflects the search criteria that you selected.
   The dates on the calendar are color-coded:
• GREEN highlight: day has slots available matching the criteria.
• RED highlight: slots matching the criteria are all filled.
• GRAY highlight: Not available, uncancelled, unfrozen slots matching your criteria.
• BLUE bold type: today's date.
4. Click the day (number) in the calendar view that you want to schedule. The selected day's appointment slots appear below, in a grid showing all slots that match the selected criteria.
   (You may need to adjust the scroll bar to see the top of the grid and the Appointments heading.)
   Providers and departments appear across the top; appointment times down the side.
5. Locate the slots that you'd like to schedule.
   You can continue to click on any calendar day to display the appointment grid for that day. (You can click the links for << Previous Available, < Previous Day, Next Day >, and Next Available >> at the top of the display to navigate quickly.)
6. Select the appointment slots that you want for the multi-resource appointment.
   The Appointment type(s) drop-down menu appears at the bottom of the page and includes the slots that you selected.
7. Appointment type(s) (at the bottom of the page) — Select an appointment type.
8. Primary insurance — Select (or verify) the patient insurance for the appointments.
   (You may need to scroll down to the bottom of the Appointments grid.)
9. Notes/Reason — Enter any notes (for example, the reason for the visit).
   Note: After you add a note, you cannot delete it.
10. Authorization — This field appears only if the patient has at least one insurance policy. Select an existing authorization or referral number from the menu, if applicable. To create a new authorization or referral, select Add new. Additional fields appear.
    Note: If a patient cannot furnish authorization information at the time of scheduling, you can bypass this step until check-in time. The authorization is saved on the Authorization Worklist.
1. Referring provider — Click Choose/view to display the Referring Provider Lookup tool. In the tool, you can search for the referring provider by number, name, specialty, or NPI number. Enter your search information and click Find. For more information, see Referring Provider Lookup.
2. Type — Select Pre-cert or Referral.
3. Insurance authorization number — Enter the insurance authorization number.
4. Effective date — Enter or select the effective dates for this authorization or referral.
5. Authorized visits/units — Enter the number of visits or units covered by the authorization. Enter the same number for Approved and Remaining, and select Visits or Units from the menu. athenaOne automatically decrements the number of authorized visits or units.
   
6. Referred-to provider — Select the provider to whom the patient is being referred.
   This field automatically displays the name of the provider with whom you are scheduling the appointment.
7. Specialty — Select the specialty of the provider to whom the patient is being referred.
   This field automatically displays the specialty of the provider with whom you are scheduling the appointment.
8. Diagnosis code — Enter or select the diagnosis code associated with the authorization. You can type a period to access the Diagnosis Lookup tool in the ICD-9 or ICD-10 fields.
9. Procedure code — Enter or select the procedure codes associated with the referral. You can type a period to access the Procedure Lookup tool.
10. Additional information — Enter any additional information that you want to record about this incoming authorization.

11. If the patient's condition is related to employment, auto accident, other accident, or if another party is responsible for the patient's condition, set the appropriate option to Yes. (A practice configuration setting controls these fields: they may or may not appear or be required in your practice.)
    If you set Auto accident to Yes, an additional Place field appears. Enter the two-letter state abbreviation where the accident occurred.
    
12. Click Schedule Appointment(s). A confirmation message appears, or:
• You may be prompted to enter a referral number or a prior authorization number if the appointment insurance package requires it. If the patient cannot furnish this information now, you can bypass this step, and enter the number at check-in or at charge entry.
• athenaOne warns you if you click a slot that has already been booked (double-booking).
• athenaOne warns you if the total duration of the selected slots is less than the duration of the selected appointment type.

1. Display the Multi-Resource Scheduling page: On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Schedule Appointment. On the Schedule Appointment page, click Multi-Resource.
2. Filter for appointments using the resource type, provider, or appointment type, as you normally would.
3. Click Search for Multi-Day Availability.
   The Appointment Series Preview appears in the Task Bar at left.
4. The scheduling pane defaults to the first/next appointment to be scheduled. If you'd like to schedule one appointment out of order, click find slot next to the appointment.
5. Schedule each appointment just as you would for a single appointment.
   Note: If you selected -any department- from the Department menu and -any provider- from the Provider menu (or a provider associated with more than one department, for the given appointment type), the resulting table of available appointments now lists them in separate columns side by side, rather than in horizontal bands stacked vertically.
6. Filter appointments, as you normally would.
7. Click a date to view available appointment times on that date.
8. Select an appointment.
9. Complete the required fields (Primary insurance, Notes/Reason, Authorization, etc.).
   Note: These fields apply only to the one appointment, not the entire series of appointments.
   
10. Click Add Appointment To List.
    The appointment information appears in the Appointment Series Preview section in the Task Bar at left.
11. Repeat these steps for each appointment in the Appointment Series Preview.
    Note: You can modify appointments later, as needed.
12. Click Schedule Appointment(s) in the Appointment Series Preview to schedule all the appointments at once.
    Note: If someone else has scheduled one of your slots before you click this button, athenaOne displays a message.
    
    The scheduled appointments appear on a confirmation page.
    The appointments in the Task Bar and on the confirmation page appear in the order that you scheduled them in the series, even if that order is not chronological by appointment date and time.
    However, on the patient's Quickview page, the appointments appear in chronological order by appointment date and time, with a descriptive link beside each, indicating its order within a series (for example, 2 of 3 of series).
13. On the Quickview page, click the descriptive link to reopen the Appointment Series Preview in the Task Bar at left to cancel an appointment and reschedule it within the series, if necessary.

 

You can use the Appointment Sets page to create preconfigured sets of multi-resource appointments. Appointment sets make scheduling multi-resource appointments simple.

 

athenaOne does not allow you to schedule different appointments for the same provider within the Multi-Resource scheduling workflow.

 

You can hover over the checkbox for an available slot to display a tooltip with the time and provider's username. When you are scheduling across several providers, this tooltip helps you keep track of which time and provider you are about to schedule.

 

Press the End key on your keyboard to go to the end of a long page. When scheduling an appointment, you can save time by scrolling less.

 

You can use the Appointment Wait List page to fill patient requests for earlier appointments.

 

When you create a walk-in appointment, athenaOne assumes that you want to create an appointment at this department on this day. To set the current time as the start time for the walk-in appointment, type t (or T) in the Start time field.

 

If you click multiple appointments, an appointment is scheduled for every column checked. For example, if you click the 9:00AM and 9:15AM slots for Dr. Green, along with the 10:00AM and 10:15AM slots for Dr. Blue, two appointments are created for the patient.

 

When you schedule a patient appointment that spans multiple slots, the patient name appears only once per scheduled appointment in the Today's Appointments worklist or in the schedule.

 

You can use the Schedule Resource Types page to create resource types that appear in the Provider / resource menu. Creating resource types can be useful if you have multiple resources (for example, machines, rooms) or providers able to perform the same services. See the Schedule Resource Types page for more information.

 

At the bottom of the Charge Entry tab, there is a button labeled Mark Checked Appointments As Not Requiring Charge Entry. If charge entry is accomplished at checkout time, you should follow the parent appointment (the one scheduled for the billable provider) all the way through to the Charge Entry tab to ensure that the correct billable provider information is copied into the claim. Then you can enter all the charges on the parent appointment and mark the other appointments as not requiring charge entry.

 

If charge entry is accomplished in batch mode, you can still mark the other components of the multi-resource appointment as not requiring charge entry. Just check off the appropriate appointments and click Mark Checked Appointments As Not Requiring Charge Entry.

 

At the bottom of the Check-in page, under the Check In Other Appointments For This Patient heading, checkboxes appear for appointments scheduled for the patient on the same day and department. You can select the related multi-resource appointment slots to tie the slots together throughout the athenaOne workflow up to the Charge Entry page.

 

The checkboxes on the Charge Entry tab reflect any selections you made on the Check-in page. On the Charge Entry tab, you need to select a reason for not requiring charge entry for any selected appointments.

 

On the Appointment Types page, you can set colors for appointment types to make the scheduling grid easier to read at a glance.