View Appointment Ticklers

athenaCollector + athenaClinicals

athenaOne for Hospitals & Health Systems

This page allows you to view appointment ticklers and schedule appointments, delete open appointment ticklers, download the list of appointment ticklers to Excel, and remove mailed ticklers from the list.

 

On the Main Menu, click Calendar. Under APPOINTMENTS, click Appointment Ticklers. In the left menu, click VIEW ALL

 

 

 

  1. Display the Appointment Ticklers worklist in the Task Bar: On the Main Menu, click Calendar. Under APPOINTMENTS, click Appointment Ticklers, or display the Workflow Dashboard and click a linked number under the Appts to Schedule column.

  2. In the Task Bar, under Filter By, click Edit.

  3. Use the filter fields to select the filters.
  4. Click the Filter button.

 

  1. Display the Appointment Ticklers worklist in the Task Bar: On the Main Menu, click Calendar. Under APPOINTMENTS, click Appointment Ticklers, or display the Workflow Dashboard and click a linked number under the Appts to Schedule column.
    Patients are listed under the RESULT heading in the Task Bar. The worklist is filtered based on your previous filter selections.
  2. You can click Edit to select a different set of filters, and then click Filter.
  3. Contact the patient, and then do one of the following:
    • Schedule — Click to schedule the appointment. The Schedule Appointment page appears. Schedule the appointment. After you successfully schedule the appointment, the appointment tickler is deleted automatically and no longer appears in the worklist.
    • Delete (patient contacted) — Click if you determine that the patient does not need an appointment.
  4. If you cannot contact the patient, you can either:
    • Click Delete to delete the appointment tickler.
    • Select No Answer from the Status menu to track your attempts to contact the patient, and then click Save.

 

  1. Display the Quickview: In the text box at the top right of the Main Menu, enter the first three letters of the patient's last name, followed by a comma, followed by the first three letters of the patient's first name. Click the search icon. On the Find a Patient page, click Quickview for the patient you need.
  2. Find the appointment tickler under the Appointments heading at the bottom of the page and click Update Tickler. The Update view of the page appears.
  3. Edit fields as needed.
    Note: If your practice uses athenaCommunicator, the following fields are required: Department, Provider, Appointment type, and Approximate date. This information helps to ensure successful appointment tickler campaigns.
  4. Do one of the following:
    • Status menu — Select a status to track your attempts to contact the patient.
    • Not needed — Select this option to delete the appointment tickler when you cannot contact the patient.
    • Not needed (contacted patient) — Select this option to delete the appointment tickler after you contact the patient and determine that the patient does not need an appointment.
  5. Click Save.

Note: You can also delete a tickler using the View Appointment Ticklers page.

 

 

  1. Display the View Appointment Ticklers page in the Workspace: On the Main Menu, click Calendar. Under APPOINTMENTS, click Appointment Ticklers. In the left menu, click VIEW ALL.
  2. Select the appointment ticklers that require action.
    Note: If you want to save the selected appointment ticklers to an Excel file, click Export to CSV at the top of the page.
  3. At the bottom of the page, select a form from the list and click Submit.
  4. After the list appears, click Print.

 

 

If your practice uses athenaCommunicator, use this procedure to send GroupCall messages to the patients associated with a list of appointment ticklers.

  1. Display the View Appointment Ticklers page in the Workspace: On the Main Menu, click Calendar. Under APPOINTMENTS, click Appointment Ticklers. In the left menu, click VIEW ALL.
  2. Select the appointment ticklers that require action.
    Note: If you want to save the selected appointment ticklers to an Excel file, click Export to CSV at the top of the page.
  3. Campaign — Select a GroupCall campaign from the menu.
    Note: You can view the GroupCall campaign by clicking the View selected campaign link.
  4. Click Send Messages.

 

  1. Display the View Appointment Ticklers page in the Workspace: On the Main Menu, click Calendar. Under APPOINTMENTS, click Appointment Ticklers. In the left menu, click VIEW ALL.
  2. Select the appointment ticklers that require action.
    Note: If you want to save the selected appointment ticklers to an Excel file, click Export to CSV at the top of the page. If you want to move multiple appointment ticklers from one provider and/or department to another, click Bulk Edit Provider at the top of the page.
  3. Status — Select a status from the menu to track your attempts to contact the patients.
  4. Click Save.

 

  1. Display the View Appointment Ticklers page in the Workspace: On the Main Menu, click Calendar. Under APPOINTMENTS, click Appointment Ticklers. In the left menu, click VIEW ALL.
  2. In the Task Bar, under Filter By, click Edit.
  3. Use the filter fields to create the list of ticklers to download.
  4. Click Filter.
    The list of ticklers appears.
  5. On the View Appointment Ticklers page, click Export to CSV.
    The list is downloaded to an Excel file.

 

  1. Display the View Appointment Ticklers page in the Workspace: On the Main Menu, click Calendar. Under APPOINTMENTS, click Appointment Ticklers. In the left menu, click VIEW ALL.
  2. In the Task Bar, under Filter By, click Edit.
  3. Under Status, select the Deleted or Scheduled option.
  4. Click Filter.
    The list of deleted or scheduled appointment ticklers appears in the Workspace.

 

 

 

An appointment tickler is a reminder to schedule an appointment for a patient. Appointment ticklers appear on the patient Quickview under the Appointments heading (at the bottom of the page). Reminding patients to schedule preventive or follow-up care helps you meet quality program measures for preventive reminders.

 

This page has two views: a full-page view, which opens in the Workspace, and a worklist view, which opens in the Task Bar.

  • You can work through the appointment ticklers worklist using the Task Bar on the left.
  • You can update the status for an entire list of appointment ticklers at once using the full-page view of appointment ticklers.
  • You can record the action you took with the patient before deleting a tickler.

Note: Appointments appear on the Workflow Dashboard only if they are scheduled to occur within the next 60 days. The display is also limited by provider-based data permissions. You can view the complete list of all appointment ticklers or ticklers for a specific date range on the View Appointment Ticklers page.

 

 

If your practice uses the athenaCommunicator service, your patients can schedule appointments on the Patient Portal based on an appointment tickler. Appointment ticklers display an overdue status if the tickler has a date in the past. For patients to schedule an appointment on the Patient Portal, the appointment type must be enabled for Portal scheduling on the Appointment Types page.

Note: Appointments scheduled on the Patient Portal appear in the Appointments Scheduled via Communicator report.

 

 

 

If your practice sends postcards to patients reminding them to schedule an appointment, you can use the appointment tickler list to generate a mailing list. Download the list of appointment ticklers to Excel, and then perform a mail merge to generate appointment ticklers for mailing.

Note: athenahealth does not provide support for performing a mail merge.

 

After you generate the list, you can remove the selected appointment ticklers from the list of Open (new) ticklers.

  1. Click the Status menu at the bottom of the View Appointment Ticklers page.
  2. Select Contacted Patient.

  3. Click Save.

 

 

You can run reports about appointment tickler information using the Report Builder. These reports can help you measure front-office scheduling productivity and plan for scheduling future appointments.

Note: To run reports about appointment ticklers, you must be able to access the Report Builder.

 

The Appointment report type in Report Builder provides display columns that you can use to report on appointment ticklers. On the Choose Display Columns tab for the Appointment report type, you can select the following display columns from the Appointment Tickler category:

  • Appointment Tickler Appointment Type
  • Appointment Tickler Approximate Date
  • Appointment Tickler Created By User
  • Appointment Tickler Created Date
  • Appointment Tickler Department
  • Appointment Tickler Note
  • Appointment Tickler Patient Instructions
  • Appointment Tickler Scheduling Instructions
  • Appointment Tickler Status

An option appears on the View Appointment Ticklers page: Bulk Edit Provider.

 

After selecting ticklers using the check boxes, you see the Edit Provider for Multiple Patients Appointment Ticklers page.

 

The total number of selected ticklers is shown, as well as the original department and provider. These fields are not editable. Select the new department and provider using the To Department and To Provider drop-downs. If the new provider does not have access to the same appointment type as the original provider, the appointment type for the new provider is removed.

 

Important notes:

  • You must make at least one selection on the View Appointment Ticklers page to use the bulk edit option.

  • You cannot bulk edit ticklers for the same provider. You must select a provider in the To Provider field that differs from the original provider.

  • You can only edit ticklers with a status of Open, Contacted, or No Answer.

  • You cannot mix multiple department and provider combinations together. All ticklers selected for bulk edit must feature the same provider and department.

  • You are allowed to edit a maximum of 10,000 ticklers at one time.

 

Filter Fields in the Task Bar worklist
Department

The filtering department for the appointment tickler list.
Start Date

The start date for the filter span.
End Date

The end date for the filter span.
Provider

The filtering provider.
Appointment type

The filtering appointment type.
Contact Preference Select the contact method preferred by the patient: Mail, Phone, or Portal.
Status Filter appointment ticklers by status. For example, select Deleted and Scheduled to display appointment ticklers that have already been scheduled or deleted.
Column Headings in the Workspace view
Patient

The patient's name.
Provider

The provider associated with the appointment tickler.
Prov. ID The system-generated provider ID number (has no significance outside athenaOne).
Appt Date

The desired date for the appointment.
Home Phone

The patient's home phone number.
Type

The appointment type.
Short Type

The appointment type abbreviation used in the Today's Appointments worklist or in the appointment schedule.
Department

The department associated with the appointment tickler.
Dept. ID The system-generated department ID number (has no significance outside athenaOne).
Notes

Any notes for the desired appointment.
Patient ID

Patient ID number.
Patient Notes Approved patient notes entered as privacy restrictions (from the Privacy Information page).
Status Status of this tickler, for example, Scheduled, Contacted, or Deleted.
Address

Patient address.
City

Patient city.
State

Patient state.
Zip

Patient ZIP code.
Country

Patient country.
Created

The date that the tickler was created.
Created By

The person who created the tickler.
Tickler Generated

The date that the tickler was generated and by whom. This field is set when you update the status of a tickler to Contacted Patient and indicates that additional follow-up with the patient is required to schedule an appointment.
Tickler Generated By

The person who generated the tickler.
 
Campaign

athenaCommunicator only.

Select a GroupCall campaign. The menu displays campaigns in alphabetical order; only the appropriate campaign types appear.
Status Select a status — Contacted Patient or No Answer — to assign that status to all the selected appointment ticklers at once.
Print forms

Select an athenaCollector HTML form from the menu and then click Submit. When the list appears, click Print.

Note: You can print letters or other forms for patients who require follow-up directly from athenaClinicals.

 

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