Patient Appointment Reasons Settings

1. Display the Patient Appointment Reasons Settings page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Communicator, click Patient Appointment Reasons Settings.
2. Click Add new.
3. Reason — Select the patient appointment reason that you want to enable patients to select on the Patient Portal.
   Note: To see the list of global appointment reasons, see Global patient appointment reasons. Many reasons have telehealth versions that you can select, as well.
4. Description — You can edit the default reason description that appears on the Patient Portal.
5. Patients — Select All to make this reason available to both existing patients and new patients. Select New to make this reason available only to new patients registering and scheduling their first appointment, or select Existing to make this reason available only to existing patients who are already registered in the practice.
6. Click Save or Save and Add Another to configure additional patient appointment reasons.

Each automated wellness outreach care gap is associated with one or more clinical guidelines, and each clinical guideline has a unique patient appointment reason (PAR) that is available for Web scheduling configuration. To set up Web scheduling for automated wellness outreach, you must map the relevant PAR to an appointment type and enable Web scheduling.

1. Display the Patient Appointment Reasons Settings page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Communicator, click Patient Appointment Reasons Settings.
2. Click Add new.
3. Reason — Select the patient appointment reason that corresponds to the AWO care gap messages that you want to configure for Web scheduling.
   Note: For more information, see Patient appointment reasons for automated wellness outreach campaigns.
4. Patients — This field is set to Population Health to indicate that this PAR is available only to patients who receive the corresponding AWO message. This reason is available on the Patient Portal for 30 days after patients receive the AWO email. You cannot edit this field.
5. Click Save or Save and Add Another to create patient appointment reasons for other AWO care gap messages that you want to make Web-schedulable.

After you configure patient appointment reasons, map the reasons to the appointment settings for AWO messages using the Appointment Settings page.

Each population health campaign has a unique patient appointment reason (PAR) that is available for Web scheduling configuration. To set up Web scheduling for a population health campaign, you must map the relevant PAR to an appointment type and enable Web scheduling. The Schedule tab in the Campaign Builder displays information about Web scheduling and secure messaging settings so that you can verify patient scheduling capabilities for each campaign before it is sent out.

1. Display the Patient Appointment Reasons Settings page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Communicator, click Patient Appointment Reasons Settings.
2. Click Add new.
3. Reason — Select the patient appointment reason that corresponds to the population health campaign that you want to configure for Web scheduling.
   Note: For more information, see Patient appointment reasons for population health campaigns.
4. Patients — This field is set to Population Health to indicate that this PAR is available only to patients who receive the corresponding population health campaign message. This reason is available on the Patient Portal for 30 days after patients receive the campaign email. You cannot edit this field.
5. Click Save or Save and Add Another to create patient appointment reasons for other population health campaigns that you want to make Web-schedulable.

After you configure patient appointment reasons, map the reasons to the appointment settings for population health campaign messages using the Appointment Settings page.

You can set patient appointment reasons that were previously only available for patients tied to specific Population Health campaigns to appear for Existing, New, or All patients in Patient Self Scheduling via the Patient Portal and Practice Marketing Channels.

• This feature does not change your configurations related to campaigns; for example there is no impact on which patients currently receive your wellness campaigns.

• If your practice DOES NOT want patients to use patient appointment reasons previously tied to campaigns, take no action.

• If your practice would like to allow patients to use these additional patient appointment reasons, you must set them to appear on the Patient Appointment Reasons Settings page.

This feature allows practices to maintain their campaigns while also allowing other patients to book similar appointments.

For example, the Diabetes Visit appointment reason, which was previously locked to Population Health only and could only be used by patients in the diabetes campaign, is now eligible for other patients.

Set Population Health patient appointment reasons to appear for other patients

 

1. From the Patient Appointment Reasons Settings page, scroll the Patient Appointment Reasons table.
   

2. Find the reason you want to edit.

3. Click edit.
   

4. Patients — Select any option but Population Health to have the reason appear for patients to book with.
   The options are:
   • New
   • Existing
   • All
     
5. Click Save.
   
6. Notice the option you selected appear in the Patients column for the reason you edited.
   

 

When a patient schedules an appointment via the Patient Portal or an athenahealth Marketplace partner, the patient can include notes about the upcoming visit. These notes are displayed on the Appointment Information page and the Eligibility and Phone page, as well as in the Upcoming Appointments section of the patient's Quickview.

1. Display the Eligibility and Phone page: On the Main Menu, click Calendar. Under APPOINTMENTS, click Eligibility and Phone List.
2. Notes — Displays your practice's notes as well as the patient notes. Patient notes always include "Appointment Reason:," the selected patient appointment reason, any additional notes or comments, "Created by Patient On:," and the date and time that the patient created the note. Practice staff cannot edit patient notes.
   Tip: You can copy patient notes into clinical encounters for additional context.
   

1. Display the Patient Appointment Reasons Settings page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Communicator, click Patient Appointment Reasons Settings.
2. Click Add new.
3. Reason — Select the patient appointment reason that you want to enable new patients to select on the Patient Portal.
4. Description — Edit the default reason description that appears on the Patient Portal.
5. Patients — Select New.
6. Click Save.
7. Display the Appointment Settings page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Schedule. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Communicator, click Appointment Settings.
8. Click Edit settings.
9. Settings level — Select Update practice settings, Update department settings, or Update provider settings to apply the new patient appointment type to the practice as a whole, to a department, or to a provider.
10. Appointment reasons — Select Edit settings.
11. Patient Appointment Reason > New Patient — Select the appointment type for which new patients should be scheduled at their first appointment.
12. Click Save.
    Note: If you configure only one patient appointment reason for new patients and a new patient is registering on the Patient Portal, the patient appointment reason and appointment type are automatically selected. If you configure multiple patient appointment reasons for new patients or all patients, the patient must select one of the available reasons, as do existing patients.

On the Appointment Settings page, you can:

• Manage settings for each provider for patient appointment reasons mappings, Web scheduling, and appointment confirmation emails, or set defaults for your practice and each department.
  Note: To configure reminder emails, see ReminderCall Settings.
• Set an amount of time, in days and hours, that patients are allowed to schedule an appointment before the given appointment slot.
  Note: Web scheduling may be set to show 90 days of availability, but the schedule template is set to never expire with 30 days of availability. In this case, the availability online is limited to 30 days. The template creates the slots and is only creating the next 30 days worth.
• Apply these settings to an individual provider or to multiple providers in different departments using the bulk edit functionality.

You can also enable automatic creation of a patient case for every appointment scheduled by an existing patient, in addition to the current new patient registration patient case, which is routed based on your Task Assignment Overrides.

When patients schedule their own appointments, they select one of the patient appointment reasons you configured. Patients can also provide additional information about their upcoming appointments. The patient can also choose to see appointment slots in future weeks, up to the maximum number of days in the future that you configure on the Appointment Settings page.

Note: The configuration changes your practice makes on the Appointment Settings page now appear sooner for patients using the online Patient Self-Scheduling workflows. These updates now appear within a two to four hour window. Previously, these updates did not appear until the next morning.

After a patient selects and confirms an appointment slot, the slot is automatically filled in the provider's calendar, and the additional information that the patient provided is displayed in the appointment notes. If you enable confirmation emails, the patient receives a confirmation email immediately after scheduling an appointment.

This patient workflow is also available in Spanish.

Before patients can schedule appointments on the Patient Portal, you must configure athenaOne as follows.

1. Patient Appointment Reasons Settings page — Add or update the appointment reasons that patients can select on the Patient Portal. Select the reasons that will be available to existing patients, new patients, or all patients. You can customize the description that is displayed with each reason on the Patient Portal.
2. Appointment Settings page — For each provider who allows patients to schedule their appointments on the Patient Portal, map one or more patient appointment reasons to the appointment type that the patient should schedule, and select the Allow web scheduling option for that mapping.
   Note: You can make generic appointment slots, used in a schedule template, available to patients for any reason, or you can hide the slots from patients. You can also map reasons directly to generic appointments.
3. After you configure patient appointment reasons and map them to appointment settings, the Allow web scheduling option is automatically selected. Your patients can schedule an appointment by logging on to the Patient Portal and clicking the Appointments option. Patients can also use the Schedule Now link in email messages sent by AWO and population health campaigns to display the Patient Portal appointment scheduling page and schedule an appointment.

To create a patient case when a patient schedules an appointment, please contact the CSC by selecting Support > Create Case or Call in the Main Menu to enable this setting.

Following is the list of global patient appointment reasons. These reasons are not associated with population health or automated wellness outreach campaigns. Many global appointment reasons have corresponding telehealth versions.

Note: For information about campaign-related appointment reasons, see Patient appointment reasons for automated wellness outreach campaigns and Patient appointment reasons for population health campaigns.

• Acupuncture
• Adolescent Physical
• Adult Annual Wellness Visit - Telehealth
• Annual Gynecology Visit
• Annual Physical
• Behavioral Health
• Behavioral Health - Telehealth
• Consult/Referral
• Consult/Referral - Telehealth
• COVID-19 Related
• COVID-19 Related - Telehealth
• COVID-19 Testing
• COVID-19 Vaccine
• COVID-19 Vaccine Initial
• COVID-19 Vaccine J&J
• COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna Initial
• COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna Subsequent
• COVID-19 Vaccine Pfizer Initial
• COVID-19 Vaccine Pfizer Subsequent
• COVID-19 Vaccine Subsequent
• Diabetes Visit - Telehealth
• Dialysis Visit
• Drug/Alcohol Screening
• Exam
• First Prenatal Appointment
• Flu Shot Visit (this reason can also be associated with a campaign)
• Follow-Up
• Follow-Up - Telehealth
• Imaging
• Injection/Vaccination
• Injury
• Lab Work
• Medicare Annual Wellness Visit - Telehealth
• Medication Check
• Medication Check - Telehealth
• New Patient
• New Patient - Telehealth
• Newborn
• Occupational Therapy
• Physical Therapy
• Post Hospital Visit
• Post-Op
• Post-Op Visit - Telehealth
• Pre-Op
• Pre-Op Visit- Telehealth
• Prenatal
• Problem
• Problem - Telehealth
• Sick Visit
• Sick Visit - Telehealth
• Sleep Consultation
• Specialized Exam
• Sports Physical
• Testing
• Well Baby/Child
• Wellness Visit
• Worker's Compensation

The Patient Appointment Reasons Settings page includes appointment type reasons for patients to select when they schedule an athenaTelehealth or COVID-19 appointment on the Patient Portal. The reasons specific to COVID-19 are as follows:

• COVID-19 Related
• COVID-19 Related - Telehealth
• COVID-19 Testing
• COVID-19 Vaccine
• COVID-19 Vaccine Initial
• COVID-19 Vaccine J&J
• COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna Initial
• COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna Subsequent
• COVID-19 Vaccine Pfizer Initial
• COVID-19 Vaccine Pfizer Subsequent
• COVID-19 Vaccine Subsequent

The athenaTelehealth appointment type reasons are indicated by the suffix "Telehealth." For example, the Reason menu on the Patient Appointment Reasons Settings page includes these reasons:

• Behavioral Health
• Behavioral Health - Telehealth
• Consult/Referral
• Consult/Referral - Telehealth
• Follow-Up
• Follow-Up - Telehealth
• New Patient
• New Patient - Telehealth
• Problem
• Problem - Telehealth
• Sick Visit
• Sick Visit - Telehealth

The corresponding Description field for the athenaTelehealth appointment type reasons specifies that the patient is scheduling a telehealth appointment. For example, if you select the Behavioral Health - Telehealth option from the Reason menu, the default description reads as follows:

"I would like to have a Telehealth appointment with my provider for Behavioral Health"

Each automated wellness outreach care gap is associated with one or more clinical guidelines, and each clinical guideline has a unique patient appointment reason (PAR) that is available for Web scheduling configuration. To set up Web scheduling for automated wellness outreach, you must map the relevant PAR to an appointment type and enable Web scheduling.

Note: To enable Web scheduling and ensure that appointment slots are available for patients to book, you must first configure your scheduling templates to support Web scheduling.

Program — Pediatric Preventive Care Guidelines

 

Following are the clinical guidelines used by the automated wellness outreach feature to identify patients who have pediatric preventive care gaps, along with the patient appointment reason (PAR) associated with each clinical guideline.

 

Well-child visits birth-18 months

 

Guideline ID — 6903

Patient appointment reason — Well Visit (Age 0-18 months)

 

 

Well-child visits 18 months-3 years

 

Guideline ID — 6902

Patient appointment reason — Well Visit (Age 18 months-3 years)

 

 

Well-child visits in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth years of life

 

Guideline ID — 4451

Patient appointment reason — Well Visit (Age 3-11)

 

 

Well-child visits in the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh years of life

 

Guideline ID — 6647

Patient appointment reason — Well Visit (Age 3-11)

 

 

All Recommended Vaccinations by Age 2

 

Guideline ID — 5747

Patient appointment reason — Routine Child Vaccinations Visit

 

 

Adolescent well-care visits

 

Guideline ID — 4453

Patient appointment reason — Well Visit (Age 12-21)

 

 

HPV Vaccine: Initial Dose

 

Guideline ID — 487

Patient appointment reason — First HPV Vaccination Visit

 

 

HPV Vaccine: Subsequent Dose

 

Guideline ID — 487

Patient appointment reason — Subsequent HPV Vaccination Visit

 

 

Influenza Child (Aug - Mar)

 

Guideline ID — 489

Patient appointment reason — Child Flu Shot Visit

 

 

Program — Adult Preventive Care Guidelines

 

Following are the clinical guidelines used by the automated wellness outreach feature to identify patients who have adult preventive care gaps, along with the patient appointment reason (PAR) associated with each clinical guideline.

 

Medicare annual wellness visit

 

Guideline ID — 4831

Patient appointment reason — Medicare Annual Wellness Visit

 

 

Adult annual preventive visit

 

Guideline ID — 5701

Patient appointment reason — Adult Annual Wellness Visit

 

 

Breast Cancer Screening (Mammogram)

 

Guideline ID — 309

Patient appointment reason — Breast Cancer Screening (Mammogram)

 

 

Cervical Cancer Screening

 

Guideline ID — 304 and 3827

Patient appointment reason — Cervical Cancer Screening (Pap Test)

 

 

Colorectal cancer screening

 

Guideline ID — 313

Patient appointment reason — Colorectal Cancer Screening

 

 

Influenza Vaccination (Aug - Mar)

 

Guideline ID — 311

Patient appointment reason — Flu Shot Visit

 

 

This table shows the PAR that corresponds to each population health campaign.