A default view will display when first entering the scheduler . There are 3 available views: 2 Specialist, 5 Specialist, 7 Specialist, Weekly or Consolidated views. Company scheduler parameters determine what the default view is.
At the top of the window, there is a horizontal menu that is full of tools to use with the scheduler:
This exit button will close the appointment scheduler screen.
This back arrow symbol allows the user to view the previous day or week.
This symbol allows the user to view the current date.
This forward arrow allows a user to view the next day or week.
This refresh button will refresh the data and present the latest information.
This icon allows the user to change the location of the schedule being viewed (if the user has permission to view other location schedules).
This button allows the user to change the view to other specialists' schedules (if the user has permission to see the specialists' schedules). The specialists selected here will appear in the specialist summary, beneath the calendar preview. Within the window, users can specify on the right side which specialists they wish to view. The order of the specialists selected to be viewed can be edited by highlighting the name and using the "move up" and "move down" buttons. (Note if utilizing the Scheduler Roster these buttons are not available.) The system will save the user's specialist preferences and apply them to subsequent launches of the appointment scheduler. If your company is using the Specialist Roster functionality, then any sorting of Specialists viewed will not be stored for subsequent sessions.
This symbol represents the scheduler view. Change views from 2 Specialist, 5 Specialist, 7 Specialist Weekly or Consolidated (Roster on only) views.
This printer icon allows the user to print either the current view or custom scheduler print options.(There are two print layout options definable in the SCHEDULER PARAMETERS of the CLINIC INFORMATION set-up. The company default can be selected as either the STANDARD or ALTERNATE layout. (The ALTERNATE layout provides more details regarding additional patients on the same appointment as well as enhanced contact information on preferred contacts).
This icon allows users to search for an available appointment. You can view available appointments within a variety of criteria including location, day and time. The search results display options to a maximum of 60 days after the search start date and will exclude any days that have been identified as "closed days" within CONFIGURE SYSTEM SETTINGS > SCHEDULING > SCHEDULE PARAMETERS.
This icon allows users to create quick recurring appointments that are not associated to a Patient. For example appointments for meetings, lunch or administration time. (Recurring Reasons need to have been configured within Recurrence Reasons in order to use this quick recurring appointment tool). Users are given a new window to enter the Recurring Appointment Details.
The screen prompts within Recurring Appointments are:
LOCATION - Enter the location of this recurring appointment.
SCHEDULE - Choose a specialist to whom to apply this recurring appointment .
APPOINTMENT DATE/TIME - The appointment date and time will default from the previous screen (and which date and time the user touched when the RECURRENCE icon was clicked.)
RECURRENCE REASON - Choose the recurrence reason to be applied to this recurring appointment. Note this is a mandatory field and the RECURRENCE REASONS are maintained within Recurrence Reasons.
APPOINTMENT REASON - If required, choose an appointment reason to be associated to this recurring appointment. Note if your clinic has made APPOINTMENT REASON a mandatory reason within Document Parameters then this field will be mandatory. (Note if utilizing our Telehealth tool, and this appointment is marked below as a TELEHEALTH appointment you will only be able to select a valid APPOINTMENT REASON as configured within Appointment Reasons.)
APPOINTMENT RESOURCE - If required, choose an appointment resource, such as a meeting room or a sound booth. Appointment Resources are configured within Appointment Resources and can be configured to prevent allowing double booking of a resource.
APPOINTMENT LENGTH - Every recurring reason has a default appointment length of time that will auto populate here, however users can edit the length of time to any length needed.
CAMPAIGN - If your clinic uses CAMPAIGN CODES then if required, you can select a campaign code here. Note that if you have made CAMPAIGN CODES mandatory within Document Parameters for appointments, then this field is only mandatory for appointments that have patients associated to them. Since recurring appointments do not have patients associated to them, this field would not apply mandatory campaign codes assigned.
Then users can choose the recurrence pattern and whether the pattern and the date the recurrence is to end by. (Note that the recurrence pattern a user saves, will be offered again by default for subsequent recurring appointments created by the same user, on the same day.)
Press OK to close the window and apply the recurring appointments and be returned to the main APPOINTMENT SCHEDULER screen.
At the top left of the window, the date and location information for the schedule currently being viewed will show, along with the Specialist currently being viewed.
At the left of the window, there are other valuable tools that help users navigate and review schedule information easily.
CALENDAR - A calendar will display that can help users navigate to a particular month or day. Change the month or year shown by selecting the required month from the drop-down menus. (Alternatively, use the mouse to click on the individual day (in blue font) within the month or year selected.)
SCHEDULE SELECT - This area shows the specialists' schedules that the user has permission to see or that are available according the MAINTAIN SPECIALIST ROSTER (if your clinic is using the Specialist Roster.) The specialist currently being shown will appear in bold and the specialists name will appear at the top left of the screen with the location information. The specialist's name will also appear in the tab title for the appointment screen (if viewing in "WEEKLY" view.)
To select a different specialist, click on the name of the specialist within the left side panel or within the SELECT SPECIALIST icon window. The schedule will refresh and change as selected. If using the roster feature, the user will only see the specialists that have been entered into the roster as available for the day/week being viewed. If there are more than 7 available specialists, the user may need to click the Specialist icon in the top icon bar to manually select which specialists (to a limit of seven) to view.
APPOINTMENT DETAILS - This window displays a preview or an information summary of the patient currently being viewed. This preview panel shows important details such as name, phone number, type of appointment, resource, length of time, whether or not the appointment is confirmed in addition to appointment notes. As any appointment within the scheduler is selected, the information shown in the APPOINTMENT DETAILS window will change appropriately.
The scheduler can be viewed as a 2 SPECIALIST, 5 SPECIALIST, 7 SPECIALIST, WEEKLY or CONSOLIDATED VIEW. If your clinic has only one specialist per day, then your default view can be set up to the WEEKLY view by clicking the VIEW icon and selecting WEEKLY. The CONSOLIDATED view is for users who are MAINTAINING A SPECIALIST ROSTER and may have one specialist who travels to multiple clinics. The CONSOLIDATED view allows users to add, change or view appointments for that specialist. Users can print a schedule for a specialist (who is at multiple locations in the same week) on one weekly schedule.
To ADD or EDIT an appointment, click on the time window box for which you wish to schedule the appointment or click on an existing appointment. When you click on an appointment time slot, a second information window will open which allows you to either ADD appointment information or EDIT an existing appointment.
Once in the APPOINTMENT DETAILS window, enter or edit the information as needed. At the very top of this window, the specialist, date and time are displayed for this appointment. These are editable fields.
If the patient is being added on the fly and does not previously exist in the patient file database, hit the PATIENT INFO button on the bottom left to add a patient info file. If you have been set up with card scanning, click the SCAN button at the lower left and follow the prompts to scan a card to retrieve the patient information.
Otherwise, begin entering the patient information under PATIENT DETAILS.
This row of icons appear at the top left of the Appointment Details window.
Exit the appointment details.
Save and exit the appointment details to return to the main scheduler screen.
Delete the appointment details. Frees the appointment time. Note: if the appointment was "auto-created" using a OUTCOME CODE action, then the "auto-created" appointment can be deleted and the user will be prompted to select any or all of the other future associated appointments as well. If an "auto-created" appointment is moved, the user will be prompted to move any or all of the other future associated appointments as well.
Move the appointment details. Note: if the appointment was "auto-created" using a OUTCOME CODE action, then the "auto-created" appointment can be moved and the user will be prompted to move any or all of the other future associated appointments as well.
Create a recurring appointment series not associated to a patient. For example,this can be used to create recurring meeting, lunch or administration time appointments. Users are presented with a window in which the recurrence criteria and pattern can be selected. Click on a time slot and press the recurrence icon to launch the APPOINTMENT RECURRENCE DETAILS window.
The LOCATION, SCHEDULE, APPOINTMENT DATE/TIME will populate based on the user's time slot selection on the previous schedule screen. However, any of these details can be edited.
The APPOINTMENT REASON will allow the user to select the appointment reason for which this recurring appointment is intended. If the RECURRING REASON has been set up with an APPOINTMENT REASON (within Recurrence Reasons), that appointment reason will auto populate when recurrence reason is selected. Otherwise, the user can select any appointment reason. If the clinic has been configured make APPOINTMENT REASON (within Document Parameters) mandatory then an appointment reason must be selected to proceed.
The default APPOINTMENT LENGTH will default based on the RECURRENCE REASON if applicable or the APPOINTMENT REASON if no RECURRENCE REASON was selected. In either case, the default appointment length can be edited as needed.
Select the RECURRENCE PATTERN (IE daily, weekly, bi-weekly...) and select whether the pattern repeats every day or every week. Next ,choose a END BY date for ending the recurring series of appointments.
After pressing OK, the user is presented with a window showing which appointment will be made and which appointment slots were unavailable due to a conflict. Press OK on this presentation screen to complete creation of the recurring appointments.
Copy the appointment details to the Clipboard.
Paste the appointment details from the Clipboard.
View Clipboard details.
Launch the patient details window for the selected patient/ lead.
If using Patient Notifications to automatically send SMS texts or Emails to patients (set up within CONFIGURE SYSTEM SETTINGS > SYSTEM > PATIENT NOTIFICATIONS), this will display pending messages to be sent, sent messages, errors and received message that were received during the messaging process for this specific appointment only. Double click on a message to see the details of the message. If a patient has not been set up for notifications, upon creating an appointment the "pending" window will still show the notification to be sent, however upon sending, the notification will be abandoned or skipped. It is important to note that even if the patient file is missing email or mobile number, that if patient notification processing is set up the patient notification will be added to the queue in this screen. However upon processing, the system will skip this patient. Appointments set as status "X" or CANCELED will be added to the queue and skipped over and not processed. Press OK to close the window.
Launch the audiogram module for the selected patient. (Which icon shows depends on whether Simply Hearing OMS is integrated with Noah.) (Not available for Leads.)
Launch the patient visit notes for the selected patient.
Launch the print option to print either FORMS, LABELS, LETTERS, ENVELOPES or APPOINTMENT LABELS for the selected patient. (Not available for Leads.)
Launch the document history module for the selected patient. (Not available for Leads.) Documents can be added from this window as well. If creating a document from an appointment this way, the appointment will automatically be associated to the invoice created within the invoice header information.
Launches the Attachments for the selected patient.
The Appointment Details screen prompts are:
Indicate whether this appointment is for a Patient or a Lead.
PATIENT NUMBER / PATIENT LEAD NUMBER - To find the patient or lead you wish to assign this appointment, either type part of the last name and press enter to search for your patient, or press the 
button to use the search tool (you can search by last name, phone number, document number, keyword or simply display all patients). Once the patient is selected, the rest of the patient details will auto-populate as needed. Press ENTER to accept and continue through the fields.
ADDITIONAL PATIENTS - Occasionally, more patients may need to be added to a single time slot. To do this, click the 
button to select other patients to enter into the same time slot. If you do not require any additional patients in the same time slot, press ENTER through this field. (An example of when to use this field would be when you are booking 3 appointments that are 20 minutes each, totaling one hour.)
SURVEY RESULTS - Click the button to access the surveys. To add a new survey in this window, click ADD and select which survey to enter. *This is only intended for those clinic that have set up Surveys within SYSTEM > SURVEYS. These same surveys can be added or managed via Patient Information as well.
REASON - You must now select the type of appointment or appointment reason into the details. From the drop-down list, select the reason or appointment type. If you have set up colors for appointment reasons, the assigned appointment color will show beside your selection.
RESOURCE - Select the RESOURCE or ROOM to be used for this appointment from the drop-down menu. For example, a hearing test may require the resource or sound booth room. If you have set up colors to represent resources, the assigned resource color will show beside your selection.
APPOINTMENT LENGTH - The default appointment length assigned to the type of appointment will auto populate. Press ENTER to accept the appointment length. Edit the appointment length by selecting a length in the drop-down list.
RECALL APPOINTMENT - On occasion a recall appointment may need to be added to the scheduler. Clicking this box will put this appointment on the recall list to be confirmed and tracked accordingly on the patient file.
APPOINTMENT STATUS - From the drop-down list, indicate the confirmation status of this appointment. When changing an appointment to the status "CANCELED" and "SAVE AND EXIT" is pressed, the user will be prompted with a message asking "Do you wish to free the time associated with this appointment?" If the user says "NO", the appointment will remain on the scheduler with the appointment status "CANCELED". If the user says "YES", then the appointment will be deleted. However a record of the canceled appointment will remain on the patient's appointment history and the appointment will appear on the Appointment Booking Report. If appointment cancellation reasons have been configured within CONFIGURE SYSTEM SETTINGS > SCHEDULING > Cancellation Reasons and are configured as mandatory, then the user will be prompted to select the CANCELLATION REASON.
CANCELLATION REASON - If the above APPOINTMENT STATUS has been set to "X - CANCELED" then the CANCELLATION REASON can be selected here. (Note, depending on your clinic configuration within Document Parameters > MANDATORY FIELDS you may be forced to select a CANCELLATION REASON should it be deemed mandatory for canceled appointments.
CAMPAIGN - If your clinic uses CAMPAIGNS you can enter which campaign to associate to this appointment. (Note, depending on your clinic configuration within Document Parameters > MANDATORY FIELDS you may be forced to select a CAMPAIGN.
OUTCOME CODE - If your clinic uses OUTCOME CODES you can enter which outcome code to associate to this appointment. (Note, depending on your clinic configuration within Appointment Status Codes you may be forced to select a OUTCOME CODE based on the APPOINTMENT STATUS CODE selected.
(Note if using the Kapow SMS Patient Notifications, changing an appointment to "CANCELED" will prevent the notification from being sent.)
NOTE - A note field is displayed to enter any appointment or patient-specific notes. This field will print on the appointment schedule if the PRINT check box is selected.
TELEHEALTH - If your clinic is configured with the Telehealth digital meeting module, checking this field will open a new TELEHEALTH screen where appointment details can be configured to facilitate a digital meeting. (Please contact Auditdata to learn more about this module and for assistance with configuration.) In order to mark an appointment as a Telehealth appointment, there must be at least one Patient Notifications configured as "Telehealth" so that a notification to the patient/lead that includes the Telehealth meeting details can be sent.
To be able to create a Telehealth appointment, the appointment must be in the future and have a PATIENT NUMBER or PATIENT LEAD NUMBER assigned. The PATIENT NUMBER or PATIENT LEAD NUMBER must also include mobile phone or email address information which will default from the patient or lead file. The sending of Telehealth notifications will respect the assigned PATIENT/ LEAD's preferences within PATIENT INFORMATION > MARKETING > NOTIFICATIONS. This means if your PATIENT/LEAD NUMBER is configured to only allow EMAIL notifications, and the Telehealth message your clinic uses is only configured to send a SMS text, then this appointment will not be able to be saved as a Telehealth appointment for this patient or lead. If a Patient or Lead has a "preferred contact" configured then the Telehealth appointment details will respect the contact details of the preferred contact.
TELEHEALTH INFORMATION screen:
PATIENT INFORMATION - The patient or lead details will populate here based on the selected Patient or Lead.
CONTACT INFORMATION - If the selected Patient or Lead has a contact, those details will appear here. If the contact shown is the PREFERRED CONTACT, a check box will reflect that and the defaulted mobile number/ email address below in the MEETING DETAILS will reflect that.
MEETING DETAILS - Will populate mobile number and email address based on the selected patient (or the preferred contact if applicable.) These are editable fields if you with the Telehealth Notification to be sent to a different mobile number or email address. The first time you create the Telehealth appointment, the URL will appear blank until the appointment has been saved, and the Telehealth meeting has been updated. The URL field will populate with the Telehealth Information screen will only AFTER an appointment is saved and can be copied and pasted as needed. This URL is the Telehealth web link the patient will use to access their online digital meeting with their Specialist.
If you have saved this information previously, the URL will appear and to the RIGHT of the URL listed is a SHARE icon. Click this SHARE icon if your clinic is configured to send DIRECT Telehealth messages. Within this screen you can select between sending a DIRECT message to your Patient or your Specialist that contains Telehealth appointment details such as the digital meeting URL. The SHARE NOW option lets you decide whether to send a direct message to either your patient or your specialist. The displayed URL can also be copied directly to access the meeting within a browser. The MOBILE NUMBER and EMAIL ADDRESS will populate based on who you are sharing the Telehealth meeting details with and you can choose whether to send the details to the mobile phone or the email address. Once selections have been made, the message will be send upon clicking CONTINUE.
Press CONTINUE to save your Telehealth Information or press CANCEL to abort without saving. Once the appointment with a Telehealth meeting is scheduled, any configured PATIENT NOTIFICATIONS will be sent.
The DETAILS button will open the saved Telehealth Information window.
The JOIN NOW button will open the Specialist portion of the saved Telehealth Meeting and should be clicked by the Specialist when they are ready to start their Telehealth digital meeting. A "Welcome Screen" will appear in an opened new browser where the Specialist can enter information and begin their digital meeting for their Patient or Lead. It is important to note that appointments dated BEFORE today's date will have the JOIN NOW button disabled because the appointment is technically in the past and no longer valid.
SCAN - Allows users to scan a card to retrieve patient information.
RECURRENCE - This button allows users to create a series of recurring appointments. Indicate if the recurrence is daily or weekly, as well as when the series of appointments will end.
MOVE - This button brings up a FIND APPOINTMENT window that allows users to easily move this appointment to another time slot or to another specialist if needed. If an appointment has it's time or date edited after a notification has been sent (via SMS or email,) the notification will be added to the queue again.
PATIENT INFO - This button is a direct link to the original patient file (any changes made via this button will be changed in the original patient file as well). If entering a new appointment for a new patient, use this button to enter a new patient file. When opening a particular patient file, it will be unavailable to other users until the window is saved and closed.
To print a label containing the patient and appointment details, click PRINT. This label can then be affixed to the back side of a standard business card for distribution to the patient as an appointment reminder card.
To complete the appointment details, click SAVE AND CANCEL.
OPTION 1: When in the appointment details window of the patient, simply edit the Specialist, Appointment Date or Time. (The Specialist field is not available for editing for clinics using the Specialist Roster.) The system will check that the appointment time is available before allowing you to store the appointment.
OPTION 2: When in the appointment details of an appointment to move, an icon barappearsat the top left of the window. This icon bar displays the available tools for moving appointments.
Copy to clipboard. This tool allows users to copy the appointment details for a specific appointment to the clipboard. A message indicates that this appointment's details have been successfully copied to the clipboard. Next, click DELETE to free the time. Now select the time slot to which you wish to move this appointment.
Pressing this icon while inside a new blank appointment details screen will paste the appointment details that are currently stored on the clipboard.
The Clipboard viewer acts as a preview of what is currently stored on the clipboard.
OPTION 3: When within the appointment details window of the appointment you wish to move, click MOVE.
You can choose ALL LOCATIONS, <SELECT> LOCATIONS (prompts a new window where multiple locations can be selected) or a SINGLE LOCATION.
You can change the appointment's specialist to any specialist within the drop-down menu. (The specialists that appear in the drop-down menu are those that have been validated to be able to complete the same appointment type as this specific appointment).
You then can use the date and time filter options to bring up available appointments within the search criteria. When viewing the appointment search results, you can double click on the actual appointment time slot you wish to choose.
Then select the length of time the appointment search needs to be for.
If SPECIALIST CATEGORIES have been set up, select the category the specialist needs to belong to.
Pressing REFRESH is necessary after changing any appointment searching criteria (to provide you with a list of available appointments.
To exit this window, there are have two options: double-click on an appointment slot to move the selected appointment, or press CANCEL to exit and return to the original appointment details.
To exit the appointment scheduler, click the exit icon located within the top menu icon bar. The session will store the user's last location and date accessed. This allows the user's next appointment scheduler session to display the same location and date as the last appointment scheduler session within any current day. The next day the user will be presented with their default location and the system date upon their first log in.
Appointment Audit Trail:
Located near the bottom right of the appointment, are some audit tools that can be used to review appointment changes.
A time stamp displays when the appointment was created and the user ID of the person who created it.
The AUDIT info box opens a new window that will display this appointments audit trail. Within this audit window, users can double-click on any audit row of information to view the OLD and NEW values to determine what appointment changes have been made to this specific appointment. (If the appointment has had more then 3 changes in one save of the appointment, the system will just display the column names for changed values as this display has a character limit of 30.) If there is a DELETE row that exists here, then the appointment time was "freed". If there is no DELETE row showing in this window, then that means the appointment time was not freed.