Managing Your Practice > Using the Appointment Book > Using the Appointment Expert

Making a New Appointment

To schedule an appointment using the Phone Inquiry button on the Toolbar:

1. Click the Phone Inquiry button. The Select Person on the Phone window is displayed.

2. Select the patient for whom you want to make an appointment, and click OK. The Phone Inquiry window is displayed.

3. Click Make appt. The Make New Appointment window is displayed.

4. Select from the following options:

• Auto dial Use this option to automatically dial the patient. To configure this feature, see Configuring the Auto Dialer.

• Clipboard Click here to access the patient's clipboard.

• Description Click here to select a pre-defined appointment.

• Tx class Click here to select a treatment class for the appointment.

• Recall appointment Select this option to designate this appointment as a recall appointment.

• Sooner if possible Select this box to give the appointment priority for a schedule opening.

• Producer Use this drop-down selection box to assign the producer for this appointment.

• Est. production This field displays the estimated revenue for the appointment.

• Units This section shows the time units allocated for the appointment by producers and non-producers.

• Minutes This section shows the minutes allocated for the appointment by producers and non-producers.

• Ins Est Click here to display the estimated total amount, office write off, insurance estimate, and patient portion for this appointment.

• Add/Edit entry Use this option to revise the selected entry, or to add an entry to the appointment.

• Remove entry Use this option to remove an entry from the appointment.

• Re-calculate Use this option to recalculate the charges for this appointment.

• Lab case Select this option to designate this appointment as a lab case.

• Appt hsty Use this option to display the appointment history for the patient.

• Recall appt. Use this option to designate this appointment as a recall appointment.

To use the Appointment Expert when making a new appointment:

1. Begin scheduling the appointment as described in Scheduling Appointments. When you have finished entering information into the Make New Appointment window, do not click OK.
   
   Click Find in the upper-right corner of the window. The Appointment Expert window is displayed.

2. Under Search Criteria, enter a Time range on which to search. These fields default to 8:00a and 5:00p. Change them as necessary.

3. In the Search from field, change the date, if necessary, and then click next available (day by day) or best of __ weeks.

4. Deselect any days that are not viable for the patient.

5. To increase the search parameters, deselect Observe block booking rules and Don’t overlap doctor time.

6. Under Chairs to search, check the box for each producer whose time you want to search.

7. Click Begin Search. The Appointment Expert searches for the best time meeting the criteria and displays the Appointment Expert Results window.

8. If the search result is not acceptable for the patient, click Next best choice or Ignore this day.
   
   Use the Next best choice and Previous choice buttons to move through the results until an acceptable time for the patient is found.

9. Click Schedule to enter a time in the Appointment Book for the patient.

Related Topics

Scheduling Appointments

Configuring the Auto Dialer