Chart - Planned Appointments
A planned appointment is a template to use when scheduling. It is the chairside assistant that usually enters planned appointments (procedures, additional time, notes) because they are the most familiar with a patient's clinical situation. Then, when scheduling appointments, administrative staff can determine when and how to schedule the appointment based on finances, lab due dates, etc. If you do not have computers in the operatories, planned appointments can be ignored. Instead schedule the next Appointment using your standard procedure as a guideline.
When scheduled, planned appointments are only copied into the Scheduled Appointment. They can only be deleted or changed from the Chart module.
In the Chart module at the upper right, click the Planned Appts tab.
To edit a planned appointment, double click it. The Edit Appointment window will show.
Add: Create a new planned appointment.
Delete: Delete a planned appointment. Deleting a planned appointment will not change scheduled appointments.
PinBoard: Send the selected appointment to the PinBoard for future scheduling.
Up/Down: Reorder the planned appointments.
Done: Check this box when the the patient does not need a planned appointment. This tells the receptionist that the next appointment will be a Recall instead of a needed dental procedure. All patients should have either a planned appointment or be marked Done before going to the front desk. This ensures that no patients get dropped and helps the front desk quickly process the patient with minimal effort. If there is a planned appointment listed, checking Done will delete the planned appointment.
Multiple Planned Appointments: Creating more than one planned appointment is allowed, but it is usually more efficient to only set one planned appointment, because plans change. It is hard to accurately predict the procedures for multiple planned appointments and this is why it is not recommended because you may need to frequently edit and revise the planned appointments when the procedures change.
Lab Cases: Enter on the Edit Appointment window when making the planned appointment. That way they will also get attached to the true appointment when it is made based on the planned appointment.
Typical Office Flow: Typically, a planned appointment set from a previous appointment is left in the Chart module until about half way through the current appointment in case you need to verify that what was planned is what was scheduled. When you are ready, delete the old planned appointment, then determine what the next planned appointment should be and create it.
See Also:
Planned Appointment Tracker
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