To Create an Appointment Book

1. From the ‘Configure’ menu, select ‘Appointment Book…’.

   NOTE: This Wizard is also invoked when you click the button when you are adding or editing a new provider, and need to add a new appointment book:

   

2. The following screen will appear:

   

   Note that both the 'View Week' and 'View Day' areas can be coloured by either Booked Provider, or Category, or by the patient's payor. The "Appointment Colours" items allow other colours to be applied to the appointment blocks according to each criteria listed.

   Click on the button to add an appointment book. A set-up wizard will appear to guide you through the steps to take to create a new appointment book.

3. The first screen of the wizard contains only instructions and information:

   

4. On the first screen of the set-up wizard, read the instructions carefully, then press to open the ‘Some basic details…’ window:

   

5. In the ‘Some basic details…’ screen, enter a name for the appointment book, to be displayed on the Workspace bar:

   

   Examples of names may be ‘Main’, ‘Diary’, ‘Appointments’, or the name of the provider.

6. In the ‘Time Interval’ field, accept the default setting of 10 minutes or use the button to make a change. The time interval is the minimum appointment length for appointments.

   QUICKTIP: The best setting for this field is 5 minutes rather than the default of 10. This enables more flexibility with actual appointment lengths, and will allow more space on the appointment blocks in the View Day Area for displaying patient and appointment information, especially for short appointments.

7. Use the ‘Start Time’ and ‘End Time’ fields to determine when bookable time will be displayed on the ‘View Week’ area of the appointment book. These times determine whether any grey, blocked off time, is seen before the start of the day and at the end of the day. Click ‘Next’ to continue.

   QUICKTIP: If the Facility opens from 8am to 5pm, set the start and end times to half an hour before and after Facility hours, to allow out-of-hours booking.

8. If your practice has more than one room used by providers, and the provider you are setting up will be moving between rooms (such as when treating different patients), you will need to schedule rooms.
   If not, accept the default of "Do Not Schedule To Rooms".

   

9. The last screen is used for setting up columns for the provider(s) in this new appointment book.
   You can choose narrow or wide columns. If ‘Narrow Column’ is selected, the provider will have a narrow column in the ‘View Day’ area of the appointment book, but will not be visible in the ‘View Week’ area of the appointment book. Whenever possible it is advisable to select a wide column.
   Highlight each provider required in this book, then click the "move" button (see below) to move them to the appointment book:

   

   NOTES:

   The order in which Providers are listed within the ‘Selected Columns’ area is the order in which they will appear in the appointment book.

   To arrange Providers into any other order, use the buttons to move Providers up or down the list.

10. If you need to create a new room, you can do this by clicking on the button below "Available Rooms":

    
    

11. Click on the ‘Finish’ button to create the appointment book. This can now be selected and viewed on the workspace. Follow these steps again to create more appointment books if necessary.

To transfer appointments for another provider to the current (new) provider, use the Search and Change facility.