By combining the power of Nextech with the power of NextPatient, online scheduling can be a very seamless process not only for the patients, but also for the office staff. In this article, we are going to talk about two methods that are able to be configured in Nextech to help improve the workflow for your team.
Visual Distinction between appointments booked internally vs online
We can visually identify appointments made online vs those made internally by creating a unique Appointment Status in Nextech.
In the image above, you will see that the appointment on the top and bottom having a status of Pending (p) while the two in the middle are set to Pending - Web (w) and have a different background color. This allows anyone looking at the schedule to quickly see the difference between these two appointments without having to hunt for an Input User name or special appointment types.
Setup Instructions:
Add an Appointment Status: Admin Module → Scheduler tab → Edit Status. Normally all appointments begin as “Pending (p)”, but we recommend adding a new option for “Pending - Web (w)”.
Update Preferences: Tools → Edit Preferences → Scheduler Module → Online Scheduling → General. Assign the “Online Scheduling Appointments - Book” preference value to “Pending - Web” and press Save.
Using the Online Appointment Queue
Nextech’s internal Online Appointment Queue can be configured to work well with all API based online scheduling systems including NextPatient. This tool allows the office staff to locate any appointment made through the API with easy to use filters for date range, location, provider, and even appointment type or purpose. To access this tool, go to Activities → Scheduling → Online Scheduling… or click its icon in the Scheduler module shown below in green.
There are three components to this tool: 1) Appointment Holds, 2) Appointment Requests, 3) Cancel Appointment Requests
Appointment Holds: using the setup reference below, it is possible to have all scheduled appointments via the API appear in this space; despite being titled ‘Appointment Holds’, these appointments are fully scheduled and require no action from the office to finalize. Clicking on an appointment in the list below will take you to that date and time to further review the appointment. To clear it from this list, simply right-click on the appointment in the SCHEDULER, not the Appointment Holds screen, and click on “Mark as Pending”; this will set it back to a Pending status and background color.
Appointment Requests: this section is used if the office utilizes Appointment Requests through MyPatientVisit; most offices do not implement this feature and can ignore this part.
Cancel Appointment Requests: if the office requires a cancellation reason (or other lessor factors), an API partner is not able to cancel the appointment so any cancellation attempt via API will appear in this section. If the office does not require a cancellation reason be selected for canceled appointments, NextPatient will attempt to cancel the appointment completely before adding to this queue. To complete a cancellation from this list, simply right-click on the appointment and select ‘Cancel Appointment’.
Note: The Online Schedule Queue’s icon in the Scheduler Module will be disabled when there is no activity to review. You can still access the tool through the Activities menu at any time.
Setup Instructions:
Update Preferences: Tools → Edit Preferences → Scheduler Module → Online Scheduling → General. Assign the “Online Scheduling Appointments - Hold” preference value to “Pending - Web” and press Save.
Setting the hold preference does not impact the appointment being saved. All appointments through NextPatient will still be saved successfully and no action is officially needed from the staff to confirm the appointment.