Completing appointments

Completing appointments is a good way to make sure that all the necessary tasks have been done for that appointment, such as posting procedures, scheduling the next recare appointment, gathering contact information, and collecting a payment. On the calendar, you can see at a glance which appointments have been completed because those appointment tiles will be a gray color.

Also, to help you complete all the necessary appointment tasks, you can turn on the workflow compliance feature for any location.

To complete an appointment

1. Do one of the following:

   • On the routing panel, click (or tap) the Complete status button.

     

     Note: Changing the status of an appointment for a new patient to "Complete" causes the status of the patient to change from New to Active.

   • On the Calendar page, click (or tap) an appointment. On the Appointment Information panel, change the appointment's Status to Complete, and then click (or tap) Save.

     

   If any of the appointment's procedures have not been posted (either from the routing panel or from the progress notes), the Post Procedures Complete dialog box appears. Otherwise, skip to step 6.

   

2. Do any of the following as needed:

   • Complete each scheduled procedure with a Tx Plan status:

     1. Do one of the following:

        • If the rendering provider is different from the provider who is attached to the appointment, change the Provider, and then click (or tap) Complete.

          

        • Click (or tap) Complete.

          

     2. If the procedure is an orthodontic procedure (D8001-D8999) that requires treatment information, the Orthodontic Treatment pop-up message appears. In the Placement box, enter the date that the appliance was placed. In the Months remaining box, enter the number of months that remain until the treatment is complete. Then, click (or tap) Complete.

        

     3. If a procedure with the same code and treatment areas (such as the tooth number and surfaces) has already been posted complete today, the Duplicate Procedure popup appears. Do one of the following:

        • Click (or tap) Save & Complete.

        • Click (or tap) Cancel. Then, cancel completing the appointment to modify or delete the applicable procedures so that there are not duplicates.

        

     Note: You can mark any associated conditions as Treated before you finish completing this appointment, or someone can do it at a later time.

   • Complete each scheduled procedure with an Other status:

     1. Do one of the following:

        • If the rendering provider is different from the provider who is attached to the appointment, change the Provider, and then click (or tap) Change & Complete.

          

        • Click (or tap) Post.

          

     2. If the procedure is an orthodontic procedure (D8001-D8999) that requires treatment information, the Orthodontic Treatment pop-up message appears. In the Placement box, enter the date that the appliance was placed. In the Months remaining box, enter the number of months that remain until the treatment is complete. Then, click (or tap) Save (if you attempted to change the provider) or Post (if you attempted to post the procedure without changing the provider).

        

     3. If the procedure requires additional treatment information (such as a tooth number and surfaces), the Enter Procedure dialog box appears. Enter the required details, and then click (or tap) Save.

     4. If a procedure with the same code and treatment areas (such as the tooth number and surfaces) has already been posted complete today, the Duplicate Procedure popup appears. Do one of the following:

        • Click (or tap) Save & Complete.

        • Click (or tap) Cancel. Then, cancel completing the appointment to modify or delete the applicable procedures so that there are not duplicates.

        

   • Complete all scheduled procedures at once:

     1. Click (or tap) Complete All.

     2. Do the following as needed:

        • If any of the procedures need to have treatment areas (such as teeth and surfaces) specified or need to have orthodontic treatment information entered before they can be posted, the Bulk Edit Procedure dialog box appears. Enter the missing, required information for each procedure.

          

          Do the following:

          1. Specify the missing, required information for the procedure, and change other options as needed.

             If the procedure is an orthodontic procedure (D8001-D8999) that requires treatment information, the Orthodontic treatment check box is selected, and a warning symbol appears. In the Placement box, enter the date that the appliance was placed. In the Months remaining box, enter the number of months that remain until the treatment is complete.

             

          2. Click (or tap) Next to proceed to the next tab.

             The options to edit the next procedure become available.

             

             Note: The tab of the previous procedure has a green stripe to indicate that all the required information has been specified.

          3. Do one of the following:

             • If the last tab is not selected, repeat steps a-b for the procedure.

             • If the last tab is selected, repeat step a for the procedure, and then click (or tap) Complete All (the button is available only if all the procedures have all the required information).

          4. If a procedure with the same code and treatment areas (such as the tooth number and surfaces) as one of the procedures being completed has already been posted complete today, the Duplicate Procedure popup appears. Do one of the following:

             • Click (or tap) Save & Complete.

             • Click (or tap) Cancel. Then, cancel completing the appointment to modify or delete the applicable procedures so that there are not duplicates.

             

        • If the procedures all have the required information, and if a procedure with the same code and treatment areas (such as the tooth number and surfaces) as one of the procedures being completed has already been posted complete today, the Duplicate Procedure popup appears. Do one of the following:

          • Click (or tap) Save & Complete.

          • Click (or tap) Cancel. Then, cancel completing the appointment to modify or delete the applicable procedures so that there are not duplicates.

          

        • Treat conditions that are associated with completed treatment-planned procedures as needed by clicking (or tapping) the corresponding Condition buttons . If you have not already completed the treatment-planned procedures that were performed to treat those conditions, you can do so before you finish completing this appointment, or someone can do it at a later time.

3. Click (or tap) Complete Appt.

4. According to whether your location uses or does not use the workflow compliance feature for appointment tasks, do one of the following:

   • With workflow compliance: If there are incomplete tasks on the routing panel, a warning message appears, and the incomplete appointment tasks on the routing panel have a yellow background.

     

     Note: The appointment status will remain as "Checkout" until you complete all the appointment tasks or until you specify a reason for not completing all the tasks.

     Do the following:

     1. Complete all the appointment tasks, or at least those that can be.

        

        Under Appointment Tasks, do any of the following as required:

        • Collect a phone number - If there is not a phone number on record for the patient (if the patient is the primary contact for himself or herself) or the patient's primary contact person (if the primary contact is someone other than the patient), Collect Phone Number is available. To enter a phone number, expand the section.

        • Collect an email address - If there is not an email address on record for the patient (if the patient is the primary contact for himself or herself) or the patient's primary contact person (if the primary contact is someone other than the patient), Collect Email is available. To enter an email address, expand the section.

        • Add or schedule recare - If no primary recare types are attached to the patient's record, or if a primary recare type that is attached to the patient's record is not associated with a future appointment, Schedule Recare is available. To add a recare type to a patient's record, click (or tap) Add New Recare. If a recare type is attached to the patient's record but is unscheduled, to schedule a recare appointment for the patient, expand the section, and then click (or tap) the applicable Unscheduled link.

          Note: Only primary recare types are required.

        • Collect a payment - If there is a guarantor balance for the patient, Collect Payment is available. A guarantor balance can consist of a balance for any of the following: the patient (whether or not the patient is the guarantor for himself or herself), the guarantor (if the guarantor is someone other than the patient), or any other patients who share that guarantor. To enter a payment and perform other actions (such as creating and sending a claim), click (or tap) Patient Walkout.

     2. Do one of the following:

        • If all appointment tasks are now complete (the yellow background disappears, and the tasks have green check mark symbols next to them), complete the appointment from the routing panel or the appointment information panel. Ignore the steps that follow.

          

        • If all appointment tasks are still not complete, click (or tap) the provide a reason for skipping incomplete tasks link. Proceed to the next step.

          

          The Reason to Skip Completing All Tasks dialog box appears.

          

     3. Select a reason why tasks were not completed. If you select Other, enter an explanation (such as "Applied pre-payment to balance"), in the box provided.

     4. Click (or tap) Save Reason to complete the appointment.

   • Without workflow compliance: The appointment is marked as completed. According to whether you posted or did not post the recare, do one of the following:

     • If you did post the recare, the Schedule Appointment message appears.

       

       Click (or tap) Schedule Appointment to schedule the patient's next recareappointment.

     • If you did not post the recare, the Update Patient Recare message appears.

       

       Click (or tap) Proceed to Recare to attach the correct recare to the patient's record. Next, you will need to schedule the next appointment for the newly-attached recare type (using the Unscheduled link).

   Note: If you complete the appointment without posting the recare procedure and without scheduling the next recare appointment, the due date of the corresponding recare type attached to the patient does not get updated, and that recare type becomes unscheduled for that patient.

   The patient's appointment card now appears under Complete on the routing panel.

   

5. If you have not already done so, treat conditions associated with completed treatment-planned procedures as needed by clicking (or tapping) the corresponding Condition buttons .