Intro to Schedule

Set up Schedule

The first time that you enter Schedule, you will be prompted to create a facility.  If so, Click on Manage Facilities button.

If you do not get the above message, Click Tools in the menu bar, and Click the Manage Facilities button in order to initiate the Schedule setup process. Facilities represent your office.  The SOAPware Pro version of Schedule is able to handle any number of facilities or offices that you want to define.  Some users may want to define a single facility for all their offices, but this is not advised.  You will later find that having a facility defined for each of your locations is important for billing purposes.

You should now see the Facility Manager.  The Facility Manager allows for the set-up of any number of facilities, and allows for the customizations of the facilities to your practice.  Click the Create New Facility button.

In the next dialog, we are going to enter information about our facility.  To start, name the facility with the Full Legal Name.  The Full Legal Name is for billing purposes for when we need to submit information to insurance and for other official purposes.  The Facility Name under the Scheduler tab is used in an informal manner within SOAPware and the practice. Continue filling out address information, and Type the NPI number. 

The Place of Service is a list of predefined facility types that will be used to help describe the type of facility being created.  This value is also used later for billing purposes.  Using the drop down menu, select the facility type.  After filling out this information, your display should appear similar to this screenshot:

We aren’t ready to save just yet. Click the Scheduler tab for more options.

The Provider/Resource Management section under the Providers tab will be a list of the Providers who have a SOAPware license.  The Resources tab will represent other types of appointments, such as Labs, Nurse visits, procedures, etc. The Resource tab can also be used for the providers satellite clinic.  The Business Hours Management Section is where the business hours are set for the practice NOT for the individual Providers.  The Facility Closings section is for designating days that the practice will be closed, such as major holidays.

Setting up Provider's work hours

Under the Provider's tab, Click the Provider's name that you wish to edit.  Click on the Edit Provider Information button.

Click to highlight the day and set the provider's hours using the Hours dialog.

The Resource Editor dialog offers customization of the provider's hours of availability along with other information about the Provider.  In the bottom left of the dialog is a Visible checkbox.  The only necessary action at this time is to Click the Visible checkbox to activate the Provider for this facility.

Visible must be checked for the Provider or Resourse to be visible on the Scheduler.

Click on the OK button, and then Click on the Update button.

Every Facility has to have at least 1 Provider visible before we can schedule appointments for that Facility. You should now see the facility that you created in the Facility Manager list. Click the Close button in the bottom right.

You will now be prompted with a Select Facility dialog that shows the facility you created.  If you have defined multiple facilities, this dialog allows you to select the facility with which you want to work.  Since we only have one defined, Click the Select button, and Click the facility name list item to display Scheduler similar to the screenshot below.

Congratulations, you have now set up your first Facility. The next section shows how to actually schedule appointments.
 

Scheduling an Appointment

Before scheduling an appointment, go through the Setting up Scheduling section (above) to ensure scheduling is correctly set up. There are a number of ways to schedule an appointment,, but this demo follows the simplest path.  Begin by opening Schedule:

1. Start SOAPware.
2. If this is the first time you have started SOAPware, it will open to the Chart workspace by default.  In order to switch to the Schedule workspace, Click on SOAPware in the menu bar at the top left, and Click the Schedule menu item.

Again, at this point, you should have already set up Schedule. If you have not set up Schedule, please see the Set up Scheduling section above.

You should now see the Schedule workspace.  Some areas of interest are:

1. Clickable Calendar showing the entire month.

2. List of selected Providers or Resources.

3. Legend giving color information.

4. Time of day (increments can be changed).

5.  Name of Facility.

6.  The Schedule workspace.

At this point,  to select the Provider to schedule. Click the Providers name checkbox.

Notice in the Schedule, the Provider's name is now at the top. If you have more than 1 Provider selected, the Schedule will split and show all providers that have been selected.  This allows for a side by side view of schedules. Now, an appointment can be scheduled.  Assume it’s 7 am, and we just got a call for a patient that wants to come in at 8 am. Double-click In the 8 am row to start the appointment creation process. This action triggers a display similar to the screenshot below that is basically the same as the Chart Rack.

Click the T tab, and then Click the Timmy Test list item (or a patient chart that is available) in the resulting list of patient names.  This action selects the patient, and displays another dialog offering detailed information about the appointment.  The most important information contained in the Make Appointment dialog is located in the Resources area. This area defines the exact time parameters for the appointment.  It also allows for the design of complex characteristics about an appointment if there is a need. it can be kept very simple.  All that is required is to select the Provider along with the start and end times of the appointment.   For now, leave this area as is, as the intent is to schedule a simple appointment for this Provider.
Below Resources, notice the Comments area. In this area, type any information pertaining to the patient’s appointment.  This information is not used or stored in the patient's medical records, and is only used to remind the scheduling staff of specific requests or notes pertaining to the patient’s appointment. Now, Type The patient requires ice cream in the Comments section. Click the Save button.  

In the schedule, notice the appointment in the 8:00 am to 9 am time slot. 

Congratulations, you have now scheduled your first appointment!  

 

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