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to help you get more
out
of AppointmentsPRO
AppointmentsPRO
is packed with time-saving features that can make your office more productive.
This week we're featuring 12 of our favorite "tricks and tips"
that can help you accomplish even more.
1.
Advanced Select
If a patient’s name or other information was entered incorrectly,
you may have trouble retrieving it when you need it. Advanced
Select lets you search by other variables (first name, last name,
ssn, patient ID, birthday). You can also use this function to search for
records that may have been accidentally archived. To access Advanced Select,
click the icon above on the toolbar.
2.
Individualize care with pop-up notes 
You can create pop-up notes on the Notes tab of the Edit
Patient screen (click the icon above on the toolbar). The
creative uses for this function are almost endless. Pop-up notes can be
triggered to appear when the patient is selected in the system, when an
appointment is made or when the patient checks in. They’re ideal
for everything from collecting past due deductibles to warning a therapist
of any "idiosyncrasies" the patient may have. You can also use
a pop-up to remind the therapist to ask about something the patient mentioned
in a prior appointment, such as a pain in their ankle or the death of
their pet dog last week.
3.
Remove unnecessary columns from your screen
Each user of AppointmentsPRO can have their own custom view of the scheduling
system, so if you never schedule patients for a certain practitioner,
you don’t have to take up valuable space on your screen with that
column. Simply right-click on the column you want to delete to clear it.
(This will not delete any appointments in the column.)
4.
Reduce no-shows with the reminder letter 
If you’re
still hand-writing reminder cards, we strongly recommend you switch to
the one-click reminder letter. It eliminates mistakes, it’s difficult
for your patient to lose, and it gives you room to fully explain your
cancellation policy. Here is what two customers had to say about the reminder
letter recently on Yahoo’s PT discussion group:
"We are
a small PT practice and just switched to SpectraSoft AppointmentsPRO.
The program has cut appointment-making time dramatically and now forgetful
patients can't swear their card read 11:00 a.m., when they were supposed
to come at 10:00! Actually, at times they do swear it, but now we know
there was no error on our part. My feeling is that a full- size page
is less easy to misplace and the information printed out is more informative
to the patient. The full-size page allows us to clearly restate the
cancellation policy that was signed at the first visit."
"We used
business cards then switched to SpectraSoft so that we print them out
a full size page with all of their appt's listed. We also call 2 days
before each appt and remind PT's. Our NS/late cancellation/ unfilled
appt's now runs 6-7%. I think all of the above have worked except the
business card! We are also a small private practice."
5.
Plan Ahead
AppointmentsPRO contains many features that you may not be using now.
That doesn’t mean you won’t use them in the future. For instance,
on the demographics screen, make sure to collect email addresses and all
phone numbers (home, work, cell, fax) the patient is willing to give.
There may come a day when you want to implement a patient reminder system
or other communications program, and you’ll be glad that data is
there.
6.
Track wait times and late arrivals 
You probably already use the check-in screen to note when patients arrive
and when they are seen by the practitioner. However you may not be tracking
how well you do in admitting patients on time, or how well your patients
do at arriving on time. By clicking on Reports > Statistical
Reports > Arrived vs Seen Comparison,
you can track the average patient wait time. If patients are consistently
experiencing long waits, you should consider either increasing the length
of your appointment time slots (Preferences > System > Time Slot
Length) or investing in new staff, incentives and/or equipment that will
allow you to treat patients faster. This same report also lets you track
late patients. Consistently high "late rates" can drag down office productivity
and are a red flag that you may need to work harder on your appointment
reminder campaign.
7.
Close out each day to
ensure accurate reports
To generate accurate report numbers in Appointments, it's important that
you close each day. You close a day by opening the Client Check-In
Window and clicking on Closeout Day. Beginning
with version 8.2, the system will automatically update a patient's number
of authorized visits even if you don't close the day; however other statistics
like no-shows, cancels and visits will be skewed if you do not close each
day properly.
8.
"Concurrent User/User logged in" error 
This is the most common question our tech support team hears. There are
two situations that can cause this error message. First, if you have more
users trying to log on to the system than you have licenses, you need
to add more licenses. Contact your SpectraSoft representative to get the
licenses you need. The second cause is that your PC shut down improperly,
due to a power outage or freeze-up. Beginning with Version 8.0, a safeguard
was added to AppointmentsPRO to protect against this error. If you experience
this error using Version 8.0 or above, simply wait 30 seconds and the
problem will correct itself automatically. If you are using an earlier
version of AppointmentsPRO, ask your system administrator to log you off
the system. Your administrator can do this by clicking Start
> Programs > AppointmentsPRO > Appointments Utils to
access the logout utility.
9.
Enhance your system security with "Auto Logout"
If you have HIPAA concerns or if you use AppointmentsPRO in an open setting,
you can set your computer to automatically log out if you don’t
perform any activity for a given amount of time. This is a great feature
if you sometimes forget to log out at lunch or at the end of the day.
To activate the Auto Logout feature, click on Tools > Preferences
> User Maint. Then click the "Enable Auto Logout"
box and enter the number of minutes that should pass before the system
logs you out.
10.
Skip the "Select Patient" button
You can save keystrokes and mouse clicks with these little-known shortcuts
for selecting patients in AppointmentsPRO: (1) From the main schedule
screen, simply start typing the first letters of the patient’s last
name to select a new patient; (2) if the patient is already scheduled
on your screen, right click on the appointment and choose Select
Patient.
11.
Use templates to schedule recurring events
Your office probably has many activities that recur each
day, each week or each month. Perhaps you have a staff meeting the first
Monday of the month, or one of your therapists has the day off every Wednesday.
Instead of entering each of these occurrences over and over, use the template
feature to enter them once for the year. Click on Data > Templates
to begin. To master the template feature, watch
this video...
12.
Automate mundane appointment reminder tasks
One of the most powerful features in AppointmentsPRO is the ability to
create batch appointment reminders by phone, e-mail or mail. With just
a few mouse clicks, you can remind every patient on your schedule about
their appointment. This feature can save your staff hours of time each
week...increase your contact rate...and cut your no-shows dramatically.
Here's how...
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