Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Appointment Confirmations V. 7.1.1

Looking for a quick work-around from the Masters out there...
I try to read the AP section of each patient's last Office note before confirming their follow up appointment. That way I can make sure I have any testing/labs, etc., the Doctor ordered before the patient comes back in. Is there any faster way to confirm the appointment and read the A/P without having to click in and out of the chart and back to the schedule to Verify appointments? Do the newer versions have a better workflow method? Do these questions make sense?
Any advice out there?

Going at your questions in reverse:
Do they make sense: YES

Do newer versions have a better workflow method: NOT REALLY

Is there a faster way to confirm the appointment: Well....
It's great that you are checking to make sure everything is there from the last appointment. This makes things go a lot smoother in the exam room.

There are a couple of ways to do this:
A) If they are done as orders and you have followed up on the orders they SHOULD be there (in import items) (sometimes things get lost...) This depends on whether the Doc is putting them into orders and you are checking them for return. This is a good way to verify that things sent out get back. Not everyone uses it, but probably should for this very reason.
B) If you put the things you need to check in the reason for appointment (upper right corner of the appointment page) you will know what you have to look for. It's a small space and you may have to set up abbreviations. You can open import items from the main screen by highlighting the name and hit the F9 key. It's quicker than double click or right click and find import items.
If you have confidence that what went out came back (checking orders) you might not even need to do this.

I hope this makes sense. Anyone else with another method please chime in.

Trista,
First of all, you deserve a lot of credit; what you do must be a big help to the docs in the office.
I am not sure how you are doing it now, but I would think that there is no way to get the information you need without getting into each patient's chart. (UNLESS you start to utilize the improved order reconciliation in V9, but even then, I am not sure it would help much). So the key is getting back and forth from charts to the scheduler most efficiently.
Maybe this is no better than what you are doing, but I would suggest working from the scheduler. Select the first patient, hit f8 to see the most recent encounter, and if necessary look in imported items (f9) to be sure all ordered stuff is there. Then close chart and on the main page, hit "verify appointment" and change it to "confirmed".
Then move to the next patient.

Thanks Jon,
See, that's why I asked someone else to chime in. I completely overlooked the F keys although I use them.

Thank you for the answers. I didn't know about the F keys, so I will try to utilize those for a while and see if they help me work faster.

As a single person office, there's always a ton of work to do, so I appreciate anything that can help me work smarter, not harder.