Appointments

Open Appointment list in the Schedule panel of the main menu to see every appointment at your locations in a date range, earliest first (the calendar shows the same appointments by day, week or month). Each row shows when it is (in the location's time zone), the patients, the appointment type and its color, the providers, the location and the status. Click When, Type, Providers or Location to sort by it instead. The location picker at the top of the menu narrows the list to one location.

Use the toolbar to change the dates (the list opens on today and the next 13 days), or to show one Provider or one Type. Each day runs midnight to midnight in the time zone of the location picked at the top of the menu, or in your practice's time zone under All locations, no matter where your computer is. Show narrows the list to appointments that are Not cancelled, or to Unconfirmed ones with a patient who still has to confirm. A link from the dashboard opens the list with the same dates, provider and Show choice its widget counted; if the link's dates do not exist, the list says so and opens on the usual dates. Pick patients in the patient panel on the left to list only their appointments.

Book an appointment#

1. Click New Appointment. It opens on the next whole hour today, or at 8:00 AM on the day the calendar shows when you have moved the calendar away from today.
2. Choose the Type, the Location, the Date and the Start and End times. Choosing a type fills in its usual length. Turn on All day for something that covers the whole day, such as an event.
3. Under Patient, search by name, chart number or date of birth. Leave Episode on Pick automatically to use the patient's open episode of the type's discipline, or choose one. If you change the patient, an episode of the previous patient goes back to Pick automatically.
4. Under Providers, choose the provider and their Role. Click Add Provider to add another; one provider is primary, others assist or supervise. When the type or the episode you chose has a discipline, the primary provider list shows only providers of that discipline; an assisting provider can come from another discipline (listed under Other disciplines). If you change the episode or type and the primary provider no longer fits, NeatPractice clears the field and asks you to choose again.
5. Optionally add Rooms and equipment, a Subject (a short internal label shown on the schedule) and Notes. Rooms belong to a location: if you change the location, NeatPractice removes the rooms and equipment of the old one and tells you. A clinic that does not schedule by room sees Equipment instead.
6. To bill specific codes instead of the type's usual ones, turn on Bill specific codes under Codes. See Bill several codes.
7. To book the same appointment every week or month, turn on Repeat. See Recurring appointments.
8. Click Book Appointment.

If a provider you book is not on the patient's current care team, the window says so before you save, for example Gabriel Castro will be added to the patient's care team as Covering until Oct 21. Saving adds them: as Covering until the visit's note is due for a single appointment, or as a treating provider with no end date for a recurring series. Cancelling the appointment later does not remove them. See care team.

While you fill in the window, NeatPractice checks the booking for clashes, hours, availability, capacity and authorizations. When the patient has an authorization for the visit, the window also shows what it has left. See Booking checks for what it finds and how to book past a warning.

Split a long booking#

Some payers cap how long one note may cover. When an individual appointment runs longer than the patient's payer allows, the booking checks show the cap with a Split into N sessions button. Click it to book back-to-back appointments at the cap's length instead of one, with the same provider, patient and location; each becomes its own visit with its own note. The booked codes' minutes fill the sessions in order. Click Book Appointment to keep one appointment instead. The offer does not apply to repeating appointments or to a booking with supervision.

Bill several codes#

An appointment normally bills the codes of its appointment type. When one session covers more than one service, such as direct treatment and a supervisor's protocol change in the same hour, book each code with its share of the time:

1. Under Codes, turn on Bill specific codes.
2. Click Add Code, choose the Code and enter its Minutes. The list offers the codes of the appointment type's discipline. Add up to six codes.
3. Drag the rows into the order they should bill in.
4. To share the appointment's length equally, click the Split evenly button beside the Codes heading. Any minutes left over go to the first code: a 45 minute appointment with two codes becomes 23 and 22 minutes.

The minutes cannot add up to more than the appointment, and each code appears once. Turn Bill specific codes off to go back to the type's codes. When you edit an appointment that already has codes, the section opens with them. The authorization checks count each code's minutes against the authorization line that holds that code.

What the type allows depends on its kind:

• Individual: one patient and at least one provider.
• Co-treatment: one patient and providers from at least two disciplines.
• Group: several patients, up to the type's capacity, each with their own status.
• Block: no patient, for lunch, meetings, admin time or time off.

Times are always in the location's time zone, even when you work from another one. For rosters and co-treatments, see Group sessions and co-treatment.

Change an appointment#

Open the row's menu and click Edit, change what you need and click Save Appointment. You cannot change an appointment to a type of a different kind, or change one that was cancelled, rescheduled or completed. If your clinic asks for change notes, say why in Change note. The History section lists the notes on the appointment and its cancellation, newest first.

Appointments on or before the date your clinic locked the schedule cannot change unless your role allows changing locked appointments. For an appointment in a series, NeatPractice asks whether the change applies to this date, this and following dates, or all future dates (see Recurring appointments).

The bottom of the Edit Appointment window also has the appointment's actions: Check In and Reschedule, and under the More actions button (three dots) Cancel Appointment and Void (for users who can void). Save or discard your edits first. Once a patient has checked in, Start Visit comes first and opens the visit for documenting (see Visits).

Change several appointments at once#

In the Appointment list, tick the appointments to change and click Edit Selected in the bar that appears. Choose any of a new Primary provider, Location, Move to date and Start time; fields you leave empty keep each appointment's own value. A new date or start time is read on the clock of the appointment's location and keeps each appointment's length. Moving to another location leaves the old location's rooms behind. Add a Change note and turn on Notify patients as you would for one appointment, then click Apply Changes.

Each appointment is changed on its own, with its own booking checks, so one that cannot move never stops the others. Results lists every appointment as Updated, Needs review (the booking checks found something) or Not changed, with the reason. To save the ones that need review past their warnings, turn on Book past warnings, enter an Override reason if you may override, and click Retry. An appointment in a series changes on its own date only.

Track attendance#

From the row's menu:

• Confirm when the patient or family confirms.
• Check In when the patient arrives. This opens the check-in window.
• No Show when the patient did not come and gave no notice.

If you picked the wrong one, choose Undo Check-In (before the visit starts) or Undo No Show from the row's menu or the Edit Appointment window's More actions menu. The patient goes back to Scheduled; the check-in record stays on file. In a group, use the patient's menu on the Roster (Undo Check-In or Put Back). In session and Completed follow the visit and are not set by hand: starting the visit puts the patient In session.

Cancel or reschedule#

Appointments are never deleted. To cancel, open the row's menu, click Cancel, choose one of your clinic's cancellation reasons, add a note if useful and click Cancel Appointment. A reason on the patient side (by patient, illness or other) inside your clinic's late-cancel window is recorded as a Late cancel, and can carry a missed-visit fee. Rescheduling also offers a Change note when your clinic asks for one. For an appointment in a series, choose whether to cancel this date, this and following dates, or all future dates.

To undo a cancellation, choose Reinstate. The appointment and its patients go back to Scheduled.

The cancel, void and reschedule windows start with a summary of the appointment they change: its patients (or the one patient, when you cancel for a single patient in a group), date and time, type, location and providers.

To move an appointment to another time, choose Reschedule, pick the new date and times and click Reschedule. The button stays off until the date or a time differs from the current slot. NeatPractice books the same appointment at the new time and marks the original one Rescheduled, so both stay on record. If the new time fails a booking check, the window stays open and lists what was found, and nothing changes. Pick another time, or, when you may override the checks, enter an Override reason and click Reschedule again.

Notify the patient#

Booking, rescheduling and cancelling each offer Notify patient, which is on unless you turn it off for that action. The patient (and any contact marked to receive reminders) gets a short email or text from your practice that says an appointment was booked, moved or cancelled, with a link to a page showing the date, time and place. The message itself never names the patient, the provider or the time, so it is safe on a shared phone or inbox.

• A recurring series sends one notice about its first date, not one per date.
• Moving an appointment by dragging it on the calendar notifies the patients when the date or time changes.
• Editing an appointment notifies only when its date, time or location changes.
• Notices use the same channels as your appointment reminders (email, and text when your clinic has the text messages add-on), the patient's preferred language and their message consent. Someone who opted out of texts is not texted.

If a patient cannot be reached, for example because there is no email or text number on file or they opted out, NeatPractice lists them right after you save so you can call instead. Every notice appears in the reminder log.

Void an appointment created in error#

If an appointment should never have existed, such as one booked twice, open the row's menu and click Void, enter the reason and click Void Appointment. The appointment leaves the schedule and the patient's attendance list but stays on record with your reason. You cannot void an appointment once its visit has started; cancel it instead.

To find a voided appointment later, set Show to Voided in the appointment list and pick dates that cover it. Each row's View opens the appointment read-only, with who voided it, when and why.

Voiding needs its own permission, which owners and clinic admins have by default.

Live updates#

Changes made by anyone in your clinic appear on your list and on open charts without refreshing the page.

From the referral queue#

In the referral queue, Book Evaluation opens a new appointment for the referred patient and episode with the Evaluation type. Booking it takes the referral out of the queue.