Broken Appointment Pull Down Menu in Appointment Book that Posts to the Office Journal
Dental offices need the ability to track the reasons a patient fails their scheduled appointments. The Appointment Book should have the option to require that a reason be selected in a drop down menu when any appointment is broken. i.e., illness, work, no show, transportation, etc. An answer should be required before Dentrix will allow the appointment to be broken and before the office personnel can proceed to the next step. The selected reason should post to the patient's Office Journal in addition to the entry "Broken Appointment". With this feature, the front desk can not only track all broken appointments and the reasons they were broken, but the dentist can utilize this valuable information to determine the quality of the relationship to the practice when making any decisions related to anything ranging from treatment to dismissal from the practice. *The "requirement" feature should be something that can be turned on or off by the practice administrator.
I have a better idea. Start over-booking everyone because I'm sick of grown adults not being able to keep their commitments and half the time they're lying about why they didn't show or have to cancel (we should require a doctor's or employer's note and have check box for it when they bring it in). You're never going to be able to control others' behavior but we can do what works for us and keeps us busy. But, this is still a good idea...At the very least, we can charge (and never get paid) for repeat offenders and have to adjust this balance off when they never, ever show up again. Or we can mention an appointment fee for no shows or cancels and be ripped apart because "it's none of your damn business, doctor, why I chose not to show up. And how dare you threaten me, your patient, with this nonsense? I'll just go elsewhere if I can't be allowed to show up when and if I want to!" I say put the responsibility back on them and quit trying to control every little thing. I'm tired of "tracking" these stupid, selfish people...for whatever reason! Could you tell? :)
I just came onto this site to suggest the exact same thing! ANYTIME an appointment is being broke something should pop up and ask why this was broken and then it logs it directly into the office journal. The office journal now is kinda boring and needs to have more choices :)
Came to this sit to suggest the same thing also. This is probably one of the best improvements Dentrix could make. It would help immensly in the recall process and give providers a tool to track those patients that chronically no show.
I believe she is saying that we need a better way to track missed appointments, or an automatic way to post to their ledger or family file. I have added a code for missed appointments so that I can set it complete to the ledger, but the problem with this is that all the procedures for that appointment are gone as well as notes and original time needed. - So another person has no idea of what the missed apt was for. If there was finally a way to print the broken appointment list, this would be a start.
Agree! As it is now, we "break" the appt, then go into the ledger to post a broken appt and fee, then go into the chart to post a clinical note for the broken appt, then go into the journal entries to post the comments about the no show. An automatic post in all areas would be helpful!
Add to that: when making an appointment it automatically loads a line in the ledger. Any notes made on that particular appointment is added to this appointment notes in the ledger so we can track everything that went on with this appointment (left message, pt cancelled, office cancelled, etc) It would also track the history of what each scheduler/assistant/etc. did in the appointment.
Add to that: When making an appointment it automatically enters a line in the ledger. Every time we made a change to the appointment, whether we moved it, cancelled it, pt cancelled it or moved it, etc. it would track the changes so it's easier to see the history. it would also post the notes if we make a note on the appointment, and who noted it.
If a patient NO SHOWS and the BROKEN appt is used. It would be helpful if it automatically put a chart note, journal note and added to the pts account ledger that they failed to show. It would also be helpful if dentrix gave the option if there is a fee.
Love this idea - right now we do the following steps to break an appointment: 1) make a note in the actual appointment notes regarding the reason for breaking the appointment 2) copy the note and create a journal entry for the broken appointment 3) assess a broken appointment fee in the ledger 4) break the appointment. If this could somehow all happen in tandem or at least #1, #2 and #3, it would be such a time saver. Thanks!
Love this idea - right now we do the following steps to break an appointment: 1) make a note in the actual appointment notes regarding the reason for breaking the appointment 2) copy the note and create a journal entry for the broken appointment 3) assess a broken appointment fee in the ledger 4) break the appointment. If this could somehow all happen in tandem or at least #1, #2 and #4, it would be such a time saver. Thanks!
Guest
this should be implemented for sure
Great idea, but still not implemented 3 years later?
I have a better idea. Start over-booking everyone because I'm sick of grown adults not being able to keep their commitments and half the time they're lying about why they didn't show or have to cancel (we should require a doctor's or employer's note and have check box for it when they bring it in). You're never going to be able to control others' behavior but we can do what works for us and keeps us busy. But, this is still a good idea...At the very least, we can charge (and never get paid) for repeat offenders and have to adjust this balance off when they never, ever show up again. Or we can mention an appointment fee for no shows or cancels and be ripped apart because "it's none of your damn business, doctor, why I chose not to show up. And how dare you threaten me, your patient, with this nonsense? I'll just go elsewhere if I can't be allowed to show up when and if I want to!" I say put the responsibility back on them and quit trying to control every little thing. I'm tired of "tracking" these stupid, selfish people...for whatever reason! Could you tell? :)
Automatically add a line to their Ledger as well & it couldn't get any better!