Update – April 2023

1. APPOINTMENT REMINDERS UPDATE

Practice EHR has improved its appointment reminder functionality and added new features to create and manage appointment reminders. The new appointment reminder feature will help the practice in the following ways;

• Reducing no-shows: One of the most significant benefits of appointment reminders is that they can reduce the number of no-shows. By sending reminders to patients or clients, they are more likely to remember their appointments and show up on time.
• Improving patient satisfaction: Appointment reminders can help patients feel more cared for by their healthcare providers or service providers. Patients who receive reminders are more likely to feel that their appointments are being taken seriously and that their providers are invested in their health or well-being.
• Saving time and resources: By reducing the number of no-shows, appointment reminders can help healthcare providers and service providers save time and resources. Providers can avoid wasting time waiting for patients who don't show up, and they can fill open appointment slots more efficiently.
• Improving health outcomes: For healthcare providers, appointment reminders can help patients stay on track with their care plans, such as taking medication or attending follow-up appointments. This can ultimately lead to better health outcomes for patients.
• Increasing revenue: Appointment reminders can also help service providers increase revenue by ensuring that appointment slots are filled, reducing the number of empty slots that go unused.

Setting appointment reminders has become much simpler for users as this can now be done directly from the interface.

To enable this feature, users will be required to get in touch with Practice EHR support.

In the standard version of Practice EHR, users can set appointment reminders from the "Practice Profile" window. The selected reminder will automatically apply to all appointments made within the practice.

In Practice EHR Pro, users will be able to set appointment reminders from the:

• “Provider Profile” window. This allows appointment reminders to be applied to all appointments made by the selected provider.
  
• “Reason” window. The appointment reminders applied in this window will be applied to all appointments created with the selected reason.
  
• “Appointment Detail” window. When users book an appointment, they will have the option to select a reminder that will be applied to the appointment in the "Appointment Detail" window.
  

A “Status” dropdown has also been added to the appointment detail window, which displays the status of the appointment.

Important: If different appointment reminders are selected in the provider profile and the reason window, the reminder set in the reason window will be given priority.

Appointment Workflows

Practice EHR offers users the ability to send reminders via email or text. The software includes appointment workflows that allow users to organize their reminders, and users can choose to apply these workflows as they see fit. They are described as follows:

If a user only needs to send reminders via email, either of the two available appointment workflows will be suitable. However, for users who need to send reminders via both email and text, it is recommended that they choose the "Email & Text" appointment workflow.

After selecting a reminder workflow from the dropdown, the label of the dropdown will turn into a hyperlink. Clicking on this hyperlink will open the appointment workflow window, as demonstrated in the following example:

The appointment workflow window displays the actions of how, when, and under what conditions the reminder will be sent to the patient. Users cannot modify the default workflows, but they can create a duplicate of a default workflow and modify the actions of the cloned workflow according to their needs.

Customizing Cloned Workflows

Users can clone a default workflow by clicking the “clone workflow” button on the top right of the appointment workflow window. Note:

• In Practice EHR, users can only create a single clone.
• In Practice EHR Pro, there is no limit on the number of clones a user can make.

Selecting the "clone workflow" button opens a new appointment workflow window and displays a message confirming that the workflow has been cloned.

For a cloned workflow, the “Update Workflow” and “Add Action” buttons are enabled, allowing users to:

• Add new actions to the workflow by selecting the “Add Action” button on the right of the title header of the action grid.
• Edit actions of the workflow from the action detail window by clicking on the hyperlinked actions in the action grid.
• Delete actions from the workflow by clicking on the “Delete” button in the action detail window.

Action Detail Window

Each action within the appointment workflow can be considered as a single reminder that will be sent to the patient. Users can customize these reminders according to their specific requirements using the action detail window.

Users can choose when to send reminders to patients by selecting an option from the "When this happens" dropdown menu. Currently, the available options are to send reminders before the appointment is due or after the patient is checked out.

In upcoming updates users will be able to send reminders at the following times:

• When an appointment is scheduled
• When an appointment is rescheduled
• When a practice cancels an appointment
• When a patient cancels an appointment

After selecting the desired option, users can set the time delay for sending the reminder using the "How long after" field. The time delay can be specified in minutes, hours, or days.

The “Do this” drop-down allows users to choose how this reminder will be sent.

• For the “Email Only” workflow, this dropdown will be disabled with email being the default option.
• For the “Email & Text” workflow, this dropdown will have two options; email and text. Users can choose to have this reminder sent via text or email.

Users can then specify the message that will be sent to the patient by using the “subject” and “body” fields. Variables can be added from the variable dropdown to make the message personalized for each patient.

Lastly, users can choose to add:

• Confirm and Cancel Links, which allow patients to confirm or cancel appointments.
• Practice Footer, which will include the practice footer in the text or email.
• KIOSK Link / Televisit Link, for in-office appointments users can add KIOSK links in the reminders while for televisit appointments, users can add televisit links.

2. SCHEDULING UPDATE

In the calendar section, the “Show Cancelled” checkbox is now available across all calendar displays. Also, all options in the clickable blue drop-down menu are consistent across the “Daily”, “Weekly”, “Monthly” and “Multi View” display in the calendar.

3. CLINICAL VISIT UPDATE

Chief Complaint Auto-Populate

When starting a clinical visit, if the appointment reason matches a chief complaint, then the chief complaint drop-drown in the “Start Process” window will be auto-populated with that matching chief complaint.

Encounter Subsets

The encounter subsets displayed in the CPT and Diagnosis section of the encounter form can be based on the template selected. If the selected template does not have an encounter subset attached, the default encounter subsets will be used.

To enable this feature, users will be required to get in touch with Practice EHR support.

4. MASTER INDEX UPDATE

When using Practice EHR Pro as a "Single Practice" user, the Patient Search screen will display patients from other practices in a grayish color. This makes it easier for users to distinguish between patients from the current practice they are logged in as and patients from other practices.

Users can now duplicate patients of other practices, using the master index feature.

The Master Index window has also been updated. The fields have been arranged in a new order which is “Practice”, “Location” and lastly “Provider”. The “save” button has replaced the “Create Master Index” button.