Managing Appointment Types in Tops Ortho

Add, Configure and Remove Appointment Types

Appointment Types determine much more than what appears on the Appointment Book. When configured thoughtfully, they can help your team prepare for upcoming appointments, track visits accurately, manage lab cases, identify potential charges, automate Treatment Status changes, and improve Appointment Search results.

Appointment Types are managed from:

Tops Ortho > Practice Setup > Calendar > Appointment Types

Add an Appointment Type

To create a new Appointment Type:

1. Click the + at the bottom of the Appointment Types list.
2. Enter the Appointment Type name.
3. Enter a Short Name. This is the abbreviated name displayed on the Appointment Book when the appointment is scheduled.
4. Select the Group to which the Appointment Type belongs.
5. Configure any additional options that should apply automatically when this Appointment Type is scheduled.

The settings available within an Appointment Type are described below.

Emergency Appointments

If this Appointment Type represents an emergency visit, identify it as an Emergency and select the appropriate Emergency Visit Classification, if applicable.  This classification is currently used in Gaidge Analytics when detailing Repair Visits.

Emergency visits are included in applicable visit calculations, including cost-per-visit calculations. They are also counted in the patient’s chart, allowing the practice to quickly see how many emergency visits a patient has had.

Lab Requirements

If lab work is associated with the Appointment Type, identify the appropriate lab requirement:

• No Lab Case
• Must Go to Lab
• Must Be Back from Lab

If an Appointment Type using Must Go to Lab or Must Be Back from Lab should always be associated with a particular lab, select that lab. For example, the practice might use an in-house lab or an outside lab such as Invisalign.

If applicable, you can also select the Lab Case Type associated with the appointment.

Update Lab Information for an Individual Appointment

Lab settings configured with an Appointment Type provide defaults when the appointment is scheduled. These selections can be changed for an individual appointment from the Appointment Information window.

Back From Lab can also be selected directly from the Appointment Book for an individual appointment when the associated lab case has been delivered or is ready.

Appointment Preparation and Staff Follow-up

Appointment Types can automatically flag activities that staff members need to complete before or after an appointment.

Configure the Appointment Type when it routinely requires:

• Actions before the appointment
• Calls before the appointment
• Calls after the appointment

These flags are especially helpful when staff members use Matrix > Appointments to prepare for upcoming appointments and identify tasks that require attention.

Expected Appointment Charges

If an Appointment Type commonly has a charge associated with it, identify the Expected Charge.

An Expected Charge does not automatically post a charge to the patient’s ledger.

Instead, it helps the front desk identify patients who may require a charge when reviewing the Appointment Charges Today report. Staff can then confirm whether the charge is appropriate and post it when needed.

Automatically Update Treatment Status

An Appointment Type can automatically change a patient’s Treatment Status when the appointment is completed.

For example:

• Completing a Start/Bonding Appointment Type could automatically change the patient to Active Treatment.
• Completing a Final Debond Appointment Type could automatically change the patient to Final Retention.

Using Treatment Status changes with Appointment Types can help keep patient statuses current without requiring staff members to remember to update them manually after each visit.

Appointment Type Reporting Options

The checkboxes in the lower portion of the Appointment Type setup window help Tops Ortho categorize appointments for reporting and other workflows.

Count as New Patient Exam

Select Count as New Patient Exam when the completed appointment should be included in the practice’s number of new patient exams for a defined period of time.

A Consult Visit is not necessarily the same as a New Patient Exam. If an initial consultation is also considered a new patient exam by your practice, select Count as New Patient Exam if you want that visit included in your new patient exam reporting.

Count as Records, Recall, Consult and Retention Visits

Appointments identified as Records, Recall, Consult, or Retention visits are not considered Treatment Visits when calculating the value per Treatment Visit.

Use the appropriate checkbox to classify the Appointment Type as:

• Count as Records Visit
• Count as Recall Visit
• Count as Consult Visit
• Count as Retention Visit

These classifications allow Tops Ortho to distinguish these appointments from Treatment Visits for applicable reporting.

Some classifications are also used when reporting appointment activity to Gaidge Analytics:

• Count as Recall Visit counts the completed recall exam as an Observation Visit in Gaidge Analytics.
• Count as Retention Visit counts the completed retention appointment as a Retention Visit in Gaidge Analytics.

Count as Retention Visit also affects the Too Many Retention Visits report in D7 Patient Care Tracking.

Count as Virtual Visit

Unlike Records, Recall, Consult, and Retention visits, an appointment identified as a Virtual Visit is considered a Treatment Visit and is included when calculating the value per Treatment Visit.

Configure Appointment Duration

The Appointment Type Definition determines the expected duration and structure of the Appointment Type.

Configuring the appropriate duration helps staff ensure they are scheduling enough time for that type of appointment. It also plays an important role when using Appointment Search to locate available appointment times.

When necessary, the configured appointment duration can be overridden. Permissions can be used to control who can override the defined appointment length, or exceptions can be configured in the General tab of the Calendar setup menu. (Tops Ortho>Practice Set-up>Calendar>General)

This allows the practice to establish standard appointment lengths while still providing flexibility when an individual appointment requires a different amount of time.

Configure Doctor Time

If your practice tracks doctor time, you can designate when during an appointment the doctor is expected to be needed.

Assigning Doctor Time is not required when configuring an Appointment Type or defining its length.

When Doctor Time is used, each 5-minute increment of the appointment is divided into thirds, allowing the practice to identify the portions of the appointment during which the doctor is expected to be involved.

Properly configuring Doctor Time allows staff members to visually identify situations on the Appointment Book where the doctor may be expected in two places at the same time.

Doctor Time is also used by Appointment Search (Action>Make New Appointment or Command-U)to help prevent scheduling appointments with overlapping doctor requirements.

How Appointment Search handles Doctor Time is determined by the practice’s configuration under the General tab of Calendar Setup  (Tops Ortho>Practice Set-up>Calendar>General). The practice can choose to select Ignore Doctor Time if preferred.

The goal of Doctor Time is not to prevent the practice from scheduling when an exception is necessary. Instead, it provides staff with another tool for identifying potential conflicts and finding appointment times that best match the practice’s scheduling preferences.

Remove an Appointment Type

Before an Appointment Type can be deleted, there can be no future use of that Appointment Type in any capacity.

This includes future appointments that were:

• Scheduled
• Rescheduled
• Cancelled
• Deleted

Even if an appointment is no longer actively scheduled, an instance of that Appointment Type may prevent it from being deleted until the associated date has passed.

Find Future Instances of an Appointment Type

If Tops Ortho will not allow you to delete an Appointment Type, search for future instances using Matrix > Appointments.

1. Go to Matrix > Appointments.
2. Enter a date range extending far enough into the future to locate possible instances of the Appointment Type.
3. Select All Statuses from the drop-down filter at the top of the report.
4. Configure a column to display Procedure/Status.
5. Sort by Procedure/Status by clicking the column header to easily locate the Appointment Type.
6. Identify the furthest date in the future on which that Appointment Type was used.

Remember that the appointment may have since been rescheduled, cancelled, or deleted. Its original future instance can still prevent the Appointment Type from being removed.

Make a note of the latest date associated with the Appointment Type. Once that date has passed, return to:

Tops Ortho > Practice Setup > Calendar > Appointment Types

You can then delete the Appointment Type by highlighting the appointment and selecting the (-) minus symbol.

Best Practice

Appointment Types can affect scheduling, workflow, reporting, Patient Flow, Treatment Status, lab tracking, visit calculations, and Appointment Search. Before adding or changing an Appointment Type, consider not only what the appointment should be called, but also what should happen when your team schedules and completes that type of visit.

A well-configured Appointment Type can establish useful defaults, reduce manual steps, and help keep scheduling and reporting information consistent while still allowing staff to make changes for an individual appointment when needed.