Appointment types are generally umbrella terms such as ‘Initial Consultation’ and ‘Procedure’. You may want to break down appointments by length such as ‘Initial Consultation 15 mins’, ‘Initial Consultation 30 mins’, as this is especially helpful where billing is not linear (the cost of a 30 min is not twice the cost of a 15 min appointment).
Adding a new appointment type
- From the Start Page, click on ‘Admin’ followed by ‘Appointment Admin’
- Once on the appointment page, click on ‘New’ to create a new appointment type
- Here you will want to fill in any relevant details (see below for a full list of options)
- Once you are done, click 'Save' to save your appointment type.
There are a number of configuration options on this page, these include:
- Name - The name of the appointment type.
- Default Duration - The length of time the appointment is expected to take. This duration can be overriden during the booking process.
- Follow up - Is this appointment type a follow up? If selected this appointment can be created off the back of a preliminary appointment.
- Clinical Form - Select the default form used for this consultation. If you would like a new clinical form please contact the Meddbase support team.
- Charged by the hour - If the appointment type is charged by the hour, tick this box. There will be additional configuration needed within the billing rules.
- Service Code - Create codes to easily report on the number of this appointment type booked or import the data into external accountancy software for further analysis.
- Cancelled Code - Create codes to easily report on the number of times this appointment type was cancelled within your companies' first cancellation period or import the data into external accountancy software for further analysis.
- 2nd Cancelled Code - Create codes to easily report on the number of times this appointment type was cancelled within your companies secondary cancellation period or import the data into external accountancy software for further analysis.
- Did Not Arrive Code - Create codes to easily report on the number of patients who did not arrive for this appointment type or import the data into external accountancy software for further analysis.
- VAT Exempt - Define whether VAT charges are applied to this appointment type.
- Questionnaires - Add questionnaires for patients to fill out prior to appointment arrival (for use within the patient portal only). If you require a new questionnaire to be added to your system, please contact the Meddbase support team.
- Confirmation Details
- Letter Template - Select the template used by default for a confirmation letter.
- Email Message - Use this field to create an email to send out to patients upon booking this appointment type. Template codes can be used here to pull through specific information such as the patient's name, the appointment duration etc.
- SMS Message - Use this field to create an SMS to send out to patients upon booking this appointment type. As with the email message, template codes can be utilised here.
- Accountancy Details
- Nominal Code - Use nominal codes to sort your appointment types into groups for reporting or accounting purposes.
- Department Code - Sort your appointments into departments for reporting or accounting purposes.
There are additional configurable features on this dialogue.