What are unbooked appointments?
Unbooked appointments are appointments which are not linked to a treatment plan.
An unbooked appointment is created when a clinician adds future appointments to a treatment plan, indicating that further work is required in the future, but the appointments have not yet been booked for the patient.
Unbooked appointments are visible in the patient record, and from here, receptionists can book them into the calendar, or link them to existing appointments.
How is a new unbooked appointment created?
While in an open treatment plan, you will see a calendar icon with a plus ➕ symbol underneath existing appointments.
Click this 'Add appointment' button. It will say 'Not yet booked' in the top right corner (this will change to show the practitioner, date and time once it is booked into the calendar or linked to an existing booked appointment).
A new appointment will be added underneath. Initially this will be named 'Appt. X' (with the numbers going up in chronological order) - but you can rename it at any time if you wish, by clicking the existing name and typing in a new one.
You can add booking notes, in addition to any clinical notes, and change the duration of the appointment as needed. This will tell the receptionist how long the appointment needs to be when they book it.
New unbooked appointments will indicate that future work needs to be carried out - this will automatically add an unbooked appointment to the 'Appointments' tab in the patient record, which will include the chosen duration and any other information.
Receptionists can then use this information to book the unbooked appointments in the calendar.
💡 Top tip: If you turn on 'Do not book' for the appointment, it will remain in the treatment plan but won't appear in the 'Unbooked Appointments' list in the patient record.
Where can I see a patient's unbooked appointments?
Go to the patient record.
Click the 'Appointments' tab.
Here you will see a list of all the appointments that a clinician has indicated are required for the patient.
The chosen duration of the unbooked appointment, plus any notes added by the practitioner, will be visible here.
From here, you can book them into the calendar, or make them unavailable for booking.
Once an appointment is booked into the calendar or linked to an upcoming booked appointment, it will disappear from this list.
💡 Top tip: You can use this feature when a patient comes out of surgery, to see if the patient has any unbooked appointments in their record which you should book into the calendar.
How do I book an unbooked appointment into the calendar?
To ensure the clinician's info for the treatment is carried over to the future appointment, it is important that unbooked appointments are used to book future appointments in the calendar.
💡 Top tip: If the patient has a past or upcoming appointment already, you can link the existing appointment to the unbooked appointment in the patient record, to ensure all the required work will be accounted for and details will be carried over. You can also unlink appointments if needed.
To book unbooked appointments:
While in the calendar, click a time slot to begin booking an appointment.
Once you have selected the relevant patient, if they have any unbooked appointments, these will appear under their name as a dropdown.
You can choose to either book a 'New appointment', or select the relevant unbooked appointment from the dropdown list.
Selecting one of the unbooked appointments will automatically populate the appointment details (if they were included in the treatment plan).
Complete the rest of the booking as normal.
Once an unbooked appointment has been booked in the calendar, it will no longer appear in the 'Unbooked appointments' list in the patient record.