Keeping your practice organised isn’t just about neatly booking new appointments; it’s also about tracking changes to your Appointment Book caused by ‘Did Not Arrive’s and cancellations, to help keep the chaos at bay.
This article will guide you through how to record DNAs and cancellations properly when managing your Appointment Book, allowing you to follow up with patients who don’t keep their appointments. You’ll also learn how to restore appointments that have been deleted by mistake.
Deleting an appointment is simple – you just highlight the appointment(s) you want to delete and then click the trash can icon to the left of the Appointment Book (or just hit the Delete key).
This will bring up a window that lets you specify actions and details about the appointment.
Just Delete It/Them: This option deletes the appointment from the Appointment Book completely. If you’re using this option, the deletion won’t be automatically recorded, so if you want to make a record of the fact it was deleted, you will need to use the Make a consultation note or Record in patient memo tickboxes on the right to do so (see below for more information).
Did Not Arrive: This option leaves the appointment where it is but fills the Notes column for the appointment with DID NOT ARRIVE, for reference. You can also edit this note before deleting the appointment if you wish.
Cancelled by Patient: This option leaves the appointment where it is but fills the Notes column for the appointment with CANCELLED BY PATIENT, for reference. You can also edit this note before deleting the appointment if you wish.
To help you record specific information about the deleted or cancelled appointment, you can use the checkboxes on the right of the window as well.
Keep Type: This option is only available when you have selected Just Delete It/Them. It replaces the deleted appointment with a blank appointment that retains the same appointment type and duration as the deleted appointment, allowing you to easily re-book this appointment for another patient.
Make a consultation note: This option creates a consult record within the patient’s Clinical window. This consult record will display the details of the appointment, which user deleted it, and any information entered into the note field when deleting it.
Record in Patient Memo: This option adds a memo into the patient’s Demographic window noting that their appointment was deleted or marked as a DNA/Cancellation.
Once you have recorded the deletion with the options above, click Delete (or Delete All if multiple appointments were selected) to finalise the changes.
The Deleted Appointments window acts as an audit of recently deleted appointments showing the details of the appointments, when they were deleted, and which user deleted them. To access this window, navigate to Appts > Deleted Appointments.
Past appointments that are deleted will remain in this list for 14 days after being deleted. If the deleted appointment is a future appointment, the appointment will remain in the list until 14 days after the original appointment date, allowing you to restore it, if need be.
When you have located the appointment(s) that you wish to restore, tick the checkbox to the left of the appointment, and then click the Restore X selected appointment(s) button in the bottom right of the window.
Note: When patient appointments are deleted during a clear out old appointments, these are not able to be restored. For more information on this, see our Delete Patient Appointments Preferences article.