The Days Database
This is where every appointment slot (every day, every provider) is stored. A template of each daily schedule is created for each provider and used to create the appointment schedule for that provider. When you are creating a new appointment schedule, it’s a good idea to have all the time slots planned for each provider. Think of a "template" as being like an appointment book where there are more appointment slots available then will actually be used.

Adding or deleting slots to the Days module does NOT affect those slots already created in Appointments. The lists you create in Days will be used to create all the actual slots listed in Appointments for patient to be scheduled.


To see the current schedule for a particular day, click on the corresponding button on the bottom of this screen. If no appointments have been created for that date you will get a dialog saying so.

Creating Appointment Slots
There are two ways to create appointments slots; either programming the module to do it for you (not boring) or one at a time (boring and time-consuming).

Automating Appointment Slot Creation
Follow these step-by-step instructions to quickly build a daily or weekly schedule.

• If you are creating a completely new schedule for all providers, you may want to delete all existing slots first and start with a clean slate. This will not make a mess of your current schedule, but it makes it easier to add appointments without duplicating existing slots (can get real icky if you are not careful). Click Delete All and confirm your action at its dialog box (this cannot be undone!).
• If you are trying to delete or change an entire days appointments without changing any of the other days time slots click Delete Set and confirm your action at its dialog box (this cannot be undone!).
• The Setup tab at the top of the screen. The screen below is brought forward. Each step of the process is explained, from A through D!
• Section A - Select a Group/Provider for which you want to create appointment slots! If you want to create appointment slots for multiple providers, you will need to repeat these steps for each provider.
• Section B - For each day select a Start and End Time from its pop-up list. This list can be edited, just type in the time you need (do not type in a space after the time and before the AM or PM!). It’s better to add more appointments than needed for each day and then set them as being not available. This is simulate an appointment book where are are always empty slots!

• You can also set the Break start and Break ends times. If you want to include a “Lunch Break”, enter its start and end times. This flags any slot between these times as “not available”. For example, 12:00PM to 12:59PM is a typical lunch break, yet the 1:00PM slot is stll available.
  
• Section C - Select the Spacing in minutes between appointments for each day, too! It’s a good idea to review each day before building your appointment schedule. Now would be the time to add any omitted appointment slots (remember, it’s easier to flag them as unavailable than to add them later!)
• Section D - After you have entered information for each day of the week for this Group you can create the templates one day at a time by clicking on the day’s abbreviated name (i.e. ).  
• To build more than one day at a time, check off which days you want done (select the check box associated with that day) and then click . This will do each day one at a time (it will warn you it’s about to do each day and give you the option to cancel). This process only creates the list of appointments slots that will be used later to actually create appointment slots in the Appointments module.
• If there is a problem (start time, end time, or spacing aren’t entered), you will be notified and it will not build those days. When the Fast Build is complete you will receive a confirmation dialog. 

Adding Slots to Template
To further customize any day's template, you can add unusual times, such as double-booking, or setting some as unavailable. There are three choices for adding additional slots to any of the Days lists.

• To add a new time slot with no time entered, click New, no time. You are given a blank slot so that you can enter the day, time, and group as needed. When you enter the time it must be typed in as 9:00AM, for example, with no space before the "AM".
• New plus interval duplicates the currently selected slot with  that day’s selected time interval.
• Duplicate Slot (the Dup button) creates a new empty time slot duplicating the current record. This feature is used to “double book” a time slot.
• To sort the current list of appointments (to see how the schedule is really set up), click on an underlined column to sort by that column.

Changing time slot setting (or attributes)
There are many setting for each slot

• Dayname - If you need to you can change the day name from the pop-up list
• Time - You can manually change the time (be sure to add AM or PM, or use military time) or use the up and down arrows to add or subtract time by 5 minute increments.
• AV - The availability of a slot is set by its color and are listed in the AV column. To change a slot from green to yellow (or from available to not available) just click on the colored field. To make all slots available click , otherwise click to make then all un-available. This means that if a user trys to schedule an appointment into an unavailable slot they get a warning dialog.
• Group and Name - You can change the provider by clicking on the provider name field.
• Visit and Description - You can assign a Visit Type to any time slot to remind those entering appointments to only schedule that kind of appointment for that slot. 
• Build - If you want this time slot to be used when you build your schedule, leave the color as green. However, if you do not want to have this slot used when you build your schedule, click on the field and the color goes away. More on this later in the Special Functions section. 
• Single - If you elect to create daily schedules "as needed" rather than build them for several months into the future, leave the color as green. However, if you do not want to have this slot used when you create a "single" day your, click on the field and the color goes away. More on this later in the Special Functions section.
• To delete an appointment slot, click Delete icon on that line.

When you have entered all the appointment slots for each provider (and reviewed them), you can proceed to actually creating the Appointment Scheduler for your office! This is done from within the Calendar module.
 
Reviewing Time Slots
When all time slots have been added you should review each day and determine if all of the time slots are available for patient care. This is the purpose of the buttons on the bottom of the screen. You can view the slots for All Providers of just the selected one.

In the example on top, 11:20AM through 1:20PM are selected as unavailable. When the schedule is finally built, these time slots will be yellow indicating that patient should not be scheduled there.

You can assign a Visit Type any time slot to remind those entering appointments to only schedule that kind of appointment for that slot. Now would be the time to add any omitted appointment slots (remember, it’s easier to make them unavailable than to add them later!

Special Functions

The Build column is extremely important. It tells the Calendar module which slots it will use when it builds your schedule for that day. This comes in extremely handy when you only want to add a few slots across multiple months. For example, if you want to add two times slots to Tuesday, The final result is the graphic below. This is what you do..

• First, change to the correct provider. Click the Change Provider button if needed.
• Click on the Tuesday button to find that provider's Tuesday template. 9:30AM would be the last record before we had the other two.
• Click onto the last record and then click the New plus interval button. If your default interval for Tuesday on the setup screen was "15" then the new slot would have 9:45AM.
• Click on the same button again to create the 10:00AM slot.
• Next, unselect all of Tuesday's time slots by clicking the box above the Build column. Each field under this column will now become blank.
• Now, click just in the 9:45AM and 10:00AM Build fields so they turn green as shown below. These are now flagged as the only Tuesday time slots for this provider that will be used when you add to your schedule.

When you return to the Calendar module, you want to build only Monday for the specific provider above that you changed the schedule for.

The Single column is only used in conjunction with the a feature of the Appointments module that allows you to add one day at a time instead of building for months at a time. This is actually an excellent method for a small practice that wants to be able to book many months or even a year into the future. This method should not be used inconjunction with building schedules because of the great potential of duplicating time slots. Basically it either one or the other!

In order for a time slot to be easily added using the "Single Day Method", the Single field for that time slot needs to be "green" as it is for all of the Tuesday slots above. To learn more about how to use this system and how to please refer to the Special Features section.