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Select Tools -> Look-up Tables -> Appointments Diary Tables
All of the tables in this section work in the same way. To select a table, highlight it and click <Open>. A list of existing entries will be displayed. Initially, most of the tables within PPS will be empty.
To createa new entry click <Add>.
To modifyan existing entry, highlight the entry you wish to modify and click <Modify>.
To deletean entry, highlight the entry you wish to delete and click <Delete>.
To exportyour look-up table/list, where available, click <Export>. This is useful if you wish to print it.
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Treatment Rooms
If you have more than one treatment room in your clinic you can create a list of rooms that can subsequently be allocated to practitioners when setting up the appointment diaries.
The arrows to the right of the list of locations allow you to define the order of rooms when viewing/printing the appointments diary.
You can also specify a colour and short code for each location to make the appointments diary even clearer to view.
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Locations
Diary locations work in a similar way to treatment rooms but allow you to define separate clinics.
This is essential if you are using a single PPS database to run several clinics.
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Slot Descriptions
These are used to optionally describe each block of appointments you set up. This can be used for example to show on the diary that you have routine appointments in the morning and home visits in the afternoon. When selecting this table a list of existing locations are displayed.
The arrows to the right of the list of slot descriptions allow you to define the order that the slot descriptions will appear in the list when you are setting up your diary. You can use this to display your common items at the top of the list.
When defining each slot description you can also specify a colour. The diary will show each block of free appointments in the selected colour in 'diary' view or show a coloured header for each appointment block in 'list' view.
Diary Slot Descriptions are allocated when setting up each practitioner’s dairy.
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Reasons for Non-Attendance
You can define a set of reasons for non-attendance when a client fails to show up for their appointment.
For each entry you can specify whether the slot can be re-used and also apply an optional charge code (from your list of standard charges).
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Appointment Type
You can create a variety of appointment types, for example New Patient, Ongoing Treatment etc.
You can optionally choose to select one of your appointment types as a default that will always appear when creating a new appointment.
Each appointment type can have a charge code associated with it (from your list of standard charges).
You can also schedule a reminder telephone call or letter for a specified time in the future. For example: to remind the patient about their next appointment.
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Non-Availability Reasons
You can define a list of reasons to allocate when you are not available within the appointments diary without having to change the practitioner's working week. This can be useful when scheduling a practice meeting.
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Equipment
You can define a list of important equipment used within the practice when treating clients.
Using this facility is extremely useful if you have equipment that is shared by more than one practitioner. You can easily see when and by whom the equipment is being used when viewing the appointments diary.
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Calendar Dates
You can define a list of calendar dates to highlight important events within the appointments diary. These could include bank holidays, birthdays etc. You can optionally specify if the calendar date is to be repeated each year (Christmas and New Year etc.) You can also apply the calendar date to the whole diary or a single practitioner.
Each entry is displayed at the top of the relevant column within the appointments diary.
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Add
Look this up under the type of new record you want to add – e.g. Client - Add or Appointment - Add Allocate
See: Payments - Allocating Appointment
An Appointment is an entry in the Appointments Diary for a client. When you set up your diary, you are setting up the free appointment slots. You then book Appointments into these free slots. Each Appointment can be marked with a status, represented by a colour, to show that the client has arrived for their appointment (green), is currently being seen by the practitioner (orange) or the appointment is completed (purple). You can also mark an appointment as DNA (did not attend) and select a reason why the client has not attended – these are marked in red. When booking an appointment on the diary, this is normally done by highlight a free slot then selecting to add the new appointment. When doing this, the appointment details such as date, time, duration, diary user, treatment room, etc. are already known and you do not have to enter them. Appointments Diary
The PPS Appointments Diary allows you to record your client appointments, and manage your available appointment times. There are a variety of diary view styles to suit your needs including single day, whole week, single or multiple users etc. You can access the PPS Appointments Diary from the PPS Menu: Appointments – Appointments Diary, or by pressing Ctrl-A on the Keyboard. You can also click on Appointments, or Diary on the Task Bar. The diary has a toolbar to give you access to common functions such as adding appointments, and when the diary is displayed, clicking on an item in the task bar, or selecting from the PPS menu will normally be related to the currently highlighted appointment. For example, if an appointment for Mrs Smith is highlighted, then clicking on the Accounts option on the task bar will show the accounts screen for Mrs Smith.
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A Practitioner on the PPS Appointments Diary is referred to as a “Diary User”. This is to allow the diary to be used by more people than just Practitioners in your practice. You can select to set up and use your diary either by Diary Users, or by Treatment Rooms – this can suit they way that you are used to booking your clients into the diary.
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See below for further detailed information relating to the various Appointments Diary functions in PPS. Calendar
See: Task Bar Change
See: Cash Desk; Modify Charge
A charge is the first step for PPS billing. You have to create a charge before you can raise an invoice – a charge is a “line item” on an invoice. Charges can be either for various types of treatment, or for stock/sundry items you may sell. PPS has a “list of standard charges” that you set up yourself giving you quick access to your charges via a code, or description. There are several ways in PPS that you can create a charge, you can also skip very quickly from creating a charge to recording a payment and PPS creates the invoice for you as you go.
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You can create a charge in the following ways (which way you regularly use will depend upon the way that you prefer to use PPS): 1) from the PPS Menu: Accounts – Create a Charge; 2) from the PPS Taskbar click on Create a Charge (if you have the diary open then highlighting an appointment first will create the charge related to that appointment); 3) from the PPS Menu: Accounts – Charges List, and click the New button; 4) from the diary, highlight an appointment, right-click on the appointment and select the Client Charge option from the pop-up menu; 5) when completing a consultation record, the “consultation complete” screen allows you to create the charge; 6) when completing an appointment the “appointment complete” screen allows you to create the charge; 7) Cash Desk can be used to create charges. The first four options above will show the Client Charge screen. This allows you to select / enter all the appropriate charge details and save the charge, or go on to create an invoice for the charge. An invoice can contain more than one charge so you do not always want to create the invoice each time.
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Whenever creating a charge, you have the option to select who will be invoiced for the charge, this includes the Client, and any one of the Third-Part Contacts associated with the client. This is how to bill an insurance company directly, for example. If the client does not have a third party contact associated with them, then you can select one while creating the charge, and select to always associate this third-part with the client. This will update the third-party contact details for you on the Main Client Details screen. Client
Client records are the hub of your PPS database. PPS refers to these records as “Clients” rather than “Patients” because PPS is used across a variety of business and clinical disciplines, some of whom use the term “client” and others use “patient”. A client record can have either minimal details entered, such as first name and surname, or can be a comprehensive range of details including full address/contact details, alternative addresses, DOB, sex, “known as”, full profile details including “source of introduction”, occupation (plus a range of entries you can set up yourself). In addition you can associate a variety of third-parties to clients such as doctors, insurance companies, etc. The more comprehensive the details you store for each client, the greater the opportunities to use these details in your reports and mail-merge operation. For example, by recording the “source of introduction” for each client (such as yellow pages, local advert, recommendation, etc.) you can run almost any report in PPS to show a breakdown by “source of introduction”, for example “practice revenue” by “source of introduction” will show where you earn the most money from – thus where you should concentrate most on your advertising! Code
See: Charge – Code; Diagnosis Code; Outcome Code Create
See: Add; Charge – Create Database
The PPS Database can be stored in a separate location on your computer/network from the main PPS application files. This would apply to a PPS installation on a network where the PPS Application files are installed onto each computer, and the database is located centrally on the network. There is the option to change the database location as part of the initial installation of PPS, and there is also a separate “database only” installation available if the database is to be installed onto a computer such as a server where PPS will not be used on that computer – servers often reside in a “back office” and are not used as a desktop computer. Delete
Delete is the term used to remove any record or file in PPS. Most “data entry” type screens will include a Delete button on the toolbar. You can use this button to delete the currently displayed record. There are various restrictions placed on deleting records in certain parts of the system. For example you cannot delete a client record if accounts records exist for that client. The System Administrator can also decide which PPS Users are allowed to delete which type of records. This is set up as part of the User Profile for each user – see: Access Control for more details. Diary
See: Appointments Diary Equipment
This is one of the PPS Look up Tables used on the appointments diary. You can assign equipment to an appointment. This is entered on the appointment details screen. Equipment is a look up table and you set up the entries yourself. This can be used to indicate if special practice equipment needs to be used for an appointment. To set up your standard list of equipment items by select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Look up Tables, and select Equipment from the Appointments Diary Tables section. You do not have to use the Equipment entry when booking appointments if you do not need to. Important
You can flag information as “important” while recording your clinical notes. For more details see: Consultation – Important information. Include
This is a term used in the PPS Reports Wizard – on step 3 of the selections for your report. On most reports you can select to “include” a selection of details on the printed report. You can un-tick any items that you do not want to include. The “Include” options only apply when the report is printed or previewed – if you are exporting the report to a file or mail merge, then the “include” options do not apply. List
List is the term used to describe information that either appears on the screen or on a report in rows and columns. The term List is also used in PPS as a list of items such as menu, or list of entries such as a look up table. See also: List style diary. Location
A Location in PPS is a physical clinic location. Older versions of PPS referred to treatment rooms as locations. Now Treatment Rooms are an additional field of information. You can set up locations to use in your PPS Appointments Diary. You can set up your diary for diary users/practitioners to be scheduled to work either in specific treatment rooms and/or locations on various days during the week. You do not have to use “Location” if you only work from one location. To set up locations, select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Look Up Tables, and select Location from the Appointments Diary Tables section. Here you can set up your various locations, and nominate a colour to each location to make each location clearly identifiable in the diary. Modify
This is the term used throughout PPS to “change” any of your existing records. PPS has buttons on many screens with a <Modify> prompt. Clicking this button will normally take you onto a further screen that allows you to modify the selected details. For more information about modifying various types of record in PPS, see the “modify” entry under the various section of this help guide, for example Invoices – Modify, Appointments – Modify, etc. Open
Some screens in PPS have an “Open” button on the toolbar, this is very similar to the Modify button as it will “open” the selected record for “modification”. Order
This term applies to the Order in which information is listed on the screen. Information in PPS is often listed in a “Grid” with rows and columns; you can often click on the column headings to change the order in which the information is displayed. There is also a Client Browse screen that includes an “order” selection to allow the client details to be displayed in a variety of orders such as Surname, etc. Patient
See: Client PPS
PPS is the acronym for “Private Practice Software”. Practitioner
A practitioner in PPS is a system user. To add a practitioner to PPS, you need to add a new system user, and indicate that they are a practitioner as part of their user details. When a user is a practitioner, they appear on the list of practitioners to select to allocate to most PPS records. PPS allocates a practitioner to most types of records so that you can see which practitioner is responsible for that record, also you can break down most report in PPS by practitioner. PrintYou can print various types of information in PPS including client details, clinical notes, Invoices, letters, and a wide variety of reports. All printing in PPS is done using your standard Windows printer driver for your selected printer. Many screens in PPS have a <Print> button that is used to print details for that part of the system. See also: Reports – Report Output. Printing
See: Print Room
See: Treatment Room Scheduling
See: Appointments Diary – Setting Up Select
A term used when you choose something on the screen. Some PPS screens have a <Select> button, this normally means that you pick an option, or entry in a list, then click the <Select> button. This will “select” your chosen entry and proceed to the next screen, or return to the previous screen with your chosen entry selected. Set Up
See: Medical History – Setting Up; PPS – Setting Up; Custom Form – Maintenance; Users – Setting Up; Letterhead – Set Up Slot Description
Each of your “blocks” of free appointments is organised into “slots”. Each slot can have a description that can appear on the diary – such as “New Patients”. To set up your list of Slot Descriptions, select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Look up Tables, and select Slot Descriptions from the Appointments Diary Tables section. Each of your Slots Descriptions can have a colour assigned to it to make the slot description heading more visible in the diary. To assign Slot Descriptions to your appointment slots, see: Appointments Diary – Setting Up. Time
See: Activities – Time; Appointments – Time Week
See: Appointments Diary – Setting Up
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