Schedule Manual | 4th Dimension EMR Help Center

Navigating the Schedule

The Schedule is designed to make navigation and use as easy and straightforward as possible.

Full Screen Toggle – This button will toggle Full Screen Mode.Full Screen Mode expands the schedule by hiding the date selection pane, Jump Ahead bar, and Calendar Filter options.
Move Up Button – This button will open the Move Up feature.
Options Button – Clicking the carrot menu displays scheduler options.
1. Hide/show Inactive – toggles viewing cancelled and rescheduled appointments
2. Show 24 Hours/Show Work Hours – toggles the schedule between 24 hours and the set working hours
  1. Working hours can be modified by going to Practice > Settings > Schedule Settings
3. Privacy Mode On/Off – When enabled privacy mode will hide patient specific information such as patient names and appointment details
Search Appointments – Search the schedule for appointments by patient name, specific patients by name, ID, or keyword. The results will be displayed in a scrollable report.
Room Manager – Access the Room Manager to track patients through their appointment
Scheduler Views – Changes the current display of the schedule
1. Day View – One Day at a time
2. Work Week – Displays the schedule for the day the Provider is in the office
3. Week – Displays the current 7-day week
4. Month – Displays a calendar month view of the schedule
Date Selection Pane – Selects a date or dates to view using the most appropriate view
1. Select a range of dates by holding shift while clicking the first and late dates
2. Clicking Today will open the scheduler to the current date in Day view
Jump Ahead – Jump ahead the specified number of weeks or months from Today
Calendar Filter – Select which calendars to view.
1. This list dictates the order of calendars columns. Dragging a resource up will move the corresponding column to the left
Add Appointment Button – Click this button to add an appointment to the schedule.

User Preferences

There are a few user preferences for the scheduler which can be accessed by clicking on the user’s name in the top Navigation bar and selecting “settings.”

Schedule Open Action – Dictates the window displayed when opening the Schedule
Schedule Opening Appearance – Toggles displaying the schedule in Full Screen Mode
Schedule Resources Filter – Sets the default calendar resources selected when initially opening the schedule.

Creating an Appointment

New and Existing Patient Appointments

Right Click on the empty slot on the desired date and time or click the Add Appointment button located at the bottom right of the schedule
Select either a New Patient, Existing, or Happening Appointment
- New Patient – Use this option to create appointments for new patients that have not been previously seen or do not exist in the database.
- Existing – Use this option to create appointments for patients that have previously been seen and exist in the database. Patients that exist in the database but have not been seen can only be scheduled using the New Patient option.
- Happening – schedules a non-clinical appointment

If Scheduling an Existing Appointment skip to Step 7, otherwise follow steps 3-6 to schedule a New Patient Appointment:

Enter in the Patient’s Name and click Next. If a patient already exists with that name, click “Use This Patient” to select the pre-existing patient and skip to step 8 or click the New button to continue adding the new patient to the database.
Select the Patient’s provider and select the patient Status
Fill out the patient’s information. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*) and include name, status, provider, and referral source.
1. If using the Patient Portal make sure to collect the patient’s e-mail and DOB to allow the patient to verify their identity and access their account
Click Save or Save and Send Portal Invitation to save the new patient to the database. Skip to step 8.
If creating an Existing Appointment, select the patient from the list of recent patients or searching by name or patient ID.
1. A listing of the 5 most recently accessed patients can be found by clicking the icon. This list also displays immediately after opening an existing appointment window.
Select the appropriate appointment type and concern
Confirm Facility, Star Time and Date, and Duration are correct.
Check the “Move-Up List” box if the patient wishes to be added to the move-up list
Click Save.

Happening Appointments

Happening Appointments are non-clinical appointments that can be used to block off a portion of the schedule for non-patient activities, events etc.

Right click on the empty slot on the desired date and time
Select Happening
Enter in a Subject for the appointment
Select the desired type if multiple Happening types have been configured
Confirm the date and duration is correct
1. If the duration needs to block the entire day, click the 6am-6pm or 12-hour button.
Check the ‘All Day’ box to configure the event to show as a reminder or event at the top of the date on the schedule
Click ‘Save’ to save the appointment

Modifying Appointments through Drag and Stretch

Changing appointments can be done several ways:

The appointment time and duration can be changed simply by dragging or stretching the appointment block on the calendar. If looking at a calendar view other than ‘Day’ the appointment date can also be changed by dragging it to different dates.

It is not possible to drag an appointment from one provider’s calendar to another
Once started an appointment drag or resize can be cancelled by pressing the Esc key

Appointment Right-Click Actions

Changing an Appointment

Right click on an appointment to access to edit an appointment in a variety of ways:

Edit – make changes to the appointment provider, location, type, date, time, duration, or add comments.

Copy – Copies the appointment to the clipboard. To paste the appointment right click on another date or time and select paste.

This will leave the original appointment at the original date and time.
It is not possible to copy a New Patient appointment
It is not possible to paste the appointment onto another Calendar. This can only be done by right clicking on the appointment and selecting Edit.

Reschedule – Copies the appointment to the clipboard. To paste the appointment right click on another date or time and select paste.

This will mark the original appointment as inactive.
It is not possible to reschedule the appointment on another calendar. This can only be done by right clicking on the appointment and selecting Edit.
The By Office or By Patient selection is recorded to the Patient’s log
To cancel the reschedule action and restore the original appointment click the Cancel R/S button found to the right of the Appointment Search field.

Cancel – Cancels the appointment.

The By Office or By Patient selection is recorded to the Patient’s Log.
This will mark the appointment as inactive.

Status – Set the current status of the appointment. The current status is reflected in the color of the bar on the left side of each appointment.

Patients will automatically have a status of ‘Confirmed’ if the patient responds appropriately to their text reminder message.
The ‘In Room’ status is tied to the Room Manager feature. When selecting the ‘In Room’ status there will be a prompt to select which room the patient is in. The appointment will display the specified room in the appointment title until the patient’s appointment status is changed.
Appointments will automatically have the ‘Chart Signed’ status after the provider has signed

Other Right-Click Actions

Patient – Access various portions of the Patient’s chart quickly

Go To Patient – will open the Patient’s chart
Read Notes – Displays a scrolling preview of all chart notes
Create invoice – Allows the clinical or non-clinical staff to create charges for a patient with the need for a paper super bill. This can be used to create cash, insurance, and product charges
Write Chart Note – Quick access point for clinicians to create a medical chart note for this scheduled visit
Write Internal Note - Adds a note to the patient’s chart that is not part of the medical record

Call Patient – This feature will automatically dial the patient’s phone number eliminating the need to physically pick up a phone or manually dial the number.

It is recommended to use a headset with a microphone to ensure good call quality

Go to Money – Opens the patient’s Money tab for the collection of a payment or creation of a charge

History – Displays the history of the appointment including any previous rescheduling or changes to date and time

Appointment Icons

Icons located at the bottom of appointments can indicate important information regarding the patient. Hovering over the icons will display a tooltip description of the alert.

This displays when a patient has not completed the health information form through the Patient Portal, or the existing form is over 1 year old.

This displays if there are unsigned consent forms in the patient portal

This indicated the patient has an allergy listed in their medical history

A red check mark indicates that there are procedure items that have not been completed for the item.

This shows there is a balance due on the patient account

This is only visible on preop and surgery appointments. The background color will be either red or green to show if there are required items associated with the procedure and if they are incomplete (red) or completed (green – as shown here)

This icon indicates the patient has an alert. The alert can be viewed by going to that patient’s summary profile

Move-Up List

The Move-up feature can be used to quickly schedule patients that have requested an earlier appointment in case of cancellations. In order to add a patient to the Move-up list check the ‘Move-up List’ check box found on the Edit Appointment form.

To access the Move-up list click the ‘Move-up’ button found above the calendars on the scheduler section. This will open a list of all patients that have future appointments with the ‘Move-up List’ box checked. Each field in the list can be used to filter appointments by clicking the funnel icon. The list can also be sorted by any field by clicking on the field header. A patient can be called directly from the Move-up list by clicking their phone number. Note, it is recommended to use a headset with a microphone for best call quality. To select a patient and Move-up their appointment click on the click icon in the ‘Select’ column. This will trigger the rescheduling process by inactivating the existing appointment and copying the appointment information to the user’s right click. To paste the

appointment to the desired time right click on the schedule and click ‘paste.’ To cancel the Move-up action click the yellow ‘Cancel R/S’ button to restore the original appointment.

Room Manager

The Room Manager is a graphical way to track patients through their appointments based on appointment status.

The Room Manager window is divided into four sections:

To be Seen – All patients with scheduled appointments Today will show in the To Be Seen area until their status has been changed to ‘Arrived ‘
Arrived – All patients with appointments Today with an ‘Arrived’ Status
Roomed – All patients that currently have a status of ‘In Room’ or ‘Seen’
Checked out – Patients that have a status of ‘Checked out’
Patients that are marked as ‘Left unseen or ‘No Show’ will be removed from the Room manager.

Patients can progress through the room manager by manually changing the status on the appointment through a right click action on the main schedule or by dragging the patient’s appointment orb from section to section.

Each appointment orb has a ring timer that will expand to indicate the number of minutes the patient has spent at their status. The color of the ring will change as the timer progresses; Green for 0-20 minutes, yellow for 21-40 minutes, and red for any time past 41 minutes.

Double clicking on a non-completed appointment orb will display an independent timer beneath the orb. Double clicking on the orb, a second time will stop and remove the timer. The independent timer will not start or stop based on appointment status however marking the appointment as ‘Checked out’ will stop any existing timers.