Summary
Using Schedule Templates within Cloud 9 allows your practice to manage the workflow of appointments more efficiently. If multiple appointments are booked that require the doctor's presence at the same time, a bottleneck will occur, where patients are sitting in chairs and assistants are waiting unproductively with them. Templating your schedule will lead to maximum efficiency of your staff and their time and create an excellent patient experience. Also, the use of Schedule Templates allows you to use the search feature when scheduling the patient's next appointment, whereas using an open schedule (one without templating) does not.
Pre-Requisite Reading: Appointment Type vs Appointment Class
NOTE: Templating can be accomplished using Appointment Types or Appointment Classes. We recommend templating based on Appointment Classes, as it allows all Appointment Types within that class to be templated within the allotted time, instead of specific Appointment Types. You may occasionally find that you want a specific Appointment Type in a specific spot on the schedule, and in that case, template an Appointment Type.
Template Basics
Creating or editing a Schedule Template is done under Edit > Schedule Templates.
Once in the Schedule Templates, we see the customary Add, Edit and Delete buttons that are found throughout the software. The Add button is used to create a new template. The Edit button is used to alter an existing template, and the Delete button is used to remove an unwanted existing template.
Located next to the Delete button is the Restore button. If necessary, you can restore a deleted template. By selecting the restore button, a list of previously deleted templates will be provided. Select from that list the one you would like to have restored, and select the green Restore button at the bottom. It will now be visible again for your use.
Immediately to the right of the Restore button is the copy button. This allows you to copy a template from one location to the other.
To the right of the copy button is the Apply button. This is used when a finalized template is applied to any day or group of days on the schedule.
Similar to the Apply button is the Un-apply button. If a template has been applied to a day, but needs to be removed from that day, use the Un-apply button.
The Close the Day button is used for days on the calendar where the office will be closed.
When those days are closed, the quick-select buttons on the schedule (shown below) will skip over closed days. If today is Friday and you click the one day ahead quick-select button, it will not move to Saturday, but to the next day that the office is open.
Also, at the top of the page, on the right side, is the close button.
Below the close button, but on the left side of the screen will be the list of Schedule Views available to you. Each Schedule view will have a list of Schedule Templates that are saved for that Schedule View down the left side of the screen. An example is shown below.
To the right of that list of available schedule templates for this location is the large calendar. This is where the Days will be Closed, and Completed Templates will be applied.
Creating a Template
To begin creating a template, select blue "+" button to Add a template. The screen that appears will have a Header that looks like this. On this Header are a couple more buttons you should be familiar with.
On the left is the Print button. When you select this button, the following screen should appear. You can edit the start and stop times that you want to print, as well as the Row Height (to make it more readable when printed). There are also check buttons for Fitting to Page, Show Reservations, Show Manual Overrides, printing the schedule in Landscape Mode, or selecting the HIPAA option. The HIPAA option will only show patient ID numbers on the printed schedule, and not the patient names.
The second button on the upper left of the template header is the copy button. This will allow you to copy the existing template by a different name. If you have a completed template for a full day and want to make a half day schedule out of it, copy the template and rename it accordingly. When you go to that template, simply remove the afternoon appointments, and save it. You will save time by not having to re-create a template that was mostly already completed.
The Save, Close, and Cancel buttons are also displayed on the upper right side of this screen.
To start with creating a template, Add a Name to the Schedule Template.
Then Select the color of the Header background from the dropdown menu on the right side of the page.
After the Title has been added, and any point thereafter, the template can be saved. Notice that the number of chairs on your template are the same as the chairs in your Schedule View Location. If they are not the same, you first have to alter the Schedule View under Edit > Setup > Schedule View, and the name of the Schedule View. An example is shown below. When you left click with your mouse (and hold down the left button), drag the mouse downward and to the right. Release the mouse button when you get all of the fields included that you wanted. At that point, this list will appear.
First Option: Reserve Appointment Class, when selected, will open this screen:
From here you will select which Appointment Class you want to place in the fields that you have selected on the template. If you selected 2 hours of time on the same chair, you could select the radio button to "Reserve As Many As Will Fit." If the Appointment Class you selected was a 30-minute class, once you select the "Reserve" button, four of those 30-minute appointments will populate the chair in the time you had identified.
Second Option: Reserve Appointment Type. This option functions the exact same way as the Appointment Class option listed above.
Third Option: Close Time. An example of Close Time can be seen here.
If your Schedule View Time opens at 6 AM, but you do not begin seeing patients until 8 AM, you will need to do this with each Template. This would be the same for a standardized lunch time, and the end of the day, after the office is closed, but the Schedule View still has available time.
Fourth Option: Open Time. The same steps taken for Close Time can be applied to Open Time. Any time that is not currently open, can be opened.
After closing all of the time that will not be in use, begin Reserving Appointment Classes in the manner seen below. If all of your 8 AM appointments are the same across all chairs, drag and drop from left to right, and select Reserve Appointment Class, with the option of "Reserve as many as will Fit" chosen.
If all of the appointments you want to reserve are in the same chair, it would look more like this.
From this point forward, proceed with reserving Appointment Classes or Appointment Types until the day has been completely covered with the classes (or types) that you want. The end product should look similar to this.
When completed, make certain to save your work. Selecting the green close button will save your work, and take you back to the previous screen. Once there, you will select the name of your newly created Schedule Template. Below we have selected the Template called Summer Schedule - Full Day.
Next, proceed over to the calendar and select each day that you want that selected template to be shown on your calendar. When you select a day, it will be highlighted, as seen below.
Once all of those days have been selected, click the Apply button at the top Left of the screen. Your view should change to the one shown below, where all of your days now have been templated with the Summer Schedule - Full Day Template.
This template will also show up on the Schedule, as the little calendar on the left of the schedule. At a Glance you can see which template is applied to each day.
If later you need to change a templated day, go back to the specific month of the schedule under Edit > Schedule Templates, select the location, and select the date you want changed, and select the Un-Apply button. Then select the other template you want to put on that day, select the day on the calendar, and select the Apply button. The template will now like this:
And the small calendar next to the schedule will look like this, representing that change.
Conclusion
As stated at the beginning, much thought needs to be given to the placement of certain Appointment Classes or Appointment Types within the Schedule Template. Meticulous care throughout this process, for each template needed, will benefit you greatly over time. Once a template has been completed, it may not need to be adjusted or re-created for years to come.
As always, if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to reach out to Cloud 9 Support by emailing us at cloud9support@planetdds.com, or chatting us online using the chat bubble on the lower right at https://cloud9support.planetdds.com/hc/en-us, or giving us a call during our business hours of 8:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST at the 1.800.394.6050 option 2.