Best Practice Guidelines: Medical | Dental | Allieds

Responsible Roles

	Operational Role: Ensure that all their day's planning is on the electronic diary so that reception can manage patient expectations. Check the waiting room and manage the time per appointment with each patient. Inform the practice manager if some appointments must be postponed/extended.
	Management Role: Ensure that all information is in the diary so that anyone can manage the day-to-day bookings regardless of the availability of specific personnel. Manage the waiting room and the time patients wait for consultations. Check the diary to see if all documents have been uploaded onto the software, all necessary processes were completed, all theatre lists were sent to hospitals, and all correct information was added for the next day.
	Operational Role: Complete all bookings for prior telephonic appointments, walk-in patients and online bookings. Manage all changes in bookings. Move, extend and cancel appointments. When appointments are cancelled, ensure that the Waiting List is managed (Desktop App only). Ensure all demographic information is correct and updated. Compile the theatre list, schedule patients on the theatre list and complete all pertinent information. Follow up on bookings beforehand.
	Operational Role: Check patient bookings to ensure that the practice has enough stock to treat the number of patients booked for a certain period plus the number of patients that the practice has the capacity to still book for that period. (The reason for the appointment can be an indicator of the specific items that will be needed.) Go through all the chronic patients to ensure the stock will be ready for the patients to be collected.
	Collection stage: Information quality Compliance continuity stage: Confidentiality measures

Purpose of Appointments

• GoodX Software has an integrated diary available for practitioners to assist them with making appointments and managing their daily routine to promote excellent health care and manage the practice to the fullest potential.
• Taking and maintaining control of the medical practice schedule has a more significant positive impact on resource utilisation, profitability and the general satisfaction of patients, physicians, and staff than almost any other function.
• Maintaining the medical practice diary effectively will reduce stress and profit losses in the practice.
• The diary is not just used for booking patient appointments, but also to organise the practitioner's day e.g. lunchtimes, hospital rounds, seeing representatives etc.
• The diary is a worklist and assists in guiding the practice to the next steps in the patient process.
• The number one tip for maintaining the diary is staying on schedule.
• Booking appointments on the diary enables the practice to draw various statistical reports to ensure that all patient visits have been billed.
• Theatre Management can also be done on the Diary by using a Theatre list and scheduling the patients on the Theatre ist with all the necessary information the practitioner will need in theatre and to prepare for theatre.