How to Use the Appointments Tab in Practice Mate or EHR

The Appointments tab—available in both EHR and Practice Mate—helps you manage your daily schedule, track upcoming visits, and generate appointment reports. Below are the steps to get started with appointments, including how to schedule, manage, and customize your appointment views.

Appointment Tab Setup

When first accessing the Appointments tab, a default schedule of Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM will be set. If these hours do not match your office's availability, you’ll want to update them in Time Schedules.

To do this:

1. Log in to Practice Mate or EHR.

2. Navigate to the Manage Office tab.

3. Click on Time Schedules under the Appointments section.

From here, you can customize:

• Office hours.

• Users added to the schedule.

• Resources available for scheduling (e.g., exam rooms or equipment).

Scheduling an Appointment

To schedule a new appointment:

1. Navigate to the Appointments tab (Practice Mate users will land here by default; EHR users must click the tab).

2. Choose one of the following options to schedule:

• Click Add New Appointment at the top of the page.

• Use the Add column and click the pencil icon.

• In Provider/Staff/Resource view, click any open space on the schedule.

Add Appointment Window

Once you initiate scheduling, you’ll see the Add Appointment window.  

1. Select a Patient – Click Browse to search for an existing patient or create a new one.

2. Appointment Info – Choose the office, staff type, and specific provider.

3. Visit Reason – Visit Reasons can be selected in two ways.  You can type and select from the field directly, or you can click the ellipsis icon to search and select from a popup window.

4. Notes – Add any relevant information about the visit.

5. Repeat Options – Appointments can be repeated up to 20 times, up to a year apart.

6. Date/Time – Select the desired date and time (note: availability is not shown here).

7. Other Settings – Set the visit length, color-code the visit, and assign a resource (if applicable).

Tip: Visit length and color can be auto filled based on the visit reason.

Click Update to add the appointment to the schedule.

Appointment Management: Daily Detail View

Once scheduled, you can manage appointments through the Daily Detail View. You can customize the Daily Detail View under Appointment Page Settings, covered in a later section.

1. Each row shows patient name, demographics, reason, and appointment status.

2. Click the pencil icon in the Add column to schedule a new appointment.

3. Click the Edit icon to update appointment details or manually change the status.

4. Click the X icon to delete the appointment (appointment deletion is permanent, but you can track creating, editing, and deleting visits via Audit Logs in the Manage Office tab).

5. Click the circle icon in the Check-In column to:

• View patient demographics.

• Record payments.

• Send intake forms.

• Time-stamp patient check-in.

6. Once checked in, click the circle icon in the Check-Out column to:

• Print receipts or view upcoming appointments.

• Record additional payments.

• Complete check-out with a timestamp check box.

7. The last column varies:

• In Practice Mate: Select “Create Visit” for billing.

• In EHR: Click “Open Chart” to access the patient’s medical chart.

Alternate Appointment Views

Customize your calendar view to match your workflow.

1. From the Appointments tab, hover over Daily View in the top menu to access:

• Provider/Staff/Resource View – Shows user/resource columns with time slots. You can drag and drop appointments between users and times.

• Provider View – Columns for individual providers.

• Resource View – Columns for resources only.

2. Click Weekly View to see appointments by day for the entire week.

• Hover over an appointment to view appointment details.

• Hover over sticky note icon to see available actions.

• Green checkmarks show if a patient has been checked in and out,

• Hovering over checkmark shows the time

• This functionality is the same for Provider/Staff, Provider/Staff/Resources, and Resources views.

3. Click Monthly View to display the entire month as a calendar. Click a date to jump to that day in your default view.

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