About appointments

An appointment can be face-to-face, remote, or unattended. This is called the setting of the appointment, or the delivery method.

Nervecentre supports the following delivery methods for appointments.

Face-to-face	The clinician and patient are at the same location for the appointment.
Telephone	The clinician calls the patient on a phone for the appointment.
Video consultation	The clinician and patient meet on a video call for the appointment.
Unattended	The clinician doesn't meet the patient. This appointment is for the clinician to review notes, images, or results related to the patient.

You can book patients into group appointments. You can do this from Patient admin or Calendar. From Calendar, group appointments show .

Read more about symbols on your clinic's calendar

1. An appointment is booked in Nervecentre.

   Read more about booking an appointment

2. The patient arrives and the appointment starts.

   For face-to-face appointments, an office administrator records whether the patient arrived, Did Not Attend (DNA Did Not Attend.), or cancelled.

   Read more about recording that a patient arrived

   Read more about recording that a patient didn't attend

   For other types of appointment, a clinician records when the appointment started. For example, the telephone appointment started.

   Read more about recording that an appointment started

3. A clinical outcome form for the appointment is added.

   • Nervecentre might add the form to the appointment automatically.

     Or

   • You can add the clinical outcome form to an appointment.

     Read more about adding the clinical outcome form

4. A clinician completes the clinical outcome form.

   They can do this during and after the appointment.

   Progress is saved automatically.

   Read more about completing the clinical outcome form

5. Optional: transcription.

   1. The clinician sends the clinical outcome form for transcription

   2. A member of staff transcribes clinical notes that contain audio

   3. The clinician reviews the transcription before submitting the form

   Read more about clinical notes that contain audio

   Read more about transcribing audio clips

6. The clinician sends letters about the appointment to relevant people.

   Nervecentre uses the information in the form to generate these letters.

   Read more about sending letters about the clinical outcome of an appointment

7. An office administrator records the administrative outcome of the appointment.

   Read more about recording the administrative outcome

You can view a patient's appointments from Patient Detail > Patient admin > Show pathways > Appts.

Appointments can have any of the following statuses.

Booking in progress	An office administrator started to book an appointment but did not finish the process. Double-click on the appointment to finish booking it. Read more about booking an appointment
Appointment booked	An office administrator has booked an appointment. An office administrator can: Change the appointment's delivery method Read more about changing an appointment's delivery method Reschedule the appointment Read more about rescheduling an appointment Cancel the appointment Read more about cancelling an appointment On the day of the appointment, an office administrator can record that the patient arrived, Did Not Attend (DNA Did Not Attend.), or cancelled. Read more about recording that a patient arrived Read more about recording that a patient didn't attend
Patient Arrived	The patient has arrived for their appointment.
Appointment started	A clinician has started the telephone or video appointment.
DNA, outcome required	The patient did not attend the appointment. An office administrator needs to record the administrative outcome. Read more about recording the administrative outcome for an appointment
Clinic complete, admin outcome required	A clinician has completed the clinical outcome form for the appointment. An office administrator needs to record the administrative outcome. Read more about recording the administrative outcome for an appointment
Cancelled, outcome required	The appointment was cancelled. An office administrator needs to record the administrative outcome. Read more about recording the administrative outcome for an appointment
Patient DNA	The patient did not attend the appointment. An office administrator has recorded the administrative outcome.
Completed	The appointment is complete, and the outcome has been recorded.
Cancelled	The appointment was cancelled.
Cancelled by patient	The appointment was cancelled by the patient.
Cancelled by provider	The appointment was cancelled by the clinic.
Cancelled on discharge	The appointment was cancelled when the patient was discharged.

When you book an appointment, or create a preadmission, you complete a form. On that form, you can choose a date for that appointment or preadmission, and from Patient accepted, you can record if the patient has accepted the date you offered them.

An offer is reasonable if the date is:

• Over 21 days away

• Within the next 21 days, but the patient has accepted it

An offer is not reasonable if the date is within the next 21 days, and the patient hasn't accepted it.

For example, you call the patient Jan Green on the 3 April, and offer the date 5 May for their appointment. This is a reasonable offer because the date is over 21 days away.

From Patient admin > Show pathways > Appts or TCI > , you can view:

• If the date of an appointment or preadmission is reasonable

• All the dates offered to the patient, and if they were reasonable

• The earliest date the patient was offered that was a reasonable offer

Read about viewing the details of an appointment

Read about viewing the details of a preadmission

Reasonable offers affect what happens when a patient doesn't attend (DNA Did Not Attend.). If a patient doesn't attend and the offer was:

• Reasonable

  Nervecentre sets the RTT status to 33, and starts a new RTT period.

• Not reasonable

  Nervecentre sets the RTT status to 20, and keeps the same RTT period.

When you record the outcome of a DNA, you can view if the date offered to the patient was reasonable.

Read about recording the outcome of an appointment

Read about recording the outcome of a preadmission