Appointment Book

Gentu's Appointment Book gives you an overview of your appointments and schedule. From this screen you can add patients, print reports, configure your schedule, and preview the days and weeks ahead.

Navigating the Appointment Book

When you first open the appointment book, Gentu will show you the current date by default.

The pink line across the screen indicates the current time of day.

Navigate with the calendar

You can use the calendar icon in the top left to navigate forwards or backwards through the Appointment Book.

Simply click the day of the month that you wish to navigate to, to view appointments for that day or the week encompassing that day.

You can use the arrow icons to navigate backwards or forwards month by month.

Or, you can use the drop down menus to select a specific month or year.

Day and Week view

Gentu has two ways to view the appointment book: Day view and Week view.

You can toggle between the two views by selecting the view in the top left-hand corner.

Week view will show the seven day period, from Monday to Sunday, encompassing the currently selected date.

Today

Click the Today button to return to today's date in the Appointment Book.

Hide sidebar

You can hide the left-hand sidebar of the appointment book by clicking the arrow to the left of the  Today button.

This will hide the calendar, Print button, Providers list, and Appointment Types legend.

In collapsed mode, you can navigate through the appointment book using the arrow icons at the top of the screen to scroll backwards or forwards to the next or previous day or week.

Add an appointment

Existing patients

To create an appointment for an existing patient in your database:

1. Navigate to the Appointments page.
2. Click on the appointment time slot where you wish to book the appointment.
3. The appointment details window will open.
4. In the search bar, begin to type in the patient's name or DOB to search for them.
   
5. Select the patient from the list of search results.
6. Add any additional information; such as the location, notes or the appointment status.
7. Click Save to book the appointment.

New patients

You can add appointments for patients who do not already exist in your practice.

Adding an appointment for a new patient will create their patient record automatically.

1. Click on the time slot where you wish to book their appointment.
2. Fill in the patient's name and DOB.
   
3. Fill in any additional information in the window as required, such as their mobile number, or any notes for the appointment.
4. Click Save.

A new patient record will be created. You can fill in the rest of their information at a later time.

Procedure Bookings

Procedure bookings operate slightly differently to non-procedure patient appointments.

Please see the Procedures article for more information.

Delete or edit appointments

Please note: If you use Gentu's automated SMS appointment reminders, please ensure that you change the status of an appointment to 'None' after moving it to its new date or time. This will ensure that a new appointment reminder is sent to the patient with the updated details.

Move appointment to a new time slot

1. Simply click and drag the appointment to its new time slot (as shown above).
2. Gentu will present you with a pop-up window.
   
3. Select Confirm to move the appointment or Cancel to keep the appointment at its original time.

Alternatively, you can click the appointment to view its details, and manually change the Start time.

If you use Gentu's automated SMS appointment reminders - after moving the appointment, click on it to view its details and change its Status to 'None'. This will ensure the patient receives a new reminder for their updated appointment.

Move appointment to a new date

While in Week view, you can use the click-and-drag method to change the date of the appointment to a new day in the same week.

1. Simply Click and drag the appointment to its new time slot on a different day.
2. Gentu will present you with a pop-up window.
3. Select Confirm to move the appointment or Cancel to keep the appointment at its original time.

If you wish to change the appointment to a new date outside of the current week:

1. Click the appointment to view its details.
2. Change the Start date.
3. Select Save.

If you use Gentu's automated SMS appointment reminders - after moving the appointment, click on it to view its details and change its Status to 'None'. This will ensure the patient receives a new reminder for their updated appointment.

Change appointment duration

There are two ways to change the duration of an appointment.

1. Locate the appointment in the Appointment Book.
2. Hover your mouse over the appointment.
3. You will see double lines appearing at the middle top and middle bottom edge of the appointment.
   
4. When you hover your mouse over the double lines, your mouse cursor will change to a double-headed arrow.
   
5. Click and drag the top or bottom edge of the appointment to increase its duration.
   • Note that clicking and dragging from the top edge of the appointment upwards will also change the appointment's start time.
6. Gentu will present you with a pop-up window confirming the change of duration.
   
7. Select Confirm.

Alternatively, you can click the appointment to view its details, and manually edit the Duration (in minutes). Press Save to confirm the changes.

Change appointment provider

If you have multiple providers' columns in your appointment book, you can use the click-and-drag method to change the provider for the appointment.

Click and drag the appointment into its new column at the desired time, and select Confirm to save the changes.

Delete appointment

To delete an appointment:

1. Click on the appointment.
2. Select Remove to delete it from the Appointment Book.

Recurring Appointments

If a patient requires ongoing care at regular intervals, you may find it useful to configure recurring appointments.

Recurring appointments can be set to repeat on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.

Set up Recurring Appointments

1. Navigate to the Appointment Book.
2. Create a new appointment, or open an existing appointment. 
3. At the bottom of the appointment window, tick the Recurring box.
   
4. Set the frequency, every and until values (see below for further details).
   
5. Select Save.

Note the following settings when creating a recurring appointment:

• Frequency: How frequently the appointment recurs - daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
• Every: How often the appointment recurs, e.g. every 2 weeks or every 6 months
• Until: the appointment will continue to recur until this date.

Gentu will automatically select a default Until date based on the appointment's recurring frequency.

• Daily: will repeat for one month
• Weekly: will repeat for three months
• Monthly: will repeat for 12 months
• Yearly: will repeat for five years.

An Until date is required to save the recurring appointment series. Patient appointments cannot be set to recur indefinitely.

Recurring appointments will use the initial appointment's details for the entirety of the series. This includes the user and appointment type used.

Please note that if a recurring appointment coincides with an existing appointment booking, Gentu will book the recurring appointment in alongside the extant booking. As such, we recommend reviewing the appointment book after saving the recurring appointment, to identify any overlapping appointments or conflicts.

Update a Recurring Appointment series

After creating a recurring appointment series, you can modify the series as a whole, or change an individual appointment within the series.

To change an appointment series' details:

1. Find a future-dated appointment within the recurring series.
2. Click on the appointment to view its details.
3. Make the necessary changes.
4. Press Save.
5. Select This and all future appointments.

You can change the following details for a recurring appointment series:

• The recurrence's Weekly, Every and Until settings
• The User (provider) assigned to the recurring appointments
• The Location of the recurring appointments
• The Appointment type for the recurring appointments
• The Start date, Start time and Duration of the recurring appointments
• The Notes on the recurring appointments.

Changes made to recurring appointment series will not affect appointments on dates prior to the appointment the modifications are made on.

To change an individual appointment within a series:

1. Navigate to the appointment booking you wish to change.
2. Make any changes required for the appointment. 
3. Press Save.
4. Select Just this one.

• All details can be modified for a singular appointment, including the date, time, user and status.
• Changes to individual appointments that are within a recurring appointment series can be made to any future and past appointments.
• Changes made to a single appointment in a series ("Just this one") will not affect other appointments in the same series.
• For individual appointments, you are also able to click and drag the appointment to a different date, time, or user as normal. Changes made by dragging an appointment through the appointment book will not have any effect on the overall recurring appointment series.

Remove a recurring appointment

Individual appointments within a recurring appointment series may be removed without affecting the series, and a recurring series can be ended entirely when required.

Removing recurring appointments will only remove those scheduled in future. Past appointments will be retained.

1. Open an existing appointment.
2. Select the Remove button.
3. Select Just this one or This and all future appointments.

• Just this one will remove only the selected individual appointment.
• This and all future appointments will remove the recurring appointment schedule from this day onward.

Recreate recurring appointment series

If you accidentally remove a series of recurring appointments, you can recreate it by locating a past appointment of the same series and re-selecting the Frequency, Every and Until settings.

If the patient's recurring series is due to end, and you wish to retain their recurring appointment series, you can select the last appointment in the series and adjust the Recurring details.

You can then select Save > This and all future appointments to recreate the ongoing recurring appointment series.

Non-patient appointments

Events

You can also use the Appointment Book to schedule non-patient events, such as a staff meetings or leave:

1. Click on the time slot where you wish to schedule the event.
2. Select the Event tab.
3. Fill in the details, such as the event name and its time and duration.
   
4. You can also select an Event Type (Appointment Type) for the event, if desired.
5. Click Save.

You can edit or delete an event as you would a patient appointment.

Other appointment details

From a patient's booked appointment, you have access to a number of other functions.

Click on a patient's appointment to view its details. From here you can:

• SMS the patient
• Add an invoice
• Add an attachment
• Create a letter
• Create a procedure
• Create a quote
• Add a recall
• Add a To Do task
• View a Pregnancy Management Fee due date.