The Waiting Room list is a very useful mechanism for managing patients as they attend the practice to ensure that all are processed and billed correctly. Patients are put on the Waiting Room List through Patient Details (or Appointments) – using the Attendance Form previously described. The main fields/functions of the Waiting Room are described below:
Menu buttons
- Quick Attend - By clicking on the Quick Attend button, users can attend a patient from the waiting room screen without having to close and find the patient through Reception. This is mostly used for 'walk-in' patients without an appointment.
- Intramail - This is a shortcut to the internal mailing system (located in Utilities - Intramail).
- Admit - This can be used to insert the time the patient was taken in by the doctor. One would not need to use this tab as the time is automatically recorded when the doctor picks up the patient from the waiting room in the Clinical Program of Zedmed.
- Refresh - This tab can be used to refresh the Waiting Room screen. Alternatively, the practice can choose to activate the auto-refresh option located in [Management - Practice Setup - Branches - Options - auto-refresh frequency (seconds)]
- Close - This will close the Waiting Room and take you back to the Reception Menu.
Functionality
Rick-click menu
Right-click on a patient's entry line in the Waiting Room to bring up a list of options for that patient, including Bill, Patient Details, Add New Payer options etc.
Delete attendances
By double left-clicking on a patient's line, you are returned to the Attendance form, from which you may Delete the Attendance entry (bottom left corner), for example, if the patient has left in a huff! This is only possible if the attendance has not been billed.
Attendance report
The Daily Report/Attendance Report provides a report for patients placed on the Waiting Room List for a date range. The Attendance Report will give a list of patient attendances for a doctor, with a total number of patient encounters for the day.
Accessing Intramail for Doctors (F7)
When doctors, using a medical record/script printing system return to the Waiting Room list to "collect" their next patient, they should click on the Refresh button to bring the displayed list up to date. At this time they will be advised that they have Intramail to be read.
Access to script and medical records systems
The Waiting Room' Medication menu option is the path to the Medical Director package. Select the patient line you require and click Medication to be automatically transported to these external systems. To set up the link interface to these packages, use the Utilities Menu – Third Party Links function.
Filters
When the Doctor/Filter display selections are changed by a doctor working in a consulting room looking at their own patients, they will remain changed until the user logs out of Zedmed Office and logs back in. They will then reset to the default settings as defined in the Practice Setup/Branch/Options.
- Date/Time - Enables the operator to review patient interactions for previous or future days (like reviewing the pages of a diary).
- Look Back Hours - This field controls how many hours backward in time are shown for patient attendances in the Waiting Room list. The greater the (negative) number, the earlier the admissions that will be shown, but it will take the computer longer to gather and display the data. The Default Look Back period may be set in the Practice Setup/Branches/Options function.
- Arrows - You may also use the Right/Left Day/Week arrow buttons at the bottom of the list to move in time. The "yellow star" will return you to the current day. If you look back a day, the look back hours will automatically adjust to "minus 18 hours" so the whole day will be apparent.
- Branch/Doctor - Focuses the display on the specified branch or doctor for a more compact list.
- Order by/Filter - Provides other ways of focussing and presenting the waiting room list.
Menu options
Before using any of the menu line functions described below, you should select the patient concerned by clicking on their line or pressing the number shown in the picking list beside their name.
- Patient - Moves to the Patient Details record for the patient on the highlighted line. Double-clicking on the patient line will do the same.
- Attendance - Allows the original Attendance Form to be re-presented so that the department, doctor, site or comment details can be changed. You may also Delete the attendance record as long as no bill has been created for the visit.
- Find - Displays the Find/Add Patient form to access another patient's details.
- Medication - Moves to the linked Script printing system (e.g. Medical Director) for the patient highlighted. When the doctor has finished with the script printing system, they should return to the Waiting Room list to collect their next patient. Doctors should also read the Doctors section of this manual regarding the use of Medical Director and the Waiting Room list. Practices using Zedmed Clinical will not use this button.
- Bill - Moves to the New Invoice Billing screen for the patient on the highlighted line.
- Enquiry - Displays the Account Enquiry screen.
- Letters - Moves to the integrated Letter/Report writing program.
- Enc Sheet - Permits the printing of Encounter sheets.
- Proforma -Prints a Medicare bulk-bill proforma for the highlighted patient.
- Labels - Offers various label printing options.
- Appts - Moves to the Appointments program.
- Extras - Provides links to Encounter System, Referral Doctor address book and Patient Task Manager.
- Intramail -Invokes the Intramail home form.
- Admit - Inserts the time of admission to a consultation in the column. This happens automatically if a doctor admits through the Zedmed Clinical Waiting Room or you select Medication (MD users only). Alternatively, you may use the Admit button at the bottom of the Waiting List Form. If you use Admit again, the admission time is removed.
- Refresh Button - Located at the bottom of the screen, the Refresh button will refresh the screen, presenting attendances that may have been made recently by operators on other computers. It is important for doctors working in the script printing system to Refresh when they return to the Waiting Room list to obtain their next patient.
You may choose to turn on the Waiting Room Auto-refresh option through Management, Practice Setup, Branches and Options.
Icons
- Alarm Clock - Indicates that the patient has an alert in the Patient Details Alerts box – clicking or scrolling the mouse on the right section of the horizontal scroll bar will show the alert message text.
- Gold Dollar - Indicates that the patient has been billed.
- White Dollar - Indicates that the patient has been billed but that the bill has been Voided.
- Doctor Unknown - If no Treating Doctor is specified when the patient is admitted using the Attendance Form (Doctor Unknown chosen), then three question marks (???) are inserted in the Doctor Column denoting "Doctor Unknown.
When Doctor Unknown has been used, before the patient is billed, the correct doctor for billing purposes should be inserted by returning to the Attendance form and specifying the doctor. If this is not done, a second Waiting Room attendance entry will be created for the "billed" doctor, leaving the original "Doctor Unknown" entry showing, apparently unsatisfied (but it can be deleted).