What's New?

Appointments release 3.1 contains the following new features and improvements:

• Viewing Audit History - This release introduces the ability to audit slots enabling you to view any changes made, this includes alterations to the slot type, duration or, which patients have been booked in or cancelled. Each change is tracked by date and time and who was logged in when the change was made.
  See Viewing the Audit History of a Slot for more information.
• SMS Messaging - This release introduces the ability to automatically send SMS (text) messages, from Appointments, to patients, keeping them advised of any appointment bookings, updates or cancellations.
  See SMS Messaging (Shared Care) for more information.

• Sessions - Session names can now be a maximum of 30 characters, and you can add a description of up to an additional 500 characters. This additional information displays fully in a tooltip when viewing a session in the Reception View:

  

• National Slot Categorisation - In England National Slot Categorisation is being introduced by NHS Digital, to align the slot types in Appointments with an agreed set of national slot categories. You are required to map all slot types to a national slot category.

  Important - Only available to users on release DLM 800 or later.
  See National Slot Categorisation in Appointments Setup for more information.

• Patient Details View - You can now open the following Vision 3 modules from the Patient Details View:

  • Consultation Manager - Select the patient's name to open the patient's record in Consultation Manager:

    

  • Registration - Select Open V Patient Registration to open the patient's details in Vision 3Registration:

    

  Important - This is only available if you have Vision 3 running on your workstation and you have access rights to either Consultation Manager for clinical records and/or Registration for registration records in Vision 3. See Adding and removing users and groups from Vision functions for more details.
  See Accessing Consultation Manager or Registration for more information.

Vision Appointments release 3.0 contains the following updates:

• Reception View - There is now a Today option available from the Reception screen when you navigate away from today's appointment book, simply select Today to return:

• Weekly View - There is now a This Week option from the Weekly screen when you navigate away from the current week, simply select This Week to return:

• Vision Appointments from your Desktop - Where appropriate, for example in a shared care setting, you can now log into Appointments directly from your desktop.
  See Logging onto Appointments from your Desktop for details.

• Vision Appointments in a Shared Care Setting - Appointments can now be used in a shared care setting where sharing agreements are set up.
  See Using Appointments in a Shared Care Setting for details.
• Click Once Installation Package - This process simplifies the installation and update process for Appointments. When a new version becomes available, Vision informs you of this and releases the upgrade from our central servers. The next time each user logs into Appointments, they are asked if they want to run the update and then they simply follow the installation wizard. This does not require administrator access to the workstation.
  Note - This is not compatible with the Chrome browser.
  See Installing an Appointments Update for details.

• Searching for a patient - The way you search for a patient has been updated. This varies depending on how you access Appointments.

  See Searching for a Patient for more details.

Vision Appointments release 2.3 contains the following updates:

Appointments Setup

• Open Appointments Setup - You can now open the Appointments Setup app from within Appointments, simply select Options - Run Setup App.
• Refresh setup data - If you have made changes in the Appointments Setup App, from the Appointments App you can now select Options - Refresh setup data to update the Appointments App with the changes.

Appointments

Making and Managing Appointments

• Day View - You can now see an expanded view of a specific book owners day. Hover over the book owner required, select Options and then select Show Day View:

  

  See Day View for details.
• Saved Views - You can now set up and use Views for groups of book owners within the Reception screen. To define and use a View:

1.  From the Reception screen, define the group you require using the Filter.
2. Select Save entering an appropriate name for the group, for example, GPs.
3. From the far left of the screen, select Add a new 'View' and select the view you require.
4. The views you select display above the appointments, enabling you to quickly and easily switch between views:

Note - This setting is retained for you.

• Date of Birth Search - You can now search on a patient using a six digit date of birth, DD/MM/YY.
  Important - The search only returns patients born within the last 100 years, for example, 05/05/19 is assumed to be 2019, if you are looking for 1919, you must enter the full year.

• Slot type indicator - Based on customer feedback, we have made the colour band used to indicate the slot type wider.

• Completed Slots - From Preferences - Display Options, you can now select to display completed slots with a green background:

• Slot Advisory Message - If you attempt to move an appointment to a slot with a message, for example, Book on the Day only, a Slot Advisory Message displays containing the message, you can select either:
  • Yes - To continue with the move, or
  • No - To select a different slot
• Days Prior Warnings - If you move or copy an appointment to a slot with a days prior value set, for example a book on the day slot, a new warning message displays. Select either:
  • Yes - To make to booking in the selected slot, or
  • No - To select a different slot.
• Cancelling Appointments - When you select to cancel one or more appointments, the Cancel this appointment? screen displays listing all the appointments selected. View scheduled appointments for this patient now displays alongside each appointment, select to display the Scheduled Appointments screen for that patient.
• Clipboard - You can now delete items from your clipboard. From the Clipboard , simply select Delete on the item you no longer require.

Patient Details View

• Vertical Scroll - Based on customer feedback the Patient Details View now scrolls vertically.
• Historical Appointment Overview - A new historical appointment overview section displays in the Patient Details View. This displays a statistical snapshot of the selected patient's appointment history in the last 6 months, including:
  • Appointments Attended
  • Late Arrivals
  • Appointments Overrun - The total number of appointments the patient has had that have overrun
  • Allocated Time Used - How much time the patient has used in appointments
  • Average Appointment Frequency

  

• Patient Management - The patient management information now all display together on the Patient Details View:

  

  Select the arrow to view full details and filter as required:

  

Filters

• Searches - You can now filter the results returned in the following screens:
  • Patient Search
  • Legacy Patient Search (transferred out patients)
  • Special Booking Search
  Remember - You can access these screens by either just starting to type or by selecting the <F3> key.

  using, depending on the screen:

  • Only show historical appointments in - Select the time frame required
  • Enter text to filter results - Enter free text to search
  • Predefined filters - The blue filter options vary depending on the screen

    

Appointments Preferences

• Concurrent bookings - You can now select to stop appointments being booked for the same patient, at the same time with more than one clinician. From Preferences - General, simply tick Prevent concurrent appointments.

• Label Printing - You can now set up a label printer to print appointment labels from a Booking form.
  See Setting up a Label Printer for details.

  Once a printer is set up, you can select Book and Print from any Booking form to print an appointment label.

Disaster Recovery

• Exporting Appointments - You can now export your Appointments list in one of two formats so that should you experience any network issues, you can still see the details of the selected day's bookings. The formats are:
  • PDF - An easily printable file
  • CSV - A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file

  Any available appointments display blank so you can enter additional patients if required.

  See Exporting Appointments for details.

 

General

• Services - Appointments relies on a connection to your Vision 3 services, you can now see the status of your services at a glance in the top right corner of your screen:
  • The green light indicates you are connected.
  • The amber light indicates a problem with some of your services.
  • The red light indicates a problem with your connection.

  If you lose your connection, you can still:

  • Check in a patient
  • View the current appointment books

• Weekly views for Clinicians and Clinics - Functionality for users to access a weekly view for clinicians and clinics. See Weekly View.
• Adding a Session via Weekly View - Allows a user to add a session via the new weekly view. See Adding a Single Session.
• Integration with Consultation Manager - Allows the user to access the Registration links in V3 with the patient in context from Appointments. See Accessing Consultation Manager or Registration.
• Integration with Registration - Allows the user to access the Registration links in V3 with the patient in context from Vision Appointments. See Accessing Consultation Manager or Registration.
• Differentiate between Active and Inactive slot types - In the booking view and insert slot view, inactive slot types now appear with a strike through in the text.
• Type to search for slot type - You can now type to search for your required slot type when booking an appointment. See Booking an Appointment.

• New Layout - Newly designed screens, to be even more user friendly.
• Reception view - Replaces the Session view, and includes:
  • Collapsible columns
  • Jump List - navigate forwards a set number of weeks
  • Banner alert for pending view changes
  • Cancel multiple appointments

  See - Weekly View.

• Printed Reports
  • Appointments list
  • Evacuation Report

  See - Emergency Evacuation Report and Printing Appointments Lists.

• Free Slot Search
  • Jump List - navigate forwards a set number of weeks
  • Clipboard integration added

  See - The Free Slot Search.

• Booking form
• • Checkbox added to create Special Booking.
    
  • Warning banner displays any alerts
  • Override 'Day's Prior' warnings added
  • Record Booking Method from drop down list

  See - Booking an Appointment.

• Delete appointments from the clipboard - Appointments can be deleted from the clipboard.
• Mark slots as Unavailable - Users with full Appointments rights can mark slots as unavailable, and then release when required. See - Making Slots Unavailable.
• Current Appointments View - The view now displays the following appointments:
  • Booked - Displays up to 1 hour ahead of current time
  • In Consultation or Arrived - Always displays
  • DNA - Displays up to 1 hour prior to current time
• Dashboard View - Now includes unavailable slots.

The 1.6 release of Appointments brings the following updates:

See - Video Tutorials.

The 1.5.8 release of Appointments brings the following updates:

The 1.5 release of Appointments brings the following updates: