Review and Edit Partner SAM Scheduling Tables
Partner contains a list of providers, visit reasons, and time profiles that the scheduler uses when making appointments. An important step to Partner SAM scheduling configuration is making sure that each of these lists has the correct items.
Appointment Book or SAM Scheduling?: This article covers the scheduling tables for the text-based Partner interface. In PCC EHR, Scheduling providers are configured in the User Administration tool, and visit reasons are defined in the Visit Reasons configuration tool. For information on configuring the Appointment Book, read Configure the Appointment Book.
Contents
Add Providers for Partner SAM Scheduling
Before you can schedule appointments for your providers, you must add them to Partner in the Providers table. First create a provider group for Partner reporting purposes, and then create the provider.
Already Completed?: If you have worked with PCC to configure Partner for your practice and your providers, then these steps may already be done for you. Simply review the Providers table in the Table Editor (ted) and make sure the providers you schedule are entered correctly. If so, you can skip to the next section.
Follow these steps to add a new provider:
Run the Table Editor (ted)
Run ted from the Partner Configuration window inside the Partner Programs window, or type ted at a command prompt.
Open the Provider Group Table
From the list of tables, select table #19, Provider Groups.
Add or Choose a Provider Group
Decide on a provider group for your new provider. If none exists, add or clone an existing group to create a new one. Many Partner reports use provider groups.
Press F1 – Save after creating a new provider, then press Q to return to the main menu of ted.
Open the Providers Table
From the list of tables, select table #8, Providers.
Add or Clone an Existing Provider
Press A or C to add or clone an entry, fill out the fields for your new provider, and then press F1 – Save and Quit.
Call PCC
Your system can not send electronic claims for your new provider until PCC’s EDI support team configures the new provider.
Perform Other Steps
For a complete guide to configuring a new provider, view our complete Partner documentation.
Adjust Partner SAM Visit Reasons and Default Appointment Lengths
In the Visit Reasons table in ted, Partner maintains a list of all appointment types, along with each provider’s default appointment lengths. Use the table to review or change the types of visits your office schedules, or to change the default visit lengths for each reason for each provider.
When configuring your schedule, you should open the Reasons for a Visit table, review your appointment types, check the default length of time for each provider, and add any new visit reasons needed for scheduling.
Run the Table Editor (ted) and Select Reasons for a Visit
Run ted from the Partner Configuration window or by typing ted at a command prompt. From the list of tables, select #7, Reasons for a Visit.
Review Your List of Visit Reasons
On the left is the full visit reason name. The “EF?” column indicates whether or not Partner will generate an encounter form for appointments with each visit reason. On the right is a short list of the default lengths, in minutes, of each visit reason for each provider. You can review the full list of providers and default visit lengths by entering the number of any visit reason and pressing Enter.
Update the Default Appointment Lengths
Type the number next to any visit reason and press Enter to review it in detail.
On this screen, you can make changes to the length of a visit reason for each provider. For example, if a provider wants to change their default sick visit time from 15 minutes to 10, open the Sick Call visit reason and change the minutes indicated for that provider. Remember to press F1 – Save and Quit when finished, or press F12 to discard your changes.
Add New Visit Reasons
From the visit reason list, press C to clone or A to add a new visit reason. Enter default times for each provider and then press F1 – Save and Quit to save your new visit reason.
Why Add a Visit Reason?: You could classify most medical appointments as office/sick visits, physicals, or rechecks, so why would you need more than three visit reasons for scheduling? You may schedule flu shots or other special visits. You may schedule nurse-only visits. You will also need a visit reason for each block type, as discussed in the blocking section below. Finally, since you can create a custom encounter form and check-out screen for each visit reasons, you may divide up physicals into specific ages, creating a well visit for each age.
Abbreviations: Typing “5 Year Well Child” is cumbersome and could slow down your schedulers. Remember that Partner supports custom abbreviations for any item in any Partner table. Use the Abbreviations table in ted to make “5y” trigger “5 Year Well Child” in sam.
Edit Partner SAM Scheduling Profiles
In addition to regular office hours, you may wish to set up other sets of hours, for different seasons or other purposes. Follow the procedure below when adding a new profile.
What is a Profile?: To learn more about profiles, read the profile section.
Run ted and Select the Profiles Table
From the main menu in ted, select table #20, Profile Names.
Review Profiles
Partner’s default list of profiles is shown below. Each has a short name, an initial, a sort order, and full name.
The first four items on this list above are special profiles for use in the scrod program. Read the scrod section of the Scheduling Configuration manual for more information.
Add or Clone a New Profile
If you need to add a new profile, press A to add or C to clone an entry.
Give the new profile a title, name, unique initial, and sort order. Press F1 – Save and Quit to save your new profile.