Appointment Type selection - FIXED
I have a solution - see the bottom comment in this post. Tim G
When you create an appointment, the Appointment Type is preset. I think that the logic is 'if default defined for this schedule, use it, else select another (via some method that I can not figure out).
The field is not a pull-down, and to see the full list when using the binoculars, one has to clear the existing entry.
I think that it would be more efficient if nothing was set if there is no default. Then (as is my case) one only has to type one or two letters to select the appointment type.
The current scheme is also confusing to new users. ie if the appointment type is not what you want, press binoculars - the list just displays one entry - huh??? - thinks 'my trainer told me there were 6 different appointment types - but these is only one showing???'. The new user will not intuitively understand that the search text has to be cleared so that every possibility shows.
Recommendation: change the logic so that if no default appointment type exists, leave the appointment type slot empty.
Re: Appointment Type selection
Sounds OK to me. Run it by the user's forum and see if you can get concensus.
-Tim
Re: Appointment Type selection - FIXED
The "how to quickly select the Appointment Type" problem is fixed as follows:
The solution is to define an appointment type "*" (description 'unspecified') and make this the default. With this as the default, when you press the binoculars you see the complete list. Alternatively, you tab to the Appointment type field, (which selects the *) then type the first letter of your required Appointment Type (eg c for Consult, h for Health-check, etc - assuming you have set the other appointment types so that each start with different letters).
A similar setup should be used with Worklist Task Types.
That is, we define a task type "*" (description 'unspecified') and make this the default. When you do the check-in, this gets set as the task type, and can generally be left as is BECAUSE the Notes field of the worklist entry gets automatically set to the Appointment Reason + the Appointment Notes. However, if you want to set a specific task type, you just edit the Worklist entry and press the Task Type binoculars to show the available types.
Regards, Tim G
Re: Appointment Type selection - FIXED
Wow, I am late to this party!
Question to TimG. By using your solution do you find people just leave "*" as the appointment type?
I am keen to force users to select an appointment type for some schedules (e.g. surgery and medicine as some of these are set to occupy 2 slots, some 6 slots, etc). People have a tendency to just leave the default selection there.
Was the change to "no selection as default" for these fields still possible?
Cheers,
Adrian
Re: Appointment Type selection - FIXED
Adrian - I just ran a query across the production system - results are
I had a look at where * is being used and how the various worklists are set up. It turns out that there are two classes of work lists: 'real worklists' (ie Waiting room, surgery, hospital); and 'to do' (ie 'Reception to do' and 'Vet review').
The latter are being used to give global visibility to stuff that could be done via the messaging system - but using these todo lists ensures that everybody sees what has not been done.
The '*' as a default task type is only set for the 'to do' worklists - for all the others there is a specific default set (Consultation for Waiting room, Surgery for surgery, and Hospital-Inpatient for Hospital).
All the recent * event types are for the 'to do' worklists.
Regards, Tim G
Re: Appointment Type selection - FIXED
Hi,
I guess this is the problem somewhat for us. We have a few different appointment types for each worklist. It would be better for us to have *Blank* as a defult for some worklists and then force the user to select the type.
What would be even cooler is if a note could be created based on the appointment type when the patient is checked in.... ! :)
But I digress...
Would it be a difficult change to make the appointment type have no default?
Regards,
Adrian
Re: Appointment Type selection - FIXED
Adrian - I had a play with setting no default. You still get an appointment type defaulted in from the available types.
Hence you need a code change to make the behaviour "if there is no default appointment type set, then no appointment type should be entered thus forcing the user to make a choice".
[I suspect that it is not logical that if you do not have a default appointment type set, then you get a random one set from those available (I suspect you get the newest).]
Regards, Tim G
Re: Appointment Type selection - FIXED
Hi,
I am just bumping this up the list as the issue has reared it's head again...
Would it be possible to make the system behaviour as TimG describes ""if there is no default appointment type set, then no appointment type should be entered thus forcing the user to make a choice"?
Re: Appointment Type selection - FIXED
Raised as OVPMS-1686