Searching in Appointments

Introduction

The “torch” icons in the Appointments module allow for free slots to be searched for.

 The first button – the torch with a “wide beam” – will check for all free slots available.

 The second button – the “narrow beam” torch – will allow you to run a search according to criteria of your choosing (see below).

 The numbered buttons provide one-click access to pre-set searches which have been saved on the workstation.

 The final button provides a list of all saved searches in the practice for you to choose from.

Running a Search

Clicking on the second torch button (or clicking Search > Specific Slot, or F4), will launch the following search utility.

This allows you to dictate:

• which clinician’s appointments are included in the search
• which days of the week are searched
• what type of surgery and appointment (normal, book on the day, etc) are searched for
• how many days into the future to search

Once the criteria have been set, clicking Search will provide a list of suitable appointment times which are available.

Saving a Search

Once a search has been constructed, it can be saved for further use by clicking on the Save button.

The search can be given a name, and saved to one of the numbered torch buttons by making the appropriate selection in “Quick Search”.

Note that these searches are workstation specific – although the search will be available to all Vision users, it will only be mapped to a numbered search button on the machine you are currently working on.

If you wish to map a search created elsewhere in the practice to a numbered search button on your machine:

• Click on the second torch button (or Search > Specific Slot, or F4),
• Click on Save
• On the “Select Search Name” box, select the search you wish to save and choose the relevant entry under “Quick Search”
• Click on “Map”. The search will now be available on the Quick Search Button you have chosen.

Appointments Backup

In the event of a server failure, it may be useful to have a backup list of appointments which can be printed off and referred to until such time as the server is available again. The steps below show how this can be set up.

• In Appointments, click on Maintenance, then System Constants.
• Click on the Backup tab.
• Place a tick in the “From this workstation” box.

• You can enter a location to save the file to, although it is recommended you leave it as the default.
• Enter intervals at which you wish to back the appointments lists up, and for how many days into the future you wish to back up. You should make the decision as to how you wish to set these options.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You may notice a small “freezing” of the workstation as the backup is performed while the workstation reads the information from the database. For this reason, it is recommended that the “Backup days after today” option is set to a small figure on machines on reception which are heavy users of the Appointments module. You can set the backup to run on ANY machine, but for the backup to take place the workstation MUST have the Appointments module running.
 

Retrieving Appointments Lists in the event of a server or network failure

• On the Workstation which has been set to backup the Appointments Lists, click on Start, then Run
• Type in the file location you gave when you configured the automatic backup. By default, this is c:\appt_bak.txt
• The backup appointment list will now open in Notepad.
• You can print out the appointment list using the File, Print options.

The procedure for VES sites is slightly different, as additional configuration is required. For instructions on configuring VES systems, please see the link below.

Appointments Backup on Managed Server