Practice Management tips and recommendations for COVID-19:
With the spread of COVID-19, many users have contacted us for assistance adapting their practice management system to the new normal.
We’ve put together a tutorial that consolidates information on a number of important functions that can help you navigate the current situation, that you may want to use in your clinic.
If you have questions about COVID-19 itself, please contact your local health authority:
Government of Canada’s COVID-19 Health, News and Economic Response page
How to add setup and add COVID-19 Screening and Waiver forms as well as online intake forms:
In case you missed it, we just launched a convenient new function to help you get intake forms filled out electronically ahead of time, prior to the appointment. NOTE: COVID-19 intake forms are NOT loaded by default. You must follow the steps in the adding & managing forms tutorial on the page below in order to use them:
Setting Buffer Time Between Appointments:
If you require additional time for sanitation between clients, you may wish to set or increase the buffer time that is added automatically at the time of booking to the end of your appointments. To begin make sure you are in Website Control > User accounts and have clicked on the pencil icon for your account.
The buffer time on previously booked appointments will not change when you alter this setting.
To change your buffer time setting, begin bv navigating to Website Control > User accounts and have clicked on the pencil icon for your account if you are not already there. (If needed you can begin by reading our tutorial on Editing User Accounts by clicking here)
Next, navigate to the "hours" tab.
Buffer time: The buffer time drop down menu can be used to set a buffer time that will be placed at the end of your appointments.
Type into the appropriate boxes, and click the Save button when finished.
Customizing the wording of your appointment messages (reminders, cancellation, etc.) to include COVID-19 specific processes:
There are a number of system appointment related email messages that are automatically sent out by the system to your clients.
These messages include:
- Appointment Request Acknowledgement
- Appointment Confirmation
- Appointment Reminder
- Appointment Cancellation
- Appointment Conflict
The content of each message is pre-defined and contains generic wording with clinic specific merge fields to reflect your practice. These messages can be customized to include COVID-19 information.
You may wish to include something to the effect of “To protect our patients and our staff, we ask that all patients who are sick, or who are experiencing symptoms such as fever, cough, or trouble breathing call to reschedule their appointment at (clinic phone number.)”
For those of you in areas that have been locked down, we suggest something to the effect of “Notice: For the protection of our patients, staff, and community, all treatments are being postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 lock down. We will resume services as soon as possible and will send out an announcement at that time notifying everyone they can begin rescheduling. In the meantime, if you wish to support us please purchase a gift certificate toward the payment of your future treatment.”
Here's how it works...
Navigate to Communications >>> Email
Click the System Messages tab .
On the resulting page click the screen icon for the email message that you wish to edit. This will open the edit window for you to customize your message. Click inside the message window and make the wording changes you require.
Warning: BE CAREFUL not to modify the text inside the { } as these are the merge fields that are automatically replaced with the relevant clinic or client data from your site.
When you are happy with the content changes click the Save button .
The new email content will now be sent out by the system when needed.
Note: To revert back to the system default message content click the Reset button .
Adding COVID-19 specific announcements to your website's appointment book:
To add an announcement to your appointment book page, simply go to Website Control > My Pages and click the Pencil icon beside your booking page.
Simply click in the edit window, compose your message and press save.
If you are unsure what to write, here are a few prepared announcements that may help:
For those continuing to practice:
“To protect our patients and our staff, we ask that all patients who are sick, or who are experiencing symptoms such as fever, cough, or trouble breathing call to reschedule their appointment at (clinic phone number.)”
For those of you in areas that have been fully or partially locked down:
“Notice: For the protection of both our patients, our staff, and our community, in keeping with the COVID-19 recommendations for local businesses from (local health authority or association) we are not currently offering treatments. We will continue to monitor the situation and will resume services as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you wish to support us please consider purchasing a gift certificate toward the payment of your future treatment.”
If you have just reopened or are about to reopen soon, you may wish to include something to the effect of: “Notice: In addition to our increased sanitation practices, all patients will be required to fill out a digital screening form prior to their appointment. In keeping with the COVID-19 recommendations from (local health authority or association) we ask that all patients who are sick, or who are experiencing symptoms such as fever, cough, or trouble breathing please remain at home and consult their health care physician.”
Updating your calendar to reflect your availability:
If you are not yet open for business but are expecting to reopen soon, you may wish to setup a close exception to close your schedule just until your opening date. To prevent people from making requests online during a period of closure, we recommend using the “Close Exception” function:
To create a Closed Exception...
Create Closed Exception navigating to Website Control >>>User Accounts
Click the Edit icon beside the name of the therapist account you wish to create an exception for.
On the resulting page click on the Hours tab .
Click on the calendar icon on the left and select the date you wish to create an exception for.
Use the drop down menus , to choose the time your exception will take effect.
Then use the calendar icon and the drop down menu
on the right to specify the date and time your exception will end.
When finished, hit the green Add button .
Select Save button to save any changes you have just made.
Note: If you make a mistake or need to reopen your schedule later, you can delete your closed exceptions using the red X button . A pop-up window will ask you to confirm that you are sure you want to delete the exception.
Creating an exception will open or close your clinic on both the public and private calendar, but will not remove appointments from your schedule or stop reminders from sending. If you wish to cancel appointments, we recommend cancelling them and selecting “Office Cancelled” or “Patient Cancelled” as you can still report on those later if needed, as they will be removed from the calendar when cancelled this way but will still be trackable from Reports > General Reports.
Sending mass e-mail to all your patients:
The communication tools in your software allow you to send e-mail quickly and easily to every patient in your database with an e-mail address. This is a great way to update patients on your operations at this time.
Navigate to Communication >>> Email
Choose who the message should be sent from. Selecting "Clinic" will send the message from the address in clinic settings. Selecting an individual practitioner will send the e-mail from that therapist’s e-mail address as defined in user accounts.
To send an e-mail to every client in the database that has an email address, regardless of whether they have been added as a contact, you can select “All Patients” from the “Select Group” drop down.
Once you have selected the recipient(s) of your message, simply enter your subject and message as you normally would. Take care to review what group(s) you have selected. If you select multiple groups and a patient is included in more than one of them, they may receive multiple copies of your message.
To send your message, press the Send button .