Routing patients

The routing panel has a virtual route slip. With it, you can track patients throughout their visits as you and other staff members change the statuses of appointments. This virtual route slip provides the following benefits:

From the panel, you can change an appointment's status without having to open the appointment.
You can view appointment and patient information right on the panel instead of having to navigate to different areas of a patient's record.
If you click (or tap) the name of a patient on the panel while you are in the clinical chart, that patient's record is selected. So, you don't have to select a patient, which takes you to his or her overview page, and then navigate back to the clinical chart. The same is true if you are viewing the ledger, patient information, treatment planner, or another page of a patient's record when you click a patient's name on the panel.
Patients are grouped by status, and only the patients' appointments with statuses that you are subscribed to appear.
As appointment statuses change, the panel is updated automatically, and you receive pop-up notifications whether or not the panel is open.
You can also quickly peek at the schedule without having to open the Calendar page.

To open and close the panel

The routing panel is available at all times while you are logged in to Dentrix Ascend. To open or close the panel, click (or tap) anywhere on the thin, vertical bar on the left side of your browser window.

Tip: If the viewing area of your browser is at least 1482 pixels wide (which requires a screen resolution with at least 1500 horizontal pixels), assuming the browser's zoom is set at 100%, you can pin and unpin the panel:

While the panel is open and unpinned (opens over any content on the page), to pin the panel so that it opens next to any content on the page, click (or tap) the left-pointing pin icon .
While the panel is open and pinned (opens next to any content on the page), to unpin the panel so that it opens over any content on the page, click (or tap) the down-pointing pin icon .

When you initially open the routing panel, the Status Tracker tab is selected, and each status section is collapsed. The number of patients within a given status appears on the section header. Click (or tap) a section header to expand that section and view the corresponding patients.

For each patient on the Status Tracker tab of the routing panel, you can view and edit (where specified) the following information:

Patient information - The patient's photo, name, birth date, age, and medical alerts appear.
Contact information - The patient's Primary Phone number (Arriving and Here statuses only), Address (Here status only), and Email address (Here status only) appear. If an item of information has a link, you can click (or tap) that link to add or edit the corresponding information in the patient's record.
Missed appointments - The number of Broken and No Show appointments for the patient appear under Missed Appointments (Arriving status only).
Appointment information - The appointment's start time, duration, status, and procedures appear. To view all the details of the appointment, click (or tap) the appointment card on the panel; the Calendar page opens (if not already open) with that appointment selected, and the Appointment Information panel for that appointment opens.
Appointment note - Any notes that were entered for the appointment appear. You can edit the appointment notes as needed (Here, Ready, Chair, Checkout, and Complete statuses only).
Follow-up - Select or clear the Needs Follow-up checkbox to specify whether the patient needs to be followed up with after treatment or no follow-up is needed with the patient (Here, Ready, Chair, Checkout, and Complete statuses only).
Premedicate - Select or clear the Premedicate checkbox to specify whether the patient needs to be medicated before treatment or no premedication is needed for the patient (Here, Ready, and Chair statuses only).
Other patient and appointment information - To view the patient's primary contact information, guarantor information, and appointment details of others who are related to the patient, click (or tap) the down arrow. To hide the information, click (or tap) the up arrow.
Procedures - To post a procedure that is attached to the appointment, click (or tap) Post. To complete and post a treatment-planned procedure that is attached to the appointment, click (or tap) Complete. (Chair, Checkout, and Complete statuses only.)
Payments - To collect a payment, click (or tap) the Patient Walkout button (Checkout status only). The Collect Payment section and the corresponding Patient Walkout button are available only if the patient portion of the primary guarantor's balance is greater than zero and if the patient (or guarantor) has not made a payment today.
Navigation buttons - Click (or tap) any of the following buttons to access the corresponding area in the patient's record:
- Chart (Chair and Checkout statuses only).
- Perio (Chair status only).
- Tx Planner (Chair and Checkout statuses only).
- Ledger (Checkout status only).
Collect Phone Number - If there is not a phone number on record for the patient (if the patient is the primary contact for himself or herself) or the patient's primary contact person (if the primary contact is someone other than the patient), Collect Phone Number is available (Here, Ready, Chair, and Checkout statuses only). To enter a phone number, expand the section.
Collect Email - If there is not an email address on record for the patient (if the patient is the primary contact for himself or herself) or the patient's primary contact person (if the primary contact is someone other than the patient), Collect Email is available (Here, Ready, Chair, and Checkout statuses only). To enter an email address, expand the section.
Schedule Recare - If no primary recare types are attached to the patient's record, or if a primary recare type that is attached to the patient's record is not associated with a future appointment, Schedule Recare is available (Chair and Checkout statuses only). To add a recare type to a patient's record, click (or tap) Add New Recare. If a recare type is attached to the patient's record but is unscheduled, to schedule a recare appointment for the patient, expand the section, and then click (or tap) the applicable Unscheduled link.
Collect Payment - If there is a guarantor balance for the patient, Collect Payment is available (Checkout status only). A guarantor balance can consist of a balance for any of the following: the patient (whether or not the patient is the guarantor for himself or herself), the guarantor (if the guarantor is someone other than the patient), or any other patients who share that guarantor. To enter a payment and perform other actions (such as creating and sending a claim), click (or tap) Patient Walkout.
Clinical note - Any clinical notes that have been entered for the patient's visit appear, or you can add a clinical note by clicking (or tapping) the Add Clinical Note button. (Chair, Checkout, and Complete statuses only.)
Print Route Slip link - To print a route slip for the patient, click (or tap) the Print Route Slip link.
Status time tracking - How long the patient was in each status and the duration of the entire visit appear for your reference. (Here, Ready, Chair, Checkout, and Complete only.)

To filter the panel by patient

The routing panel shows all the patients with appointments today by default. To view only a specific patient, click (or tap) in the Patient Search box at the top of the panel to view a list a off all the patients with appointments today. To quickly locate the correct patient, begin typing the patient's first or last name, and continue typing as needed to narrow the results list. Select the correct patient to view his or her appointment card under the applicable status.

To filter the panel by operatory

The routing panel shows patients with appointments in all operatories by default. To view patients' appointments in a specific operatory, select that operatory from the list at the top of the panel.

To change an appointment's status

The label of the status button (under the patient's birth date) on the routing panel reflects the next status that will be assigned to the appointment if you click (or tap) the button, it does not reflect the current status of the appointment.

To change the status of an appointment to the status indicated by the status button's label, click (or tap) the status button.
To change the status of an appointment to a status other than the one indicated by the status button's label, click (or tap) the down arrow of the status button to open a menu, and then click (or tap) a status.
If a patient is late for his or her scheduled appointment, from the Here status menu, click (or tap) Late. The appointment's status changes to Late, but the patient remains under Arriving.

To route a patient electronically

The receptionist at the front desk has the Calendar page open because he or she just finished scheduling an appointment for a patient who called in. The routing panel is also open. When a patient arrives at the office, the receptionist clicks (or taps) the Here status button for that patient on the routing panel.

Note: The Here status button is not available if the patient is a new patient who booked the appointment online and if you have not assigned or created a patient record for the patient.
The appointment's status changes to Here, and the patient now appears on the routing panel under Here.
When the patient is all checked in, the receptionist opens the routing panel (if it is not already open) and then clicks (or taps) the Ready status button.

The appointment's status changes to Ready. The hygienist in the back office, at his or her computer, sees the notification of the status change, and the patient now appears on the routing panel under Ready.
After escorting the patient to an operatory chair, the hygienist clicks (or taps) the Chair status button.

The appointment's status changes to Chair, and the appointment now appears on the routing panel under Chair.
The hygienist clicks (or taps) the notification.

The corresponding patient becomes available (if not already visible) on the routing panel.
On the routing panel, the hygienist clicks (or taps) the name of the patient who is currently in the chair.

The hygienist had the clinical chart of the previous patient open, so the clinical chart of the patient in the chair now appears.
After work is completed on the patient, the hygienist opens the routing panel (if it is not already open) and then clicks (or taps) the Checkout status button. The patient starts walking to the front desk to check out.

The appointment's status changes to Checkout. The receptionist at the front desk, at his or her computer, sees the notification of the status change, and the appointment appears on the routing panel under Checkout.

Note: The receptionist at the front desk had the Ledger page of the patient who he or she last checked out open on his or her computer. Then, he or she opened the Calendar page open to schedule an appointment for a patient who called in, and that is the page that he or she is currently viewing when the notification of the status change for the patient that needs to be checked out next appears.
The receptionist clicks (or taps) the notification.

The corresponding patient becomes available (if not already visible) on the routing panel.
On the routing panel, the receptionist clicks (or taps) the name of the patient who needs to be checked out.

The Ledger page for that patient opens (because the Ledger page was the last page of another patient's record that was viewed before the receptionist opened the Calendar page).
Check the patient out.
When the receptionist finishes checking out the patient, on the routing panel, the receptionist clicks (or taps) the Complete status button to complete the appointment.

If all the tasks for that patient's appointment are complete, the corresponding patient now appears under Complete on the routing panel.