When a patient with very specific scheduling needs calls to make an appointment, combing through your schedule and looking for any available time slot that both meets the needs of your office and the patient can be complicated and a little stressful. To help you find available openings in Appointment Book, Dentrix Enterprise provides an effective tool that allows you to quickly plug in as many or as few search parameters as you desire and then presents possible openings that meet those criteria.
To use the find appointment tool to locate an available appointment time
In Appointment Book, do one of the following:
On the
toolbar, click the Find New Appointment
Time button 
.
From the File menu, click Find New Appointment Time.
The Find New Appointment Time dialog box appears.
Set up the following search options:
Select Provider(s) - By default, the providers who are assigned to the current view being used in Appointment Book appear in the list. To list providers who are assigned to a different view, under Providers/operatories in, with the View option selected, select the correct view. To list providers for the clinic that you are currently logged in to, under Providers/operatories in, select the Clinic option. Next, select the providers whose availability you want to search for.
Select Op.(s) - By default, the operatories that are assigned to the current view being used in Appointment Book appear in the list. To list operatories that are assigned to a different view, under Providers/operatories in, with the View option selected, select the correct view. To list operatories for the clinic that you are currently logged in to, under Providers/operatories in, select the Clinic option. Next, do any of the following:
To search for open times in all operatories for the selected view or clinic, leave the Select All Ops checkbox selected so all operatories in the list are selected.
To search for open times in specific operatories for the selected view or clinic, deselect the operatories that you do not want to include in the search.
Note: To deselect all selected operatories at once so you can quickly change your selections, clear the Select All Ops checkbox.
Providers/operatories in - By default, View is selected, and the providers and operatories that are assigned to the current view being used in Appointment Book appear in the Select Provider(s) and Select Op.(s) lists. You can choose to display providers and operatories that are assigned to the current view, a different view, or the clinic that you are currently logged in to. However, if you change the current selection under Providers/operatories in, you must make new selections in the Select Provider(s) and Select Op.(s) lists.
Select Days - By default, the state of the checkboxes corresponds to the default schedule of the clinic that you are currently logged in to. Select the checkboxes of the days of the week that you want to include in the search. Clear the checkboxes of the days of the week that you do not want to include in the search.
Note: To clear all the checkboxes at the same time so you can quickly change the selections, click Clear All.
Start Date - By default, Dentrix Enterprise searches for open times starting from today's date. To change the starting date, do any of the following:
In the box, enter the correct date in a mm/dd/yyyy format.
Click
the search button 
, select the
correct date from the calendar that appears, and then click OK.
To advance the date that is currently entered in the Start Date box by a specified interval, select an interval type option (Day(s), Week(s), or Month(s)), and then click a number button (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6). For example, if you want to look for an available appointment time starting six months from today, select the Month(s) option, and then click 6 to advance the starting date by six months.
Time Range - Set up any of the following time limitations for the appointment:
Appt Length - To set the amount of time needed for the appointment, do the following:
Click
the search button .
The Appointment Time Pattern dialog box appears.
Do any of the following:
Drag the slider left or right to decrease or increase the time.
Click the left arrow button to decrease the time one appointment unit at a time (the length is determined by the clinic's time block size).
Click the right arrow button to increase the time one appointment unit at a time (the length is determined by the clinic's time block size).
Click between the slider and the left arrow to decrease the time 30 minutes at a time.
Click between the slider and the right arrow to increase the time 30 minutes at a time.
To specify a time pattern, for each box below the slider bar, click the box as needed to switch between chair (blank), assistant (/), and provider (X) time.
Click OK.
Time Pattern Search - To search for available times that match the time pattern that is specified for the Appt Length, select this check box. With this checkbox clear, the search ignores the time pattern.
Start and End - To search for available times that fall within a certain portion of the day, do the following:
To specify the time from which you want to begin looking, do the following:
Click
the Start search button .
The Select Time dialog box appears.
Do any of the following:
Drag the slider left or right to decrease or increase the time.
Click the left arrow button to decrease the time 10 minutes at a time.
Click the right arrow button to increase the time 10 minutes at a time.
Click between the slider and the left arrow to decrease the time one hour at a time.
Click between the slider and the right arrow to increase the time one hour at a time.
Click OK.
To specify the time at which you want to stop looking, do the following:
click the End
search button .
The Select Time dialog box appears.
Do any of the following:
Drag the slider left or right to decrease or increase the time.
Click the left arrow button to decrease the time 10 minutes at a time.
Click the right arrow button to increase the time 10 minutes at a time.
Click between the slider and the left arrow to decrease the time one hour at a time.
Click between the slider and the right arrow to increase the time one hour at a time.
Click OK.
Notes:
You can leave the Start or End time blank to use an open-ended search.
To
clear the Start or End
time, click the corresponding search button ,
and then click Cancel.
Select Time Block - To search according to Perfect Day Scheduling, do one of the following:
To search for an available time that falls within a certain time block, select the Search By Time Block checkbox. To list time blocks by provider or operatory, select either the Provider or Operatory option, respectively. Then, select a time block.
Note: This option is available only if a Perfect Day Scheduling time block has been set up for at least one provider.
To search for an available time that falls within time blocks that have been assigned a particular appointment type, select the Search By Appt Type checkbox. Then, from the Appt Type list, select a type.
No Duplicate Operatory Times - If the search finds the same open time in multiple operatories on a given date, and you want only the first of those duplicate times to be listed, select this checkbox.
Do one of the following:
Click Search/View. This is the recommended option.
Click Search. Be aware that this option does not allow you to preview multiple available times in Appointment Book. You can only view one time slot. And, if a time slot is not wanted after you view it, you have to start the search all over, re-entering your search criteria.
The Available Appointment Times dialog box appears and lists the first 10 available times that match the search criteria.
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The dialog box that appears if you clicked Search/View |
The dialog box that appears if you clicked Search |
If you clicked Search/View in step 3, to preview available appointment times in Appointment Book, do any of the following:
To preview the first date and time that appears in the search results list, leave it selected, and then click View.
To preview any date and time that appears in the search results list, select it, and then click View.
To preview the next date and time (relative to the selected one) that appears in the search results list, click View Next.
Appointment Book displays that date and outlines that time.
If none of the displayed times will work, do one of the following:
If you clicked Search/View in step 3:
To list the next 10 available times, click More. Then, repeat step 4 as needed to preview available appointment times.
To return to the Find New Appointment Time dialog box so you can change your search criteria, click Cancel. Then, repeat steps 2-4.
If you clicked Search in step 3:
To list the next 10 available times, click More.
To return to the Find New Appointment Time dialog box so you can change your search criteria, click Cancel. Then, repeat steps 2-4.
With a time slot selected in the search results list, to view the corresponding date in Appointment Book so you can schedule an appointment there, click Select.
Note: If you clicked Search/View instead of Search in step 3, the Select button is available only if you have previewed a date and time in Appointment Book by clicking View or View Next (as explained in step 4).
