Designing Ortho II's Grid Scheduler Utilizing Smart Scheduling

Set-up requires thorough knowledge of Ortho II's Grid Scheduler Start-up Workbook

This preliminary information must first be compiled:

1. List your procedures
Advantages of making this list complete include:

a. Procedures may have a different picture if they include each step of the procedure
Example: Fit 2 Bands, + Impression

K		5 minutes assistant, clean up from last patient
		10 minutes assistant , prepare teeth, fit 2 bands
	5	5 minutes doctor, check and cement the bands
		5 minutes assistant, clean cement off
	2	2 minutes doctor, takes impression for appliance
		7 minutes assistant gives instructions, talks to parent

35 minutes assistant total appointment time
7 minutes doctor time
7 units long

Any letter at the top can represent the picture of the appointment
Numbers represent minutes of doctors time

Example: Fit 2 Bands, Bond 10 + impression 

H		5 minutes assistant, clean up from last patient
		10 minutes assistant, prepare teeth, fit 2 bands
	5	5 minutes doctor, check and cement the bands
		5 minutes assistant, clean cement off
	5	5 minutes doctor, bond brackets
	3	3 minutes doctor, bond brackets - impression - prepare wire
		10 minutes assistant ties in wire (2+5+3=10)
	2	2 minutes doctor checks wire
		5 minutes assistant gives instructions, talks to parent

50 minutes assistant total appointment time
15 minutes doctor time
10 units long

b. Ortho II Daysheet will explain exactly what to set-up for each patient (eliminates need to check each chart )
c. Patient history (F8,F8) is more accurate
d. Procedure Reports help to refine grid templates in the future
e. Ondeck reports give accurate information about procedure summaries and varying assistant times for different procedures

An example of a list follows.

2. Time your procedures

Advantages of relaxed accurate timings include:

a. Achieve a true picture of office capabilities

1. Create sheets that allow you to record the number of units necessary for each procedure
2. Mark only the assistant time actually working on the patient
3. Record in numbers using (1,2,3,4 or 5 minutes) the units that the doctor is with the patient (use a stop watch)
b. Keep track of how much time the patient is waiting for an assistant or the doctor (this is the time you will try to eliminate) 

3. Sort like timings together and assign them beginning letters for identifying their picture 
Advantages of combining procedures that are very close to the same picture and advantages of having unique pictures to allow for maintaining openings for production starts:

a. Having many procedures with the same pictures allows you to offer patients multiple choices for their appointments
b. Identify those procedures that you do not want to fill with other appointments even if they have the same picture. (Example: Hold start appointments open until they are less than one week away from today.) Those appointments that do not fill, can be used for repositioning, etc.

4. Write down rules for each procedure. 
Advantages of being specific about where procedures are placed in the day:

a. One rule may be that no long appointments may be done after 2:00. Another may be that deband appointments must be scheduled in the late mornings. (The hardest time to fill…they are happy with anytime you have for debands)
b. Initial Exams and Records appointments should be placed in time slots most desired by patients
c. Every office has different criteria

5. Determine the number of each picture you will need to incorporate into your grid template.
If you are current grid scheduler users:
From the Grid Scheduler Main Menu, Choose #3 APPOINTMENT/MANAGEMENT REPORTS
Choose #8 and enter a range of dates that will be an accurate representation

a. Assign each existing procedure the letter that corresponds to its new picture 
b. Combine the number of kept appointments for each picture
c. Divide this combined number by the number of full days worked during the range of date selected
d. Adjust number up if recent scheduling prohibited the appointment from being scheduled as soon as would have been ideal
e. Add a percentage for missed appointments
f. Add a percentage for practice growth 

If you are new to the grid scheduler:

a. Count the number of appointments requested for each of the new procedures that you have created.
b. Continue these tallies for a period equal to at least one "jump"
c. Add a percentage for practice growth

Back-up before making any changes

This is grid scheduler set-up information:
Grid main menu #4

Choose #1 PRE-USE `FIXED' SYSTEM DEFINITIONS
Carefully set-up how the grid chairs will identify dr., offices, chairs, and
units of time 

Each practice has different criteria. Decisions that simplify the searches for future appointment schedulers work the best. (Example: Set-up the scheduler so that the appointment coordinator does not have to worry about scheduling a patient to the wrong office or doctor. An F5 search for the appointment is automatically based on information entered on the patients page 1 Ortho II record

2 NO. OF F1/HORIZ. GRIDS/DAY (& Label): 1
3 NO. OF F2/VERT. GRIDS/DAY (& Label): 2 AM/PM
4 NO. OF WEEKS PER `JUMP': 6
5 PROCEDURE CODE LENGTH: 9 (even if you only use 2 for the code length for the grid, choose 9 here. It is helpful for ondeck to use all 9 for the code length)

Ondeck will display this.

NO  NICKNAME  LAST NAME  PROCEDURE  CH  REMINDER        #E  #L  ARR  APT
-- ---------- ---------- --------- -- ------------------------- -- -- --- ---
  1   LYNNE        FALES                      3                              3   0    0     -1

6 PROCEDURE'S FIRST CELL CONTENTS: PROCEDURE CODE
7 PROCEDURE'S CONT. CELL CONTENTS: USER DEFINED CONTENTS
8 APPT. BACKUP TYPE & LOCATION: LOCAL DISKETTE a:\
9 DEFINE DEFAULT GRID CELL CHARACTERS
_________________________ SPECIAL GRID CELL CHARACTERS _______________________

Grid cells that have been scheduled will normally contain the patient ID.No. and/or the procedure code scheduled. Unused and special cells will be filled with the special characters that you define below. If you elect to change the default values that appear below, make sure to select characters that are meaningful to you and that are easily distinguished from each other.

NOTE: You can change these values at any time. All grids will be modified to
reflect any changes made.

DESIRED CHARACTER TO CHANGE - <ESCAPE> TO EXIT ?
Set-up for your office requirements. Keep in mind that each grid can have up to 6 chairs, a normal 8:00am to 12:00pm and 1:00pm to 5:00pm can fit on 2 screens

10 MODIFY SYSTEM COLORS (Colors for grid systems may remain the same)
11 MODIFY GRID SCREEN COLORS ( If you make your grid resemble an empy templated appointment book, and then have scheduled appointments fill-in with solid colors, it will be very easy for you to identify scheduled appointments. Choose colors for appointment types that you would like to easily identify. Use the colors that are available as highlighters, so that you can highlight you daysheet with the same colors. Example: Exams / Consults = Orange, Records = Green, Recalls = Pink, Emergencies = Red, Start Appointments/Seps =Light Blue, Debands = Dark Blue, Active Patient Bondings = Black +Yellow, Quick Checks/Retainer Patients = Purple, Any appointment where an appliance will be inserted = Black+Red, Regular Visits = Black and White, 


It is useful to set-up #13 and #14 to yes. This way appointment reminders will print on your daysheet, and will be cleared after the appointment is processed.

13 CLEAR APPOINTMENT REMINDERS? Yes
14 RETAIN REMINDERS IN APPT. HISTORY Yes

Entering Procedures:

Tip: Enter the number of the procedure in #6 Access Appointment Procedure List, #3 Change Appointment Procedures, Enter Procedure #, #2 Description (In the example 113 was added before the appointment description) 113 is going to be the new procedure #. Now you can print from Grid scheduler main menu #2 Print / Update Daily Appointments, #2 PRINT APPOINTMENT DAY SHEET (RANGE OF DATES). Date should be from now and include the date of all appointments scheduled in the future. If appointments have reminders added to your procedures, each day must be printed so that the reminders will print and can then be reentered into the appointment. 

All appointments may now be removed from the grids by viewing the day, pressing F3, and then F8 to process all appointments. Delete all appointments. Yes to confirm. When you reenter these appointments in the new grids, the process is simplified because the new # of the procedure has printed on the daysheets. Having the procedure number at the beginning of procedure description also makes scheduling easier. When an appointment is changed use F8 and schedule using an F5 search for that procedure number for the next available appointment.

Before the new procedures can be entered in #6 Access Appointment Procedure List, your must do OrthoII's procedure swap. Call Ortho II if you have questions regarding implementing this utility.
Existing procedures will now be located in their new number position. Enter all of the new procedures information. You will probably need to edit the description for procedures that were remapped. Check to be sure Status, letters, etc are correct.

In our example we have edited procedure #113

In the 1st cell, the first 2 characters G (G, space) will be the information that shows up on our grid template, because when we created our 6 chair grid we determined the width to be 2. The B4+10 will give us information useful for ondeck. That we will be banding 4 and bonding 10 teeth. The numbers in cells 4, 6, 7,& 8 show the minutes that the doctor will be needed within the 12 unit (60 minute appointment)

You can control exactly where your appointment will be offered by making careful decisions regarding class and cell match. There may be 15 different procedures that have the same picture. Some of these appointments will work anywhere in the template. A few may have the same picture, but you do not want them to show on your F5 list in the prime time. You can create the grid template with the correct # of units and the information in the 1st cell, 1st 2 characters, the same, however, the pictures during nonprime time are classified and primetime are not classified. The appointment procedure that you do not want to appear in your search except in nonprime time will be restricted to that classification, and must also find the cell match of the 1st 2 characters of the 1st cell. Procedures that can search in both prime and non prime time will be non-restricted with cell match. Use the chair option to control specific procedures searches, also. A search for 2 different available procedure appointments that work well one after the other can be accomplished by setting up the procedure to look for the units of both appointments and a cell match for the beginning procedure. An example of this is an Initial Exam and Records appointment procedure.

19 units is a combination of the initial exam appointment and a records appointment. Setup the grid template so that when the treatment coordinator has finished her portion of the appointment and the patient continues with records, the treatment coordinator is free to see another patient. It is necessary to make the records and treatment coordinator columns interchangeable. See example

Create your grid templates

Each office has different grid requirements. Divisions may be determined by # of doctors, and # auxiliary personnel.

5 Access Grid Library / Weekly Grid Defaults
Horizontal divisions, vertical divisions, number of chairs make variations on setup practically unlimited.
The following is an example of a 6 chair ˝ day grid 

5 CREATE A CUSTOM GRID
ENTER THE FOLLOWING SEVEN GRID PARAMETERS
_________________________________________

VERTICAL SCHEDULING METHOD
NUMBER OF HORIZONTAL DIVISIONS (1-19)   3
NUMBER OF HORIZONTAL UNITS (1-25)   6
NUMBER OF VERTICAL UNITS (1-17)   17
INITIAL HORIZONTAL OFFSET (6-60)   6
DIVISIONAL HORIZONTAL OFFSET (0-40)   4
FIELD WIDTH (2-25)   2

WARNING! Grid's cell width 2 is less than the procedure code length 9.
The procedure codes will not fit in this grid's cells!
<ENTER> TO CONTINUE - <ESCAPE> TO EXIT ?

Procedure pictures are laid onto the grid using the letter assigned to the picture. First create your grid on paper or in a computer spreadsheet. Use the counts that you determined were needed for each picture per day. Align the pictures so that there is never more than 5 minutes of the doctors time needed in any 5 minute time slot. Results will produce a day with the correct allotment of needed pictures and allow for an even flow for patients, doctors and assistants. 

Tip: In the example above a "G" allows for the assistant to fit 4 bands before the doctor is needed. The "H" allows for the assistant to fit 2 bands before the doctor is needed. The "K" appointment requires the doctor to cement a lab appliance immediately. The "D" is a deband appointment. If there are openings, within 1 week, move a scheduled deband into this time slot. 

After the grids are created in the grid library, they can be entered in the defaults. From grid scheduler main menu #5 Access Grid Library / Weekly Grid Defaults, then # 6 DEFINE WEEKLY GRID DEFAULTS.
Note that any grid that was scheduled to, or that had an entry made with grid tools will not load a new default grid. These may be entered by using grid tools. Subsequent days may be entered by entering the date of the next day you would like that grid to load into also.

Call Ortho II to help with remaking the grids. Remaking the grids is a utility file that aids in being sure all information is accurate within a file.

Other tips that may be specific to an individual office:

Call if there is something specific you would like to be able to accomplish but might need direction to determine the best way to achieve your goal.

It's worth the setup time.