Opening and Closing Shifts

Abstract

Capable 21C supports the ability to set up standard weekly shift times for each practitioner. These shift times display as white areas on the appointment book, whilst unavailable times display as grey. This knowledgebase article describes how to control and adjust the white and grey areas for office shifts that need to be closed or opened at different times to the normal shifts.

Underlying challenge

There are four different parts of Capable 21C that control the appearance of the appointment book:

• The appointment book scroll bars allow an operator to scroll up and down to times defined by the Business Setup screens.
• General settings for the appointment book such as number of rows, number of columns and whether multi-practitioner mode is enabled are controlled via Setup|Settings.
• For each practitioner, grey blocks denote the start of their shift, the end of their shift and any possible lunchbreak. These are configured via Setup|Setup Provider Details.
• Shifts can be opened, closed or adjusted on a day to day basis from the appointment book screen itself.

Before an operator makes changes to the appearance of the appointment book, it is important to determine which of the configurable options needs to be altered. See the section below for an explanation of each of the four alternatives, when and how to use them.

Resolution

To alter the appointment book so that an operator can scroll to a later (or earlier) time:

• Go to Setup|Setup Business Details.
• Go to the Office Hours tab.
• Adjust the opening or closing time of the day that needs to be altered.
• Click Apply and then Close.
• Close Capable 21C entirely and restart it.

To alter the number of columns, number of rows or to enable or disable multi-practitioner mode:

• Go to Setup|Settings.
• Go to the Appointment Book tab.
• Adjust the number of rows, number of columns and tick (or untick) the multi-practitioner mode as required.
• Click Apply and then Close.
• These changes do not require a restart of Capable 21C.

To alter the grey blocks that denote a practitioner’s shift times for ALL shifts in the future:

• Go to Setup|Setup Provider Details. Note that Capable 21C’s terminology is configurable, so this menu item may be called ‘Setup Provider Details’, ‘Setup Doctor Details’, ‘Setup Chiropractor Details’ or some similar variation.
• Go to the Hours tab.
• Adjust the hours as required.
• Click the ‘Apply Shift Times’ button.
• Click Close.

To alter shifts dynamically from the appointment book:

To open a single shift that is closed:

• Right click on the grey area of the closed shift.
• Choose ‘Open shift’ from the fly-out menu.
• Nominate the desired times for the shift to be open.
• Click Ok.

To close a single shift that is open:

• Right click on a free slot on the open shift.
• Choose ‘Close shift’ from the fly-out menu.
• Nominate the desired times for the shift to close.
• If existing appointments need to be moved to another practitioner, check the appropriate box, and nominate the desired practitioner.
• Click Ok.

Important note.  When Capable 21C is functioning in multi-practitioner mode, appointments may not be visible if a practitioner is severely overbooked.  Moving appointments from one practitioner to another may produce this undesirable effect.  Similarly, closing a shift and leaving the appointments unmoved can also produce this undesirable effect.  Capable Software recommends taking Capable 21C out of multi-practitioner mode until the appointments can be moved to less heavily booked times, or until the shift is concluded.

To introduce a small block of unavailable time in the middle of a shift:

• Right click on the desired time for the block-out.
• Choose ‘Block Out Times’ from the fly-out menu.
• Nominate the reason for the block-out, and how many slots should be obscured from the appointment book.
• Click Ok.

To shorten a lunch break:

• Click on the grey area that denotes the lunch break.
• Choose ‘Alter Duration’ from the fly-out menu.
• Reduce the number of slots by the appropriate amount.
• Click Ok.
• The grey lunch-break can be moved by dragging and dropping it.

To extend a lunch break:

As per shortening a lunch break, except that the number of slots will be increased in step 3.

If all else fails:

Any remaining grey blocks can be completely erased by right-clicking on them and choosing Erase Appointment from the fly-out menu. Missing grey blocks can be re-instated by following the procedure to introduce a small block of unavailable time.

Detailed Information

The grey areas on the appointment book are actually recorded internally by Capable 21C as appointments. They are special appointments insofar that they do not apply to any particular patient/client. They can be manipulated much the same as any other appointment by dragging and dropping them, or by right-clicking on them.

They are created automatically by Capable 21C when an operator modifies a practitioner’s shift times. However, by default, Capable 21C will only create 12 months worth of the grey blocks. If an operator moves the appointment book to a date far off in the future, eventually, they will come to a time where no more grey blocks have been created. For this reason, it is advisable for the office to create more of the grey blocks on a regular basis (eg every six months). To help remind staff to do this, Capable 21C will automatically display a warning message when it is started if there are no grey blocks on the current day.

Note also that Capable 21C supports the concept of a repeating block-out. When an operator is creating a block out (using the instructions above), they can opt for the block-out to repeat every day, week or month for a certain period of time. Some offices use this feature to create more lunch breaks when the proper lunch breaks expire. Capable 21C does not treat these kinds of block-outs as proper lunch breaks, and statistical reports will be adversely impacted by these kinds of block-out-lunch-breaks. If this has occurred, it is advisable to delete the block-out-lunch-breaks and use Setup|Setup Provider Details to re-insert the proper lunch breaks.

Copyright 2008 Capable Software Pty Ltd

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