Workflow Director Troubleshooting

Abstract

The Capable 21C Workflow Director will direct patient/client movements from reception through to the treatment areas, and then (indirectly) back to reception if required.  Due to its complex and flexible configuration, it is easy to mis-configure it - and this will lead to it failing to direct patients/clients to go anywhere.  This knowledgebase article discusses the most common causes, and how to fix them.

Underlying challenge

The Workflow Director uses a series of rules to determine how and when to direct patients/clients to move to a new area.  These rules are:

  1. Based on the type of appointment, Capable 21C determines which areas are appropriate.
  2. Capable 21C checks to see if those any of those areas are active.
  3. Capable 21C checks to see if any of the active areas are unoccupied.
  4. Capable 21C checks to see if a specific practitioner is linked to the first available area, and whether that practitioner matches the one booked for the appointment.
  5. Capable 21C checks to see if the patient/client has already been directed to the area, and whether they have actually been acknowledged in the area.
  6. Capable 21C checks to see if the patient/client has an assistance alert that must be resolved before they will be directed to a treatment area.
  7. In versions from v1.5.658 onwards, Capable 21C checks whether the patient requires a specific treatment area.

If all criteria are met, the patient/client is directed to move to the appropriate area.

Resolution

The following resolution steps are ordered based on the most common problems (not on the sequence of rules described above).

Check to see that one (and only one) PC is in Workflow Director mode

Examine the entries in the Mode menu for each PC in the network.  One PC, and one only, should be in either Workflow Director mode, Treatment Area + Auditory Workflow mode or Appointment Book, Treatment Area and Auditory Workflow mode.

Check to see whether the patient has a specific treatment area defined (v1.5.658 and later only)

If the person has a specific treatment area defined, Capable 21C will not call them to any other area.  This rule applies regardless of whether the patient's required treatment area is completely unavailable.  To check/correct this:

  1. Go to Patient Details.
  2. Go to the Personal tab.
  3. Change the 'Always call this patient to' to be 'First Available Area'.
  4. Click Save and Exit.
  5. Check the patient out, and then check them in again.

Check to see that the appropriate areas are active

The most common reason for the Workflow Director to fail to direct patients/clients to an area is that the area might not be active.  This is also the easiest one to correct.  To check/correct this:

  1. Click the Treatment Areas button on the button bar.  If this button is not visible, refer to KB-Setup Treatment Area Mode for instructions on how to add this button.
  2. Tick the appropriate areas to activate them.

Check to see that the appropriate practitioners are assigned to the areas

If Capable 21C believes that a different practitioner is working in a treatment area, it will not direct patients/clients to that area correctly.  To correct this problem:

  1. Click the Treatment Areas button on the button bar.  If this button is not visible, refer to KB-Setup Treatment Area Mode for instructions on how to add this button.
  2. Click the name of the practitioner in the area, and nominate the correct practitioner.  If no practitioner name is visible, Capable 21C will not restrict the flow of patients/client to this area.

Check to see that the patient/client is booked for the correct type of appointment, and that the appointment type is configured correctly

For each type of appointment, Capable 21C has specific settings that define which areas can be used.  Before checking appointment type settings, check the type of the appointment that has been booked:

  1. Right click on the appointment that has been booked (and checked in).
  2. Choose Appointment Properties from the fly-out menu.
  3. Note the appointment type listed.
  4. If the appointment type is wrong, check the patient out, change the appointment type to the correct appointment type, and then check the patient in again.

If the appointment type is correct, but the person is still not being called:

  1. Go to Setup|Setup Appointment Types and Fees
  2. Double click on the appointment type on the left hand side of the Appointment Types/Fees/Products window.
  3. Go to the Workflow tab on the Appointment Type Properties window.
  4. Check and/or correct which areas can be used for this type of appointment

Check to see if the desired area is occupied or is occupation limited

Each treatment area has a limitation on the number of people that can be directed to it at once.  Once this number of 'occupants' is reached, no further people will be directed to that area until someone leaves the area.  To check/correct this problem:

  1. Go to Setup|Setup Treatment Areas
  2. Double click on the treatment areas where the patient/client should have been directed.
  3. Note the maximum number of people permitted in this area.  If the maximum number is incorrect, correct it.  This kind of change will require Capable 21C to be restarted.
  4. Close out of these two windows.
  5. Examine the number of people already in the desired area to ensure that it does not exceed the maximum.

Check to see whether the person has an assistance alert that may be blocking the workflow director

 Each automatic assistance alert can be configured to prevent (or allow) the person to be directed to a treatment area.  To check/correct these settings:

  1. Go to Setup|Settings
  2. Go to the Workflow tab
  3. Examine the list of Automatic Assistance Alerts to see if any of them have the Pre-Treatment setting set to True.  If the setting is True, patients/client with that particular assistance alert will not be directed to a treatment area until the assistance alert has been resolved or deactivated.
  4. To change the Pre-Treatment setting on any automatic assistance alert, click beside the assistance alert in the Pre-Treatment column.
  5. Changes to the Pre-Treatment settings on any automatic assistance alerts may require Capable 21C to be restarted before they take effect.

Check to see whether Capable 21C believes that the person has already been called to the area

Capable 21C notes when it has called a person to an area, but also notes when the person is acknowledged to have arrived in that area.  This acknowledgement is noted when the Visit Notes window is opened for that person.  The acknowledgement is noted even if the Visit Notes window is opened on a PC in another area - and is noted even if the person has not already been directed to an area.  Effectively, if a person checks in, and the Visit Notes window is opened on any PC before the person is called, Capable 21C will assume that the person has been manually directed to an area (by an office staff member), and will not direct them again.  To check this possibility:

  1. Check the person out, and then check them in again.
  2. If the person is still not directed to an area, this item is not the problem.
  3. If the person is directed normally, this is likely to be the problem - but can only be confirmed from here by questioning office staff.

Check the Workflow Refresh Rate

In order to minimise the amount of network traffic that could potentially clog up the office network, Capable 21C does not check for patients/clients being available to move every second.  The workflow refresh rate specifies how many milliseconds Capable 21C should wait between checking and directing patients/clients.  This setting has valid values that range anywhere from 1000 (eg 1 second) through to 32000 (eg 32 seconds).

If the setting is too low, Capable 21C will check too frequently, and network performance will degrade as a result of the increased traffic.

If the setting is too high, Capable 21C will check too infrequently, and it may appear that it is doing nothing.

The office should tune this setting carefully over the course of a couple of weeks to ensure that an optimum balance between network traffic and responsiveness is achieved.  Refer to KB-Improve Performance in a network for more specifics on adjusting this setting (and others).

Detailed Information

For offices that use a Fingerprint recognition system, or a swipe card reader, offices may notice that patients/client first appear in the Fingerprint Check In area (even if one has not been created), and then moves to Reception automatically a few seconds later.  If patients/clients are getting stuck in the Fingerprint Check In area, refer to the following instructions:

  1. One PC must be nominated as the PC that will invoice people checked in by Fingerprint Scan (or swipe card reader).  This PC can be any PC in the office network, but is typically the main PC located in Reception.  Start by going to this particular PC.
  2. Click Setup|Settings.
  3. Go to the Workflow tab
  4. Ensure that the checkbox entitled 'This is the PC that invoices people checked in by Fingerprint scan' is ticked.
  5. Ensure that the checkbox entitled 'Disable To Do List Updates on this PC' is not ticked.
  6. Click Apply and then Close.
  7. Go to each other PC in the office network in turn..
  8. Go to Setup|Settings.
  9. Go to the Workflow tab
  10. Ensure that the checkbox entitled 'This is the PC that invoices people checked in by Fingerprint scan' is not ticked.
  11. Ensure that the checkbox entitled 'Disable To Do List Updates on this PC' is ticked.
  12. Click Apply and then Close.
  13. Repeat steps 8-12 for each other PC.
This knowledge resource is designed for use on a Windows (tm) XP system operating at a screen resolution of 1024x768 or better. Windows Media Player must be installed for this training resource to operate correctly.

Copyright 2008 Capable Software Pty Ltd

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