Quick Start: Scheduling
TherapyNotes streamlines your workflow with fully integrated scheduling, documentation, and billing, and scheduling the appointment is your first step in this process. The information you input when scheduling an appointment will pull forward into other steps of the process to ensure that your workflow is as efficient as possible. For this reason, it is important to make sure that you input accurate information when scheduling appointments. Scheduled appointments impact the type of documentation available for the appointment, the information included on insurance claims, and your clients' ability to view accurate availability on the client portal.
TherapyNotes allows you to schedule one-time or recurring appointments with clients, vacation and blackout periods when you are not available for appointments, and personal or practice-wide events such as training, meetings, or conferences.
Calendar Visibility and Roles
In Quick Start: Set Up Your TherapyNotes Account, you assigned user roles to you and your staff. In TherapyNotes, appointments can only be scheduled with Clinicians and Interns, not with Practice Administrators, Schedulers, or Billers. Only certain user roles have access to scheduling.
Practice Schedulers can see the practice-wide schedule for all clinicians and clients.
Clinicians and Interns see their schedule with clients who are assigned to them. Learn more about how to assign clinicians to clients.
Clinical Administrators see their schedule with clients who are assigned to them.
Additionally, in the Schedule tab of a client's chart, Clinicians, Interns, and Clinical Administrators can view upcoming appointments the client has with other clinicians.
Follow the steps below to learn about TherapyNotes scheduling and appointment features or click on any of the links below to jump to that section of the article.
Part 1: Calendar Overview
Click Scheduling to see your default view of the calendar.
(A) Jump menu: Use the Jump menu to quickly navigate to a specific day, week, or month, depending on your calendar view. This makes it easy to search for old appointments or find upcoming appointments that are well into the future.
(B) Calendar View tabs: Use the Calendar View tabs at the top of your calendar to switch between Agenda, Day, Week, and Month view. The blue tab shows the active calendar view.
Agenda: Display upcoming appointments in a list format. This view works well for practices with a large number of clinicians or clients.
Day: Display appointments for a single day. Appointments for each clinician are shown in their own column. If a clinician has a work schedule entered, their column is grey for times outside of their designated working hours. Only clinicians scheduled to work on the selected day are displayed.
Week: Display the week's appointments from Monday through Friday. To show the schedule for Saturday and Sunday, click the Show Weekend link at the top right corner of the calendar. Each clinician's appointments are color code.
Month: Display the calendar for the entire month. Each clinician's appointments are color coded. Note: This view does not display work schedules.
(C) Sync, Work Schedules, Appointment Requests: At the bottom right corner of your calendar, click on the hyperlinks to access instructions for syncing your calendar with external devices, your Work Schedule settings and the appointment requests from the client portal. The links that are visible here depend on your role.
Click the Set Calendar View button to access a menu to customize your calendar view.
(A) Location: If your practice operates at multiple locations, choose whether to view all or selected locations from the dropdown.
(B) This view is only available for Practice Schedulers. Select which Clinicians are shown on the calendar. To change which colors are assigned to each clinician in a group practice, click on the colored box next to the clinician's name, select the bubble next to the preferred color, then click the Set Calendar Color button. Appointments for the clinician will appear in their assigned color on the calendar in Month and Week view. Note: When viewing your own calendar, your appointments and events are color coded according to service or appointment type.
(C) Only Show Patient Initials in Calendars: When selected, client names will appear on the calendar as the first two letters of their first and last name. Example: John Smith becomes JoSm.
Tip: Can't find the appointment you're looking for? Click Set Calendar View, make sure that the box for Hide Missed and Canceled Appointments is unchecked and that All Locations is selected from the Location dropdown.
Part 2: Creating Appointments
In order to document a session, TherapyNotes requires that a corresponding appointment has been created. Scheduling the appointment will tell TherapyNotes what type of note you need to write, and information from the appointment will be automatically populated into the note header, saving you from entering information that TherapyNotes already has available.
There are several ways to create appointments in TherapyNotes.
In Scheduling, click the + New Appointment button, then double-click on a date on the calendar, or click the plus sign (+) that appears when you hover over a date with your mouse pointer.
No matter how you choose to schedule your appointment, the Create New Appointment dialog will appear. Fill in the fields accurately to ensure that the information on the subsequent documentation and insurance claim is correct.
(A) Appointment Type: The selection in this dropdown determines:1) which Clinicians will be available to schedule the appointment with.2) which note template will be available to the clinician at the time of the appointment.3) which service codes can be connected with the appointment.Select Scheduled Event to block off time on your calendar for non-clinical appointments such as training, staff meetings, or supervision sessions. Select Vacation or Blackout Period to easily block off hours or days in which a Clinician cannot take appointments, such as lunch times or vacations.
(B) Service Code: The sevice codes you have available for the appointment depend on the Type selected above. For example, if you need to bill for a 90791 intake code, set your service type to Therapy Intake.
(C) Frequency: Appointments in TherapyNotes can be one-time or recurring. Recurring appointments may continue indefinitely or end on a specified date.
(D) Appointment Alert: Appointment alerts are identified with a bell icon on the calendar. In Agenda, Day, and Week view, appointment alerts are shown below the corresponding appointment. Hover over the appointment in Month view to view the alert.
Part 3: Missed and Canceled Appointments
To mark an appointment as missed or canceled, click the appointment on the calendar to open the Appointment dialog.
(A) Cancel Appt: To cancel an appointment, click the Cancel Appt button. If the appointment recurs, select whether to cancel just this appointment or all future appointments in the series.
(B) Appt Missed: If the client did not shw up for the appointment, click the Appt Missed button to mark the appointment as missed.
Once you mark an appointment as canceled or missed, a bar appears at the top of the Appointment dialog.
(A) Create Note: Clicking the Create Note link opens a Missed Appointment Note, which allows you to easily keep record of missed appointments and automatically creates a billing line item to charge a cancellation fee if desired.
(B) Charge Fee: This action is only available to Billers. Click the Charge Fee link, select the Charge a Fee for this Missed Appointment checkbox, and input any necessary payment information to create a billing line item for the client.
(C) Delete: This action is only available for canceled appointments. This option permanently deletes the appointment from the calendar.
Part 4: Service Codes
Service codes are a way of designating which services were performed in the session. These are also known as Current Procedural Terminology, or CPT, codes. These codes are currently maintained by the American Medical Association and may be searched on their website.
Review your service codes
TherapyNotes is pre-loaded with some of the most common codes used by mental and behavioral health professionals. Click the User Icon > Settings > Service Codes to see which codes are already available for use.
Edit or add service codes
To modify an existing service code, click on the hyperlinked code. To add a new service code, click the Add Service Code button. To learn more, read How To: Add, Edit, and Delete Service Codes.
(A) Service Type: The Service Type you select will affect the note template available to document the service. For instance, the type Therapy Intake corresponds with a Psychotherapy Intake Note.
(B) Description: As long as the Description for a code is different, you may enter the same service code multiple times. This can be useful when you need to set up special billing circumstances (such as EAP billing) or when different payers have different billing requirements.
(C) Standard Rate: The Standard Rate is how much you normally charge for the session (also known as a cash rate). TherapyNotes simplifies your billing by automatically including your standard rate on claims. This reduces the amount of time you spend on billing tasks, as you do not have to worry about how much you are submitting for.
Part 5: Additional Scheduling Features
Automated Patient Appointment Reminders
Click the User Icon > Settings > Patient Appointment Reminders > Enable TherapyNotes Appointment Reminders
Patient appointment reminders significantly reduce client no-shows by sending automated email, text, and/or voice reminders to clients before their scheduled appointment. To enable these reminders, select the Enable TherapyNotes Appointment Reminders checkbox.
Next, set the Default Patient Settings for reminders and edit your Email Reminder settings and Phone Reminder settings. You can also send test email, SMS, and Phone reminders.
Appointment reminder preferences can be configured for individual clients in the Patient Information section in the Info tab of the client's chart. If these preferences are not configured, TherapyNotes will not send text or email reminders to the client.
For additional information, read Automated Patient Appointment Reminders.
Sync TherapyNotes with Your Personal Calendar
Click the User Icon > Settings > Sync Calendars With Other Applications
Sync your TherapyNotes calendar with your favorite calendar application on your personal device to easily view your schedule on the go. For specific instructions on syncing TherapyNotes to your device, read Sync Calendar to Smart Phone or Other Calendar Software.
To prevent third-party access to TherapyNotes, you can view your TherapyNotes calendar in another program, but the other program can not edit your TherapyNotes calendar.