Patient Summary Appointments Tab

Provider Portal integrates with an organization’s existing Cerner Millennium environment and uses Cerner Scheduling Management to enable authorized users to view patient appointments and schedule appointments on behalf of patients. The Appointments tab in the Patient Summary displays a Schedule Appointment button and the patient’s upcoming and previous appointments. The appointments are retrieved from Cerner Scheduling Management. If a client uses an external scheduling solution and interfaces appointments into Cerner Millennium, those appointments are returned to Provider Portal as well. The Appointments tab is available from the Patient Summary in Patient Archive search mode only.

Patient Summary Appointments Tab Help

- Prerequisites
- View Appointments
- Appointments Display
- Schedule Appointment

Prerequisites

Appointments functionality has the following prerequisites:

  • You must be a Cerner Millennium client.
  • Your Provider Portal must be connected to Cerner Scheduling Management.
  • You must have the appropriate authorizations in Provider Portal. This includes the authorization that grants access to the Patient Summary Appointments tab. To schedule appointments, you must have the authorization to schedule appointments.

View Appointments

Complete the following steps to view a patient’s upcoming and previous appointments:

  1. Perform a patient archive search. See Patient Archive Search for more information.
  2. Select the patient’s name or Actions > Patient Summary to open the Patient Summary for that patient. 
  3. If Appointments is not the active tab in the Patient Summary, select the Appointments tab. When you select the Appointments tab (or it is the default tab), the system automatically makes a request to Cerner Scheduling Management to retrieve the patient’s appointments. If a unique patient is found, the patient’s appointments are displayed; otherwise, the system displays one of the following messages:
    • Unable to retrieve appointment information for this patient because a matching patient was not found.
    • Unable to retrieve appointment information for this patient because multiple matching patients were found.

Note: 

  • If a unique patient is found, instructions from your organization may be displayed at the top of the Appointments tab.
  • If you do not see the Appointments tab in the Patient Summary, review the prerequisites to ensure that the requirements are met.

Appointments Display

- Upcoming and Previous Appointments
- Display Canceled Appointments
- Appointment Elements

Upcoming and Previous Appointments

Appointments retrieved from Cerner Scheduling Management are grouped and displayed as Upcoming Appointments and Previous Appointments in Provider Portal. Upcoming Appointments have appointment dates and times in the future. Previous Appointments have appointment dates and times in the past. Both categories contain the same appointment elements.

Note: The maximum number of appointments to retrieve from Cerner Scheduling Management is configured in Provider Portal.

Display Canceled Appointments

When appointments retrieved from Cerner Scheduling Management are displayed in Provider Portal, by default the system does not display canceled appointments. Select Display canceled appointments to display canceled appointments. This applies to upcoming and previous appointments, respectively.

Appointment Elements

The following appointment elements that are retrieved from Cerner Scheduling Management are displayed in the Appointments tab for upcoming and previous appointments, respectively:

  • Appointment day and date
  • Appointment type (includes video icon if video appointment)
  • Appointment time
  • Appointment location
  • Who the appointment is with (primary provider name on the appointment)
  • Appointment status

Note: If appointment type, location, or primary provider name is not available in Cerner Scheduling Management, Not Available is displayed for the applicable element.

Schedule Appointment

Note: Schedule appointment functionality is not available on a smartphone.

Complete the following steps to schedule an appointment on behalf of a patient:

  1. Perform a patient archive search. See Patient Archive Search for more information.
  2. Select the patient’s name or Actions > Patient Summary to open the Patient Summary for that patient. 
  3. If Appointments is not the active tab in the Patient Summary, select the Appointments tab. When you select the Appointments tab (or it is the default tab), the system automatically makes a request to Cerner Scheduling Management to retrieve the patient’s appointments. If a unique patient is found, the Schedule Appointment button and patient’s appointments are displayed. In addition, instructions from your organization may be displayed at the top of the Appointments tab.
  4. Select Schedule Appointment. The Schedule Appointment dialog box opens. All appointment types that are available to the portal are listed.
  5. Select an appointment type from the list or complete the following steps to search for an appointment type:
    1. Enter an appointment type name or partial name in the box. A minimum of one character is required.
    2. Select Search. A maximum of 100 appointment types that contain the search text are displayed. The search is not case-sensitive.
    3. Select an appointment type from the search results.
  6. Select Next to move to the Select Appointment step. A default date range is valued (three months, beginning with current date).
  7. If you want to change the date range, you can select a different Begin Date and End Date.
  8. Select Search. Based on time, the first 100 available appointments are displayed. The system groups appointments by date, location, and provider.
  9. If you want to see more available appointments (if applicable), you can select the double right arrow button (>>).
  10. Select an appointment time.
  11. Select Next to move to the Book Appointment step. Information about the appointment is displayed.
  12. If you want to provide a reason for the appointment, you can enter a reason in the Reason for Appointment box (255 character maximum). The reason is displayed on the printed appointment summary. The reason is not displayed when you view the appointment in the Appointments tab after you schedule it.
  13. If you want to add comments to the appointment, you can enter comments in the Additional Comments box (1000 character maximum). Comments are not displayed on the printed appointment summary or when you view the appointment in the Appointments tab after you schedule it.
  14. Select Book Appointment. The following message is displayed above the appointment information when you successfully book the appointment: Appointment successfully scheduled. Otherwise, a message with the reason the appointment was not booked is displayed above the Book Appointment button.
  15. If you want to print a confirmation, you can complete the following steps to print the appointment summary before you close the Schedule Appointment dialog box (the appointment summary includes patient instructions for appointment preparation and post appointment instructions if available in Cerner Scheduling Management):
    1. Select Print Appointment Summary. Your browser-specific print window opens.
    2. If you want to remove the header and footer from the printout, you can use your browser-specific settings to remove headers and footers before you print. See Turn Off Headers and Footers for more information.
    3. Select Print.  
  16. Select Close to close the dialog box. The scheduled appointment is displayed as an upcoming appointment in the Patient Summary Appointments tab.
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