How to reschedule/cancel an appointment

There are multiple ways to change an appointment, and Core Practice has simplified these processes. You will find that once you understand the concepts behind them, it will make your time on the front desk much easier. This guide will outline the following:

1. Rescheduling an appointment
2. Cancelling an appointment
3. Rescheduling a patient's appointment after having cancelled it

Concept

When documenting appointment attendance, it is important to accurately distinguish between "Failed to Attend" and "Unable to Attend" to ensure clarity in patient records and appropriate follow-up actions.

1. Failed to Attend
   Select this option when a patient does not show up for their scheduled appointment and does not notify the clinic in advance. This status indicates a no-show without communication and is used when:

   • The patient misses the appointment entirely without contacting the clinic.

   • The patient arrives too late to be seen and has not called ahead.

2. Unable to Attend
   Choose this option when the appointment was missed with prior notice or cancelled due to clinic-related issues. It applies in the following scenarios:

   • The patient contacts the clinic ahead of time to cancel or reschedule their appointment.

   • The appointment is cancelled due to circumstances outside the patient’s control, such as:

     • The provider calling in sick on short notice.

     • The clinic needing to cancel or reschedule for operational reasons (e.g., double-booking, emergencies, etc.).

Obviously, your company policy may differ so check with management as to your specific business rules.

Rescheduling appointments

1. From the appointment block, click on the Calendar icon then Reschedule Appointment or click the Reschedule button.                         
   
   
2. Find a suitable space for the patient's new appointment and click Reschedule Appointment.            
   
   The original appointment will be deleted when using this method. You will not need to enter an FTA/UTA marker in this case. If you would like to create an FTA/UTA marker for this appointment before rescheduling, follow the process below.

Cancelling appointments

1. Click on the appointment that you want to cancel, and then click on the red "x".
   
   
   
   
2. Select Failed To Attend or Unable To Attend, add a note and then click Cancel Appointment.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Every time that you go to the patient's profile or you're making an appointment, you can see the FTA counter (seen below). This is useful because it gives you the opportunity to advise the patient if they have too many FTAs.                                                                                                         
   
   

Rescheduling a patient's appointment after having cancelled it

If the patient would like to make another appointment after cancelling their previous one, here's what you should do.

1. Click on Show Cancelled at the top of the appointment books.                                                             
   
   
   
   
2. Click the Calendar icon, and then click Create another appointment.                                                 
   
   
   
   
3. Find a suitable space for the patient's new appointment and click Create Appointment.                       
   
   

Now that you know how to reschedule appointments, learn about other advanced appointment features which may help to improve your time when making appointments.