Manage Healthcare Schedules with Outlook

Keeping a busy healthcare practice running efficiently is a demanding task. The daily requirements of managing an office include scheduling (and rescheduling) patient appointments, keeping track of physician and staff availability, and ensuring that the right rooms and equipment are available at the right time.

Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 provides tools to help you manage hectic office schedules. You can keep track of the people, facilities, and equipment in your practice with group schedules, and you can customize Outlook to make managing those schedules more efficient.

Use Outlook calendars to view group schedules

If your office staff keeps track of time commitments by using Outlook, and you and your staff have continuous network connections through Microsoft Exchange Server or the Internet, you can view scheduled appointments and leave-time by setting up and using a group schedule.

To create a group schedule

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Calendar . (If you don't see the Navigation Pane, click Navigation Pane on the View menu.)
2. On the Actions menu, click View Group Schedules.
3. Click New.
4. Type a name for the new group schedule, and then click OK.
5. In the new schedule, click Add Others, and then click Add from Address Book or Add Public Folder. Select the names or the public folder that you want to add, and then click OK.

To view a group schedule

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Calendar . (If you don't see the Navigation Pane, click Navigation Pane on the View menu.)
2. On the Actions menu, click View Group Schedules.
3. Select the group schedule that you want to view, and then click Open.

To learn more about using group schedules in Outlook with Exchange Server, see Help in Microsoft Office Outlook. If your team does not use Exchange Server but does use Outlook, you can use Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service to make your schedule available.

Make schedules for physical resources

 Note   This feature requires Outlook and Exchange Server.

In addition to scheduling appointments for people, you can also schedule resources, such as an examination room or a piece of shared equipment.

Before you can schedule a resource, it must have its own mailbox on your server. An individual in the organization (the resource administrator) sets up the mailbox and grants others permission to schedule the resource. Otherwise, the resource is self-sufficient, accepting and rejecting invitations automatically.

When you want to schedule the resource, you can invite it to a meeting. The invitation is accepted if the resource is available and automatically declined if it is not available. The meeting is automatically entered on your calendar and on the resource's calendar.

To set up a resource for scheduling

 Note   This procedure works only if you are the resource administrator or if you are granted owner permissions.

1. Open the e-mail account for the resource that you want to set up for scheduling.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click Calendar Options.
3. Click Resource Scheduling.
4. Click the options that you want.
5. Click Set Permissions.
6. On the Permissions tab, click Add.
7. In the Type Name or Select from List box, enter the name of each person to whom you want to grant permissions, and click Add for each name.
8. Click OK.
9. In the Permission Level list, click Author.

To schedule a resource

 Note    This procedure works only if you have been granted permission by the resource administrator to schedule this resource.

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Calendar . (If you don't see the Navigation Pane, click Navigation Pane on the View menu. )
2. On the Actions menu, click Plan a Meeting.
3. Click Add Others, and then click Add from Address Book.
4. In the Type Name or Select from List box, enter the name of the resource that you want at the meeting, and then click Resources to add it to your invitation. Repeat this step for all of the resources that you want to schedule.
5. Click OK, and then use the scroll bars to view the free/busy time for invitees.

Set up Outlook to start with Calendar view showing

You can customize Outlook to suit how you like to work. For example, you can set up Outlook to start with Calendar view showing instead of the Inbox.

To set up Outlook to start with Calendar view showing

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Other tab, click Advanced Options.
3. Click Browse.
4. Double-click Calendar .

Customize how appointments are displayed

You can color-code types of appointments so that all appointments of a certain type — or with a specific physician or staff member — are easily recognizable. Color-coding appointments makes it easy to see at a glance all appointments of a specified type or category. Outlook has 10 colors available to color-code appointments and meetings.

You can manually color individual or recurring appointments and meetings. Or you can use rules to automatically color items that meet certain conditions, such as when a certain word is used in the subject line or when a meeting request is sent by a certain person. Manual coloring always take precedence over automatic coloring, so if you have applied manual coloring to an item, it will not be changed by any automatic coloring rules that you set up.

Outlook has two coloring options: Use the colors and labels that Outlook provides, or customize the labels.

To color an appointment or meeting

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Calendar . (If you don't see the Navigation Pane, click Navigation Pane on the View menu.)
2. Right-click an appointment or meeting, point to Label on the shortcut menu, and then click a color in the list.
3. To remove a color from the appointment or meeting, in the Label list, click None.

To color appointments and meetings automatically

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Calendar . (If you don't see the Navigation Pane, click Navigation Pane on the View menu.)
2. Right-click the calendar grid, and then click Automatic Formatting on the shortcut menu. Click Add, and then type a name for the rule.
3. In the Label list, click a color.
4. Click Condition to specify the conditions under which the color is applied.

To change appointment and meeting color labels

1. In the Calendar, click Calendar Coloring, and then click Edit Labels.
2. Type the text that you want to associate with each color.

Link an appointment to a patient's contact information

The Contacts folder is your e-mail address book and information storage space for the people and businesses that you want to communicate with. Use the Contacts folder to store e-mail addresses, street addresses, multiple phone numbers, and any other information that relates to your contacts, such as birthdays or anniversaries.

When you make an appointment with a patient, you can link the appointment to that patient's information in the Contacts folder. It's easy to find or change contact information from the appointment item.

To link a contact to an appointment

1. In the meeting request, click Contacts at the bottom of the meeting request box.
2. In the Look in list, click the folder that contains the contact to whom you want to link the item.
3. In the Items list, click the contact or contacts to whom you want to link the item.

Schedule recurring appointments

You can use Outlook to schedule appointments that recur on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis. You can even schedule appointments for the fifteenth of every month or the second Tuesday of every month. To set recurrence options, click Recurrence on the meeting request and select the options that you want.