Quick Guide for Instinct’s Appointments Calendar and an easy way to manage patient and client accounts in Instinct!
Table of Contents
👀 Business Office at a Glance
The Business Office encompasses many non-treatment features of Instinct EMR including Appointment Calendar, Events Calendar, Patient Registration, Accounts, and Referrers.
Please note the Business Office will still allow for Patient and Client account registration, even if Appointment/ Event Calendar isn’t active, and even if the rVet Shareville portal isn’t active.
Check out our Appointments Calendar Guide, Referrer Guide, and rVet Shareville Guide for more information about these features.
🔒 Permissions
Users will not have access to the Business Office without at least one of the permissions below. Depending on which Business Office permission they have, their access to add/edit Referrers or Patient/Client Account data may be limited.
business_office_manage_accounts_and_patients
- With this permission ON: users can add or edit Patient/Client Accounts anywhere in Instinct
- With this permission OFF: users can not add or edit Patient/Client Accounts anywhere in Instinct
business_office_manage_referrers
- With this permission ON: users can add new Referrers or edit Referrer data anywhere in Instinct
- With this permission OFF: users can not add new Referrers or edit Referrer data anywhere in Instinct
- However, if the user has business_office_manage_accounts_and_patients ON, they can still remove or edit the rVet assigned to the patient in any of the edit Patient screens, but they can not add new Referrers or edit Referrer data anywhere in Instinct
business_office_read_only
- With this permission ON: users can view Patient, Client, and Referrer data anywhere in Instinct, but they can not add or edit Patient, Client, or Referrer data
- With this permission OFF: users can not navigate to the Business Office, and they can not add or edit Patient, Client, or Referrer data
None of the 3 Business Office Permissions
- If a user has none of the above business_office permissions, the Business Office icon does not display in the left navigation bar and is not accessible anywhere in Instinct
📆 Accessing Appointment and Event Calendars
All users can access Appointment and Event Calendars by clicking ‘Business Office’ on the left sidebar. These calendars must be enabled by contacting us: support@instinct.vet.
📓 Please Note: Below is a quick guide on our Appointment & Events Calendar feature, to view the full tutorial, click here!
Top Navigation:
- Appointments – add, edit, or remove scheduled appointments
- Events – a separate calendar designed to track specific events, including cleaning or vacation schedules
- Patient Registration – search/add new patients, retrieve previous medical history, and check patients in/out
- Accounts – search/add a new account (owner) and transfer patient ownership
- Referrers – document how a patient was referred to your hospital, including the practice name and veterinarian
🔍 Appointments View
When clicking on ‘Business Office’, you’ll be brought to ‘My Calendar’ by default. This is your own personal calendar and you can use the dropdown menu towards the upper left of the screen to view Groups or other Doctor/Staff calendars.
📓 Please Note: All users have their own personal calendar, either under Doctor or Staff. Anyone can schedule appointments, availabilities, and drop-offs on their own calendar or another user’s calendar as necessary.
📅 Group Appointments Calendar
Calendar Groups can be created within the Admin section to include different doctors based on department or schedule. Once a Group is selected on the Appointments Calendar, a list of users within that group are shown in the left filters bar.
The ‘Only Available’ toggle can be turned on to show each doctor’s availability for the selected day. You can un-select any doctor to remove them from this view or turn off the ‘Only Available’ toggle to see scheduled appointments and availability. You may also select a specific appointment time to search for Availability, either by date only or by both date and time.
🍽 Events Appointments Calendar
Events calendars function very similar to personal/group Appointment calendars and can be used to schedule miscellaneous events, including discharges, transfers, surgery OR rooms, staff lunches, staff meetings/CE Events, team birthdays, and cleaning schedules. New Event Calendar types are created within the Admin section.
To schedule a new Event on any of your Event Calendars, simply click ‘+ New Event’ and select which Calendar you’d like to schedule this under followed by the Start time, Duration, and any specific Notes.
You can also Edit or Cancel any Event via 3-dot menu. At this time, we do not have a way to schedule recurring events but this feature will be available in the future.
➕ Scheduling Appointments
There are 2 ways to schedule a new appointment:
- Use ‘+ New Appt’
Click ‘+ New Appt’ on the Appointments Calendar. This opens a side pane on the right side of the screen to enter in the appointment details.
- Use the 3-dot menu within an Availability
Availability Blocks are useful for communicating the times you or your providers are available to see certain types of appointments. These are optional, as an Availability does not need to be created in order to schedule a new Appointment or Drop-off. Availability can be added from a personal or group calendar by selecting the down arrow next to ‘+ New Appt’ followed by ‘New Availability’.
To schedule an appointment within an Availability, click the 3-dot menu and select ‘New Appt’. This opens the same side pane shown above to enter in the appointment details.
To view appointment details, simply hover over the appointment block and a pop-up will appear as shown below:
🕖 Upcoming Appointments on the Patient Info Bar
Both Checked In and Checked Out Patients will display an Appointments section, located below the Patient section of the Patient Info Bar.
📓 Please Note: To see Upcoming Appointments, you must have the Appointments Calendar feature enabled at your clinic by contacting us at support@instinct.vet.
If there are no appointments or drop-offs scheduled, the section will display No Upcoming Appointments.
All Appointments and Drop-Offs will be displayed chronologically by date and time. Drop-Offs will always display at the start of each scheduled day, before any other same-day appointments.
Each Appointment or Drop-Off will show you the following:
- Date and time of Appointment
- Any Drop-Offs will display ‘Drop-Off’ after the date instead of time
- Provider
- Appointment Type
- 3-dot-menu to Edit Appointment or View the Appointment in the Calendar
Cancelled, No Show Appointments/Drop-Offs, and any Appointments/Drop-Offs in the past will not display in the Patient Info Bar just yet (coming later!).
Additionally, each Appointment and Drop-Off will show a tooltip when hovering over each.
If you are currently Editing an Appointment from the Patient Info Bar and click Edit on another Appointment on the screen, you will get a warning message asking if you want to switch Appointment information without saving changes:
✏️ Editing Scheduled Appointments
To edit any scheduled appointment, click the 3-dot menu within the Appointment.
- Edit – adjust the Appointment details via right side pane (same screen when scheduling the Appointment).
- Mark as No Show – gray out the patient name and document the patient never showed up. You can always undo this action by clicking the 3-dot menu again and selecting ‘Mark as Shown’.
- Cancel – gray out the patient name and move the cancelled Appointment to the bottom of the column’s cancelled section. You can always undo this action by clicking the 3-dot menu again and selecting ‘Reschedule’.
- Check In – Check the patient in for their Appointment.
- Visit History – View previous medical history, including treatment sheets, vitals, and invoices.
🚙 Scheduling Drop-Offs
To schedule a Drop-off, click the 3-dot menu next to the available Drop-offs followed by ‘Schedule’.
A ‘New Drop-off’ side pane opens on the right side of the screen to enter the Reason for Visit, Type, Service, and any Appointment Notes (optional). You can then add the patient information by creating a New Patient, selecting an Existing Patient, or looking up by an Existing Account.
Once scheduled, the number of available Drop-offs updates (from 4 to 3 in this example) and the patient information is shown on the Appointments Calendar:
✏️ Editing Individual Drop-Offs
Use the 3-dot menu within the Drop-off field to Edit, Mark as a No Show, Cancel, Check In, or view this patient’s Visit History.
- Edit – adjust the Drop-off details via right side pane (same screen when scheduling the Drop-off).
- Mark as No Show – gray out the patient name with a strikethrough and document the patient never showed up. The Available Drop-offs count at the top of the day will automatically recalculate and you can always undo this action by clicking the 3-dot menu > ‘Mark as Shown’.
- Cancel – move to the bottom of the column’s cancelled section and recalculate the number of available Drop-offs at the top of the day. You can always undo this action by clicking the 3-dot menu again and selecting ‘Reschedule.
✏️ Adding/Editing Appointment Templates
To Add or Edit Appointment Templates, Users must have Admin Access. Please see our EMR Administrative Guide for directions on how to Create and Edit Appointment Templates.
🐶 For Existing Patients / Clients / rVets
Patient Search: Use the search bar to find existing Instinct patients, using patient first and/or last names, patient PIMS code, or account PIMS code. The search bar will provide not only exact matches, but also close matches, in case of accidental misspellings!
Existing Account: Finding existing client accounts is as easy as searching by owner first or last name and account PIMS code in the Accounts tab, using the search bar at the top.
Existing clients can also be found when registering a new patient, simply by selecting that option in the patient registration window:
Existing Referring Veterinarians (rVet): Selecting an rVet is optional, but if you know where the patient is being referred from, it’s a good habit to enter the rVet every time.
Finding existing rVets is as easy as using the search bar in the ‘Referrers’ tab.
Existing rVets can also be found/added to a patient record when registering a new patient, simply by selecting that option in the patient registration window.
🐱 For New Patients / Clients / rVets
New Patient
To register a new patient, go to Business office > Patient Registration > and click ‘+ New Patient’.
Fill out all applicable and required fields and Instinct will generate the Patient ID for you.
New/Existing Account and rVet
A new or existing account and rVet can be added within the Patient Registration window as shown above.
If selecting a new Account or rVet, you can use the 3-dot menus next to each field to add multiple addresses, e-mails, and phone numbers as needed.
💡 Please note that the ‘Account Notes’ field shown above is only visible on this screen.
Alternate contacts can be added by clicking the ‘New Alternate Contact’ button as shown above.
Preferred contact method can be indicated which marks the contact method via orange star.
Transferring Account Ownership
If a patient’s ownership changes at any time, transferring can happen in just a few clicks!
First, make sure an account exists for the new owner by searching in the Accounts tab. If they don’t exist yet, simply select ‘+ New Account’ and fill out the registration form.
Then, open the account of the New owner and select ‘Transfer Patient’ in the middle pane:
Search for the patient being transferred and select their name from the list:
This patient and all associated medical records are now pulled into the Patient list! Click ‘Save’ to complete the patient transfer.
New rVet
Before adding a “new” rVet, please check and see if they already exist to avoid duplicate entries (having duplicate rVets may impact rVet Sharing of records).
To enter a new rVet, simply select ‘New rVet’ and enter all fields. For more information, please refer to our rVet Guide and Shareville Guide.
Note: we recommend creating each hospital only once as this is currently a one-hospital + one rVet system (additional rVet entries will be available in a future update). Entries can include a primary veterinarian or generic contact, such as ‘Attending Veterinarian’ as the first/last name.
Once patient registration is complete (Patient, Account, and rVet information is up-to-date), click ‘Save’ if you’re pre-registering a patient, or ‘Save & Check-In’ if the patient is ready to be checked-in.
📑 Account Types
Account Types are internal tags for grouping accounts and are viewed under the client’s contact information. Instinct will never show Account Types on PDF’s or documents that are sent to Shareville.
📓 Please Note: To Create or Edit Account Types, Users need the admin_account_type permission. This permission will not be enabled by default. Hospital administrators will need to update the Roles manually if they want this Permission. Please see our EMR Administrative Guide to learn how to Create or Edit Account Types!
To add an Account Type to a client Account, click on the Owner information in the Patient Info Bar within the Patient Visit screen, or navigate to the Business Office and select/search for the name of the Account you’d like to update.
Account Types will also be visible under a column in Business Office > Accounts.
⚠ Account Alerts
Account Alerts are internal tags for client accounts that are easily visible. Account Alerts will never appear on PDF’s or documents that are sent to Shareville.
📓 Please Note: To Create or Edit Account Alerts, Users need the admin_account_alert permission. This permission will not be enabled by default. Hospital administrators will need to update the Roles manually if they want this Permission. Please see our EMR Administrative Guide to learn how to Create or Edit Account Alerts!
To add Account alerts to client Accounts, click on the Owner information in the Patient Info Bar (left side of any Patient Visit screen) or navigating to the Business Office and searching/selecting the name of the Account you’d like to update.
There is also a column in the main Accounts screen to display Alerts. Account Alerts with long names will be shortened to fit the page and a tooltip text will show the whole alert when hovering over the label.
In addition, the patient info bar will display an icon that an account has alerts added, and hovering over the icon displays a tooltip text with the alerts for that account.
📝 Microchip and Insurance
In the Patient registration window, both Microchip and Insurance information can be added to the patient’s record at any time. Simply select a microchip or insurance provider from the drop-down, and add their microchip number or policy number.
Please note: if a microchip or insurance number is entered, you must select a provider.
Please also note: if a provider is selected, Instinct will ask for an ID. If you don’t have the microchip registration or insurance policy number just yet, you can enter placeholder text such as ‘Unknown’, then circle back later when you have them!
Microchip and Insurance information will also be displayed in the Patient Info Bar on the Treatment sheet, for easy reference while in a patient record:
🧠Test your knowledge with our Careville Quiz!