Appointment Search Ahead

In NextGen® Enterprise PM while scheduling an appointment, you can use the Appointment Search Ahead feature to find the available timeslots for a specific event, location, and resource.

For example, a patient wants to book an appointment for a physical exam at the main office location with Dr. Smith. The patient wants the appointment within the next three weeks and preferably on a Tuesday or Thursday morning. You can enter these criteria on the Appointment Search Ahead window to find the available time slots that meet the patient's request.

When searching for available timeslots, you can use any of the following combinations in your search:

• One event, one service location, one resource
• One event, one service location, multiple resources
• One event, one service location, one class
• One event, multiple service locations, one resource
• One event, multiple service locations, multiple resources
• One event, multiple service locations, one class

The following options in the Appt Scheduling tab of the Practice Preferences window that are related to the Appointment Search Ahead feature in NextGen® Enterprise PM:

• Lock appointment slot
• Allow appt create on un-categorized time for search ahead
• Prompt to defer sched admin changes until nightly process
• Allow multi locations selections
• Enable nearest location srch

For more information on these and other practice preferences for appointments, go to the NextGen Healthcare Success Community and download the File Maintenance Preferences Guide for NextGen® Enterprise EHR.