How to Use Waiting Lists

Sensei Cloud's Waiting Lists (Referral to Treatment) feature enables practices to keep track of patients that are supposed to be seen within a defined time period.

You can create custom, location-based Waiting Lists to track the time it takes to see or treat referred patients (also known as referral clocks). The referral clock duration is either the amount of time until the patient is supposed to have an appointment scheduled or attend an appointment (depending on the selected setting for the Waiting List). 

You can add patients to Waiting Lists via their patient record, and once on a Waiting List, the time left until each referred patient needs to be seen is actively tracked.

You can also track and manage patients that are on Waiting Lists from the Waiting Lists worklist (Location > Appt Worklists > Waiting Lists).

Note: Waiting Lists must be enabled per practice location. For information on how to enable and create waiting lists, see How to Set Up Waiting Lists.

Adding a Patient to a Waiting List

You can add a patient to a waiting list or multiple waiting lists (across one or more locations) from their patient record (Patient > Patient Record). 

To add a patient to a Waiting List:

1. From the patient's record, select Edit Patient Record.
2. Navigate to the Patient Referrals section by scrolling or using the Jump To menu.
3. Click Add to Waiting List.
4. Select a location.
5. Select one of the practice location's Waiting Lists. 
   
6. Select a start date for the waiting list clock. This date defaults to today but can be changed to a previous date. 
   Note: Click Remove to remove the patient from the waiting list.
7. Click Add to Waiting List again to add an additional waiting list. You can add as many lists as needed.
8. Click Save Patient to save the patient record. When the patient record is saved, then the patient appears in the Waiting Lists worklist and their referral clock starts.

Note: If the patient already has a scheduled appointment when you add them to a Waiting List (one that is set to stop clocks upon appointment scheduling), a message is displayed. Existing appointments do not affect the calculation or status of the referral clock (e.g., days left on the location’s associated Waiting Lists).

You can also move the patient from one waiting list to another and maintain the same clock start date.

To transfer a patient from one waiting list to another:

1. From the patient's record, select Edit Patient Record.
2. Navigate to the Patient Referrals section by scrolling or using the Jump To menu.
3. Next to the waiting list, click Transfer to Other Waiting List. The Transfer to Other Waiting List window is displayed.
4. Select a waiting list from the drop-down list.
5. Click Transfer Patient.
   
6. Click Save Patient.

Waiting Lists Worklist

You can view and work with existing waiting lists from the Waiting Lists worklist, which can be accessed from Location or All Locations > Appt Worklists > Waiting Lists.

The current list of patients who have been assigned to a Waiting List is displayed, along with the Waiting List name, current status of the clock (Active, Paused, or Stopped), practice location (if accessing from the All Locations tab), the patient's preferred provider (set via the Patient Record), the number of days left until the referral clock is supposed to be stopped (based on the set clock duration for the Waiting List), and any notes that have been added.

Note: The Waiting Lists menu is only visible under the Appt Worklists menu if Waiting Lists have been enabled for the practice location. This menu is available from the All Locations tab as long as at least one practice location has Waiting Lists enabled.

There is a tally in the upper-right corner which shows the number of Referrals, Paused Clocks, and Overdue Clocks. 

You can filter the Waiting Lists worklist to specific Waiting Lists or providers. If accessing the worklist from the All Locations tab, there is also a Locations filter.

You can also use the Referral Clock Less Than [%] slider bar to select to show only Waiting Lists that have a certain percentage left of their time remaining. The percentage choices are: 100, 75, 50, 25, and 10.

The list shows all clock statuses by default, but you can select to show only clocks that are Active, Paused, or Stopped.

Click on a line item in the list to view more details.

You can then perform any of the following actions:

• RTT Clock Information: View the Date Started, Days Left, and any notes.
  Note: You can also view the RTT information when searching for a patient.
  
• Add Note: Add a note.
• Schedule Appointment: Schedule an appointment for the patient. This is especially helpful for patients that have referral clocks that are stopped based on Scheduled Appointment.
• Pause Clock: Temporarily pause the clock (e.g., you might choose to pause a clock if a patient cannot be reached and you need a little more time). You are prompted to enter a reason for the pause, and then click Update.
  Note: A note with the entered reason is displayed in the Latest Note column. When you are ready, the clock must be manually unpaused by clicking Resume Clock.
• Stop Clock: Manually stop the clock (i.e., this stops the clock immediately rather than waiting for the system to stop the clock when it is complete; this might be done if a patient no longer needs to be seen, etc.). The referral clock is hidden from the list unless the filter settings are changed to Stopped or All clocks. 
  Note: Whether automatically or manually stopped, clocks cannot be restarted. If the patient needs to be on a Waiting List again, they have to be re-added to the appropriate Waiting List via the Patient Record. 
• View Treatment Plan: You can navigate to the patient's Treatment Plans window.

Important:
--When a clock is stopped (manually or automatically) via the Waiting Lists worklist, the waiting list is automatically removed from the patient’s record. To start a new referral clock for the patient, edit the Patient Record and add them to the appropriate Waiting List.
--For appointments to register against a patient’s referral clock (e.g., presence on a waiting list), the appointment must be scheduled (or completed if the Waiting List has an Appointment Completion clock duration) after the patient is added to the location’s Waiting List. Previously scheduled appointments do not count towards any new patient referral clocks.
--Existing pending appointments that have not been scheduled yet at the time of adding the patient to the waiting list can still trigger the Waiting List status, if scheduled and completed.
--Waiting Lists are location-specific. If an appointment is scheduled in Location A and then is rescheduled to Location B (the location with the Waiting List), it does not impact that patient’s referral clock. 
--Appointments are also location-specific; they only affect the patient's referral clocks associated with the same location. However, scheduling or completing a patient appointment for a location affects all of that location's Waiting Lists and stops all of the patient's active or paused clocks in that location.

Waiting List Widget in Springboard

You can add a Waiting List Tracking widget to your springboard to see a status-based breakdown of patient referral clocks in terms of whether the patient has scheduled or completed their appointment on time.

For information on how to add the Waiting List Tracking widget to your springboard, see How to Change Which Widgets are Viewable in Springboard.

The widget is broken up into the following categories: 

• Seen/Scheduled on Time: Clock was stopped on time.
• On Track/Not at Risk: Clock is paused or active, and there is still sufficient time to schedule/see the patient (more than 14 days).
• At Risk: There are less than 14 days left for the patient referral clock to be stopped on time.
• Not Seen/Scheduled on Time: Patient was never scheduled (or seen), and the referral clock is overdue (or the clock was stopped but it was already overdue).

Note: Click the gear icon in the upper-left corner of the widget to update the widget settings. From here, you can adjust the dates, provider, and locations to include in the calculations.