How to Set Up Waiting Lists

Sensei Cloud's Referral Tracking feature supports Referral to Treatment (RTT) rules and the management of patient wait times. You can create custom, location-based Waiting Lists to track the time it takes to see or treat referred patients (also referred to as referral clocks). This feature is especially useful for NHS providers that need to see referred patients within defined timelines.

Patients are placed on 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. The referral clock of the patient is stopped when the associated appointment is scheduled or completed (depending on the selected setting for the Waiting List upon creation).

The first step is to enable Waiting Lists for a practice location, and then you can create Waiting Lists to be used at that practice. Waiting Lists must be enabled per practice location.

Enabling Waiting Lists for a Location

To enable Waiting Lists for a practice location:

1. From the Administration tab, select Locations > Practice Locations (US) or Locations > Locations (UK).
2. Select a location, and then click Edit Selected Location.
3. Scroll to the Waiting List Configuration menu.
4. Next to This Location Uses Waiting Lists, click Yes.
   Note: If you want to instead turn off Waiting Lists for a practice location that has them enabled, click No. If there are currently patients with active referral clocks on that location, a message is displayed prompting you to confirm if you want to stop active and paused clocks for patients currently on Waiting Lists for this location:
   --Clicking Yes stops all of the active or paused clocks for all Waiting Lists for the location. The Waiting Lists are then no longer accessible from the Location tab.
   --Clicking No does not stop the clocks, but it prevents you from adding any new patients to the location's associated Waiting Lists. You can still see the existing clocks on those Waiting Lists until all of the active and paused clocks are stopped.
   --Clicking Cancel returns you to the selected location's record and you can choose to instead continue using the Waiting Lists for the location.
5. Click Save.

Creating a Waiting List

When Waiting Lists have been enabled for a practice location, you can create and edit them from the Practice Location Settings window (Administration > Locations > Practice Locations (US) or Locations (UK)).

Note: Each Waiting List is location-specific and list-specific; while a patient can be on one or more Waiting Lists (either within a location or across locations), each Waiting List is tracked and managed independently.

To create a new Waiting List:

1. Select a location, and then click Edit Selected Location.
2. Scroll to the Waiting List Configuration menu.
3. Click Create New Waiting List. The Create New Waiting List window is displayed.
   
4. Type a name for the list.
5. Enter a description.
6. Set the clock duration:
   --In the first field, enter a number or use the arrows to increase or decrease the number.
   --Select increments of Days or Weeks from the drop-down list.
7. Select if the clock should stop upon Appointment Completion or Scheduled Appointment.
   Note: If the clock is set to Appointment Completion, the clock stops when the patient's appointment has been completed (i.e., appointment status = Completed), but if the clock is set to Scheduled Appointment, the appointment only needs to be scheduled to stop the clock.
8. Click Create. The list is added to the Waiting Lists table within the practice location settings.
   

Note: To update a Waiting List, select the Waiting List Name. You can update the list name or description, but the Clock Duration and Clock Stops On settings cannot be changed. 

For information on how to use Waiting Lists when initial set up is complete, see How to Use Waiting Lists.