Scheduling - Frequently Asked Questions

This quick guide answers frequently asked questions about scheduling in VieCure. It covers checking patients in, cancelling and rescheduling appointments, moving treatment visits and keeping orders on the correct date, handling no-shows, wrong-day visits and walk-ins, scheduling same-day visits, finding patients in the scheduling queue, visit status, and how Event Blocks work.

 How do I mark a patient as checked in?

1. Open the System Schedule and find the patient's visit (status Scheduled).
2. Click Check In and choose the patient's current location. Only locations marked "show on locator" are listed.
3. The status changes to Arrived.

If a check-in was applied in error, click the arrow next to the button and select Reset to return the visit to its previous state.

 How do I cancel a patient's appointment?

1. Open the Clinic Schedule and find the patient's visit (status Scheduled).
2. Click the arrow (chevron) next to the Check In button and select Cancel.
3. In the Cancel Appointment window, choose a cancellation reason and confirm.

 What happens next

• Status — The visit changes to Cancelled and the button changes to Reset. Click Reset to undo the cancellation and return the visit to its original state.
• Schedule — The visit stays visible on that day's Clinic Schedule but is removed from the System Schedule, which frees the resource's time slot.
• Scheduling queue — The visit returns to the scheduling queue so it can be scheduled again. The default queue view shows Not Scheduled, Cancelled and No Show visits for the next 30 days.
• Tasks — When a treatment visit is cancelled or rescheduled by the patient, the system creates a "Patient Cancelled/Rescheduled Appointment" review task for the care team. The task is marked urgent if the appointment is less than 4 hours away.
• Audit — Cancellations are recorded in the audit log.

 How do I reschedule a patient's appointment?

How you reschedule depends on the type of visit.

• Treatment visits from a treatment plan — Change the date on the Treatment Plan Flowsheet so the visit and its orders move together. See "A patient wants to move their next infusion to a different day."
• Any other visit — Cancel the visit (see "How do I cancel a patient's appointment?"). It returns to the scheduling queue, where you schedule it for the new date and time (see "How do I schedule an appointment for a patient?").
• If a patient cancels or reschedules a treatment visit, the care team receives a review task. Patients using Patient Mobile are directed to contact the clinic to reschedule; they cannot reschedule themselves in the app.

 A patient wants to move their next infusion to a different day (for example, Tuesday instead of Wednesday). How do I do that?

1. Open the patient's Treatment Plans & Results tab and go to the Treatment Plan Flowsheet.
2. Right-click the date header of the treatment-day column and select Edit (Column Date Edit).
3. Select the new date.
4. Choose the Apply To scope: One Time, Current + X Additional Cycles, or Remainder of Phase.
5. Apply the change.

 Good to know

• Items that are already completed, administered, collected, resulted, held, discontinued or delayed are not moved. Verified items are moved.
• You cannot change the date while the plan is on Hold or Delay. Remove the hold or delay first.
• You cannot choose a date that is already used by the same plan. Dates used by other plans can be selected; any conflicts are resolved when the visit is scheduled.
• There is no undo once the change is applied.
• The scheduling queue updates automatically. You are asked to confirm only if the new date already has a visit of the same type, or if the original visit would be left empty. Pharmacy and MAR dates update automatically.

 My patient rescheduled their infusion visit. How do I make sure the orders on the Treatment Plan Flowsheet are scheduled on the correct date?

Move the treatment day on the Treatment Plan Flowsheet using Column Date Edit (see "A patient wants to move their next infusion to a different day"). Doing this moves the orders and the scheduling queue entries together.

• If a visit of the same type already exists on the new date, the orders attach to that visit instead of creating a duplicate.
• If no visit exists on the new date, a new visit is added to the scheduling queue.
• If only one item is moved off a visit that holds several items, only that item moves to the new date.
• If an order needs to join a visit that was already scheduled, use Merge Worklist Item with Existing Appointment.
• After the change, open the patient's Order History to check the order source and date.

 A patient has a lab visit on the wrong day. How do I fix it?

• The visit date is wrong — Change the date on the Treatment Plan Flowsheet (see "A patient wants to move their next infusion to a different day"). A single item can also be edited at the cell level. If the visit is already scheduled, reschedule it as described in "How do I reschedule a patient's appointment?"
• The lab order itself is wrong — Void the order. Any scheduled visit linked to it shows as a dark grey Voided [Visit Name] on the System Schedule and Patient Schedule (hover text: "VOID: Order for this visit has been voided"), and a worklist task is created to cancel the visit.

 A patient did not show up for their visit (no-show). What do I do?

1. On the Clinic Schedule, click the arrow (chevron) next to Check In and select No Show.
2. The status changes to No Show and the button changes to Reset. Click Reset if the status was applied in error. Related tasks close automatically with the reason "Status Corrected."
3. For treatment visits, two tasks are created within about 2 minutes: a Front Desk task to reschedule the visit, and a Nursing task to review the treatment plan for clinical impact.
4. The Front Desk contacts the patient and reschedules. The task is resolved when a new visit is scheduled, or a reason is documented (for example, Patient Declined or Hospitalized).
5. If the treatment date needs to change, move it on the Treatment Plan Flowsheet (see "A patient wants to move their next infusion to a different day").

Good to know

• The no-show visit is removed from the System Schedule and stays in the scheduling queue. The default queue view includes No Show visits.
• Non-treatment visits that are marked No Show do not create tasks.
• Tasks escalate in priority over time (Routine, High, Urgent), and repeated no-shows are tracked for the patient.

 A patient walks in without an appointment, or arrives on the wrong day. How do I add them to the schedule and check them in?

Schedule the visit for today (see "How do I schedule an appointment for a patient?"), then check the patient in from the Clinic Schedule. If the patient already has an unscheduled visit in the queue, you can merge it with an existing same-day appointment using Merge Worklist Item with Existing Appointment. The slot's overbook setting (Allow, Warn or Prevent) controls whether you can add a patient to a slot that is full.

 How do I schedule an appointment for a patient, and how do I share the schedule with the patient?

1. Select the Not Scheduled visit from the scheduling queue, or open the patient's Patient Schedule tab.
2. Drag the visit onto a resource's time slot, or use Search Ahead in the Visit Details window to find the next available slots. Search Ahead lists slots by resource, date and start time, earliest first, with remaining capacity and an overbook flag.
3. The system checks slot availability and Event Block rules. Depending on the overbook setting, you may see a warning or be blocked.

Sharing the schedule with the patient

• Patients can see their appointment list and appointment details in Patient Mobile, and telehealth visits show a Join Appointment button.
• Patients can respond to schedule updates by text message or in the Patient Mobile app.

 A patient needs labs, imaging, a provider visit and an infusion on the same day at different locations. How do I schedule that?

Use Unified Same-Day Scheduling.

1. In the scheduling queue, select one of the patient's unscheduled visits for that day. A panel opens listing all of the patient's unscheduled visits for the same target day, in treatment-plan order (for example, Lab, Infusion, MD Visit).
2. Schedule the first visit at the start time you want. The remaining visits cascade automatically back-to-back using each visit's duration, each into a resource that matches its visit type.
3. If a cascaded slot is unavailable, it is flagged. Adjust the time or resource, or override it if your role allows.
4. If you change one visit, the visits after it re-sequence automatically.
5. Confirm once to schedule all of the visits.

The order of the visits comes from the treatment plan, not from the target time.

 How do I manage appointments when the clinic closes (holidays, weather, disasters)?

• Hours and exceptions — Facility and resource hours are set in the schedule configuration, and a resource-specific exception can be added in the Active Resource Schedule Editor.
• Blocking new bookings — An Event Block set to Prevent stops visits from being scheduled during that time.
• Affected visits — When a slot is no longer valid, the visit shows a conflict indicator. In Visit Details, the system offers the next available slot. Cancelled visits return to the scheduling queue so they can be rescheduled.

 How do I locate a patient in the appointment queue?

• Scheduling queue — By default it shows visits with a target date from today through the next 30 days and a status of Not Scheduled, Cancelled or No Show. Change or clear the filters to widen the view, and save your own views.
• Patient Schedule — Open the patient's chart and select Patient Schedule to see that patient's visits. Scheduling worklist tasks link directly to the patient's Patient Schedule.
• Voided visits — Visits that were voided drop out of the default queue view.

 How do I set the encounter status to Checked Out to finalize the visit and schedule the follow-up visit?

The visit status moves through these steps on the Clinic Schedule:

1. Click Check In and choose the patient's current location. The status changes to Arrived.
2. When the visit is finished, the button changes to Complete. Click Complete. The status changes to Visit Complete.
3. If check-in was applied in error, click the arrow on the button and select Reset.

 What is the purpose of Schedule Event Blocks, and how do I use them?

Event Blocks reserve time on a resource for specific visit types and control how many visits can be booked, so scheduling follows your clinic's rules. Administrators create them in the Template Builder.

 Creating and placing Event Blocks (Administrators Only)

1. From the System Schedule menu bar, open the Template Builder. It opens in Edit Mode and works on a staged copy. Patient appointments stay visible but read-only, and nothing goes live until you select Close & Apply. Cancel discards your changes.
2. Create an Event Block. Enter a unique name (required), the visit type or types, a duration (minimum 15 minutes), capacity, an overbook setting (Prevent, Warn or Allow; the default is Allow) and a color. Save it. It appears as a color chip in the left panel.
3. Drag the chip onto a resource's time slot. Drag the bottom edge to resize it, or click the X to remove it.
4. Select Close & Apply to put the template on the live schedule.
5. Editing an Event Block does not update existing template blocks, and deleting one does not remove it from the live schedule.

 Scheduling inside an Event Block

• Hover over a block on the live schedule to see its name, visit types, overbook setting and capacity.
• When you schedule inside a block, visit types that match it appear at the top of the list. Select "see more" to view the others.
• If you choose a visit type that does not match the block: Allow shows no message. Warn shows "Visit type is not permitted for this Event Block, do you wish to proceed?" and the override is recorded in the audit log. Prevent blocks the booking with a message.