Managing Appointment Statuses and What Counts as an Attended Visit

In SigmaMD, one of the key features for the control of patient appointments is the use of the appointment status.

While there are quite a few standard statuses that are available by default in the system, the practice has the option of creating statuses of their own, so that their needs are better catered.

To do this, we must access Practice Settings > Appointment Settings and scroll down until we see the Appointment Statuses area.

There, we will always see the standard statuses: Archived, Booked, Canceled, Completed, Confirmed and No show. Additionally, if there are custom statuses created by the practice, they will also be exhibited here. 

One key difference from the custom statuses to the standard statuses is that the custom ones can be deleted and edited, hence the existence of the Delete and Edit button for each custom status.

Creating a Custom Status

In the Appointment Statuses area, we can always find the Add appointment status button. Let's select it.

In the screen that will pop up, you will find two key settings:

1. The Status name field, where you can enter the name for the status.
   1. The name for the custom status cannot already be in use for another custom status.
   2. The name for the custom status cannot be the same as a standard status.
2. The toggle “Event is considered attended". This toggle controls if, when this status is applied to an appointment, the appointment will be considered “completed” by the system for reporting and to check if the patient has had their first appointment already.
3. “Event is considered attended” toggle. This toggle determines whether this appointment status counts as an attended visit (ie. completed) for self-scheduling availability.
   1. When enabled
      1. The visit is treated as attended, similar to the Completed status.
      2. This affects self-scheduling rules and visit-history–based availability.
   2. When disabled:
      1. The status does not count as attended and behaves like other non-attended statuses.
   3. Example: Enable this for statuses like Checked-In that should count the visit as attended (ie. Completed).

When the name field is filled, the Save button will be enabled.

Once saved, the newly created status will be immediately listed in the Appointment Statuses area. Always in alphabetical order.

Using a Custom Status

Editing an Appointment

The use of custom statuses is very simple and follows the standard procedure as any standard status. The only requirement is the existence of the custom status in the practice's Appointment Statuses area.

To use it, we open our calendar and find the desired appointment. Then, we select the appointment for its details to appear.

In the Status area, we select it. This will open all the status options available in the practice. Here, we will be able to see our custom appointment statuses underneath the standard statuses.

Finally, we just select the custom status we want, and it will be applied immediately.

Creating an Appointment

It is also possible to apply the custom status when you create the appointment.

To do it, you must proceed with the creation of the appointment as usual. When you reach the status area, you select it and find the custom status you desire.

Then, you must only finish filling the desired fields and select the Create button. This will ensure the appointment is created with the desired custom status.