Appointment Announcements

You will see the Appointment Monitor icon on the Patient Lookup List  and in many areas of the program on the icon bar . For example, it is on the Transaction screen and in the Appointment Book.

Tip: Press [F-12] on the keyboard to quickly open the Appointment Monitor.

You can send an “Announcement” to the operatory when the patient arrives by activating the Announcement screen. The Announcement Setup is under File in the Appointment Monitor and Appointment Book.

The Announcement is for the current day only and is sent automatically when the patient is marked as “checked in” from the Appointment Monitor or Appointment Book. It can also be sent when the patient cancels or breaks an appointment!

You can customize the content of the message by using Word Processor variables, along with text size and color.

You will specify the computer to which you want to send the Announcement and how long you want the Announcement to remain on the screen.

The Announcement can be sent to multiple computers by selecting multiple computer names under the Destination tab.

The Announcement Setup screen has four tabs:

Checked In – The features under this tab are “grayed out” until you click to mark the box “Send Announcement to Operatory when patient is checked in”. You can then begin editing.

The default text in this box will contain the variables for the patient’s preferred name and last name as follows: ¦C5 ¦CE has arrived

You can customize this message by typing text directly in the text box and by using Word Processing variables.

• Click on the Text Font button to select font style and size. For easier viewing, you may want a larger font size.
• Click on the Text Color button to select the color of the text. You will probably want to select a darker color such as dark blue or black.
• Click on Background Color button to select the background color for the Announcement screen. For example, you may want to select yellow or red.
• Click [OK] after making your selections, or click on [Cancel] if you do not want to make any changes.

The bottom of the Checked In screen will allow you to set the Announcement Duration, as well as the Announcement Acoustics.

• The Announcement Duration can be marked as “Indefinitely” if you do not want it to close until the operatory clicks on the “x” to close it. This is set as the default.
• Click to mark “Display for” if you would like to set the number of seconds after which the Announcement would close. Click on the arrow in the “Seconds” box to select or you can type the number of seconds in this field. For example, you may want the Announcement to close automatically after 30 seconds. A “Countdown” for the number of seconds remaining will be shown at the top of the Announcement screen.
• The Announcement Acoustics can also be selected if you are sending the Announcement to a computer that has a sound card. “Use preset tone” is marked as the default (it’s just a short “ding”). The sound is controlled by your system settings under Sounds/Audio Devices.
• “Select Wave File” will open the wave file list so that you can select your own sound files. Note: The default Media Player for each computer has to be Windows Media Player.

Click on the Apply button to save your changes and go to the next tab.

Canceled – If you would like to send an Announcement to the operatory when the patient cancels their appointment, click to mark the box “Send Announcement to Operatory when appointment is canceled”.

Broken – If you would like to send an Announcement to the operatory when the patient breaks their appointment, click to mark the box “Send Announcement to Operatory when appointment is broken”.

When you mark an appointment as “canceled” or “broken” from either the Appointment Monitor or from the Appointment Book, the Announcement will be sent.

In the Appointment Monitor, the option to mark an appointment as canceled or broken is under Appointment and “Mark Appointment as” on the menu bar and in the right click menu.

In the Appointment Book, the option to mark an appointment as canceled or broken is under Appointment on the menu bar and in the right click menu.

The setup for the Canceled and Broken announcements is done in the exact way as detailed in the Checked In section above.  Note: You do not need to activate all three announcement types. You can decide to activate only the announcements you want to use, whether that is one, two, or all three types.

Destination – This is where you will select the computer or computers to which you would like to send the Announcement. The top of the Announcement Destination Setup screen will explain how to select the computer name.

Note: If the computer name is not listed, you will need to run the MOGO program from that computer. You can then go back to the Destination screen again and select the computer name.

• Click on the arrow and select the computer name or names to select the destination computers. Hold the [Ctrl] key to select multiple computer names.
• Click to select a computer name or names for each operatory that is listed (unless you do not want to send Announcements from certain operatories).
• Press [Enter] on the keyboard, or click on the down arrow again, and the destination computer names will be shown in the field.
• Click on the Apply button to move to the next tab, or click OK to close the screen.
• To de-select a computer name, you will need to click on the arrow and click to de-select. The selected names will be highlighted in blue. You may need to scroll through the list if there is more than one computer name selected.

The Op# column will list the number of the operatories from your Appointment Book Basic Setup. This field cannot be edited.

The Op.Name column will be the exact Operatory Name that was customized in your Appointment Book. This field can only be changed from the Appointment Book. Note: Only the Supervisor can change the Operatory Name.

The Send Announcement to [Computer Name] column under the Destination tab is where you will select the computer to which you want to send the Announcement. Note: Directions on how to select are shown at the top of the screen.

When you mark an appointment as checked in, canceled, or broken from the Appointment Monitor or Appointment Book, the Announcement screen will open on the Destination computer.

When an Announcement is sent, the Destination computer (i.e., the operatory), can click on the “x” in the upper right corner to close the Announcement screen. If you have marked a number of seconds for the Announcement Duration, the Destination computer will see a “Seconds Countdown” at the top of the Announcement screen. It will then close automatically.

Announcement Messages with Sound

The sound is controlled by your system settings. If the Announcement message audible alert is not heard, check the following:

• Verify that “Send Announcement with acoustics” is selected under the Checked In tab.
• Then, verify that the sound/speakers are turned on and not muted.
• Next, check the Audio Properties and set it to the correct output (the desired speakers) by clicking: Start – Settings – System – Sound and set the Output Device to desired speakers via the drop down menu.

If you need further assistance setting up the Announcement feature, please contact the Support Department at 1-800-944-6646.