Scheduling and appointment management – BC Pharmacy Association

How do I schedule breaks during a day of appointments?

In ImmsBC Scheduler, when setting up your appointments, create custom blocks. Custom blocks contain modular appointment blocks with different duration and capacity. Mark the desired break block(s) Inactive. For a detailed review on managing appointment blocks, see this user guide.

When setting up appointment blocks, one of the days errored out and now I can’t edit that day or any of the days of that week?

Instead of using Scheduler, go to the Related tab, Appointment Day Management, click View All. Locate the incorrect appointment day in question and delete it. Once the faulty date has been deleted, you can begin again.

Why can’t I find a client who has booked an appointment through the GetVaccinated system?

This is almost always due to data integrity issues. Multiple appointments, duplicate client records, incorrect, missing or duplicate PHNs, preferred names versus legal names, can all cause the normal linkages and functions within the system to fail. This can manifest as an inability to pull up the client record or appointment in Clinic-In-a-Box (CIB) or In Clinic Experience (ICE) search.

If the client has some form of confirmation code with them, they are in the system.

Ensure they are in the right pharmacy on the right day.
Open CIB, search by the Booking confirmation number. If you find them – open their profile and remediate any data quality issues you see such as duplicate/incorrect appointments. Re-verify their PHN and Edit and Save their record. When you now flip over to ICE search, they should be findable.
If you can’t find them in CIB, open the “Pharm - Daily Clients by Appt Status” report for the pharmacy day. You can search this report for their name. If they are not on it – their record is not in the system in a useable format, and you will need to re-register them. Use the Walk-in functionality.

How can I look up a client's PHN for a walk-in appointment?

Verify whether the client is registered in the system.
If not, navigate to the ICE app, click on “Register New Client” and follow the prompts.
If they have a profile, but not a PHN, you will see the EMPI Not Verified warning. To verify a PHN, check and update all fields where necessary (name and spelling of first and last name must be an exact match to the name associated with client’s ServicesBC info). All fields with a red asterisk must be completed. Click Save and Verify PHN. If this still does not bring up a valid PHN, please redirect to Call Centre 1-833-838-2323. (Do not create PHN for them in PharmaNet.)

What do the different Appointment Status designations refer to?

These seven categories refer to the status of a client's visit or pathway within they system:

Planning -- not used in ImmsBC
Confirmed -- appointment has been confirmed by the patient and they are planning to attend for immunization
Cancelled -- appointment has been cancelled and the patient was not immunized
Completed -- appointment has been completed and the patient was immunized
Missed -- patient was not able to attend the appointment and was not immunized
Incomplete -- patient came to the appointment but was not immunized
Deferred -- appointment has been deferred and the patient was not immunized

How do I close out missed appointments that remain in incomplete status?

In Clinic in a Box app, click on the drop-down list next to the Home button, select Appointments.
To navigate to “Confirmed Appointments” in the past, click drop-down next to recently viewed.
Select appointments you would like changed to “Missed Appointments” by clicking on the check box on the left of the client(s) name. Click on Update Appointment Status. Click on the drop-down box under Status Mass Update. Select Missed and click Saved then OK. You’ll receive a Success Banner confirming the Status has been updated.

How do I cancel appointments, both single and multiple appointments at once?

Canceling a single appointment:

In ICE, confirm the client has an existing appointment by searching for their confirmation number or by PHN. The appointment code should display, if it doesn’t, click “Show More” in the Search Results field on the left of the screen, press enter and the appointment code should now be visible.
Click on the Appointment Code, note the Status says “Confirmed”.
Click on the blue “Cancel Appointment” button on the right side of the screen. Note: do not change the Status to “Cancelled” manually, rather use the “Cancel Appointment” button, otherwise the space will not be freed for rebooking and the client will not receive notification of the change.
After clicking “Cancel Appointment”, click “Yes” in the pop-up to confirm. Close Window.

Cancelling multiple appointments from Scheduler:

Go to Scheduler
Navigate to the desired day, click on the link under Booking Counter. The appointment list for the day will display. Click the Filter button to filter appointments by specific Column or Time Range.
Use the checkbox next to Select All appointments (based on filter criteria) to select all filtered appointments. Select the check box against the specific appointments you need to cancel (or select the check box next to Appointments at the top of the column to select all appointments.)
Click the “Cancel Appointment” button once the selection is done, then click Confirm on the pop-up and X to close the Appointments List window.

I have overbooked appointments, what can I do?

If you are overbooked:

1. 1. Immediately remove your Vaccine Information options for COVID-19 and/or Influenza.
  2. Use the Summary report displaying appointments by Vaccine Type & MACS by service type to monitor booked appointments by vaccine type. Turn on Detailed Rows toggle to view a list of patients.
  3. Contact the patients that have booked appointments immediately and advise them that you need to reschedule their appointment and rebook them or suggest they go online and book an appointment.
  4. If unable to reach client, proceed to cancel the individual appointment on ImmsBC if small volumes.
  5. If there are a large number of clients overbooked, please contact immunizationsupport@bcpharmacy.ca for assistance.