Defining Cancellations and No-Shows in Open Dental

Creating a Unique Column for Canceled or Failed Appointments

Open Dental users should create a unique column in their schedule to drag failed or canceled appointments to. This keeps the original slot available for other opportunities while maintaining a record of the lost appointment in the Appointment Module.

Tracking Rescheduled Appointments

Practice by Numbers (PbN) does not track patients who reschedule appointments with advance notice. It is designed to track appointments removed from the schedule, representing lost revenue because another appointment was not made. The office must decide when to mark an appointment as failed or canceled.

Setting Up Preferences in Open Dental

1. Select "Both" for Broken Appointment Procedure Types:

• Go to Set Up -> Appointments -> Appts Preferences.
• In the Preferences section for the Appointment Module, select "Both" for broken appointment procedure types.

2. Create a New Operatory or Spare Column:

• Create a column where the appointment will be dragged to when it is marked as failed or canceled.

Categorizing Appointments in Practice IQ

1. Failed Appointment:

• Drag the appointment to the spare column.
• Right-click on the appointment and select "Missed - Leave on Appt Book."

2. Canceled Appointment:

• Drag the appointment to the spare column.
• Right-click and select "Send to Unscheduled List."

Regardless of whether the appointment is labeled as missed or canceled, you need to create a new appointment if the patient schedules again.

Unscheduled Appointment List

When a patient completes a new appointment, all service codes assigned to the previous appointment are sent to the Unscheduled Appointment List.