If you would like to track your cancellations and no shows accurately from your Open Dental, there are a few easy steps to follow on how to correctly break those appointments so that Dental Intelligence will pick them up accurately!
Here is a quick video walking you through those steps: 👇
How to Break Appointments in Open Dental
Step by Step Instructions:
First, you must enable the Make Broken Appointment Commlog setting in OpenDental, and set the Broken appointment procedure types to a value (we recommend Both). These settings can be found in Set up --> Appointments --> Appts Preferences, here:
Create a new operatory called "Broken Appointments" or something similar to that. Here is an example:
Drag and drop the appointment that is to be broken into your Broken Appointment operatory. This is to allow you to fill that time with a new patient in that provider's operatory but the appointment will still show as having been broken on that day
Right click on the appointment and choose "Break Appointment"
Select either "Missed, leave on appointment book" or "Cancelled - Leave on appointment book" and add the procedure and communication log entry as you see fit
Note:
Dental Intelligence will track whether it was a cancellation or no show based on WHEN that appointment was broken. Here are some examples: 👇
No Show: if an appointment was broken the day they were supposed to come in, this will be counted as a no show because it was within 24 hours of the scheduled appointment time
Cancellation: if the patient calls ahead of time and you were to break that appointment before the 24 hour window of the scheduled appointment time, this will be tracked as a cancellation
Breaking appointments through this process allows Dental Intelligence to accurately update your schedule and track your Cancellations & No-Shows metrics. This provides visibility in areas that can be improved upon or even allows you to identify trends in the data!
Refer to the following article to learn more about Cancellations & No-Shows Metrics in Dental Intelligence: