Diary: Creating a new Diary

Diary: Creating a new Diary

When you enter the appointments diary system for the first time you will be taken to the initialisation program. This will set up the control files for the diary, and optionally any further diaries (e.g. for operation room, consultation rooms etc.) you require.

Note: If you want to alter settings, the initialisation program can also be entered from the main diary system by pressing <M>enu at the main diary prompt and then selecting the initialisation option from the menu displayed. You will see the names of any diaries which have been set up, and be asked if you wish to continue adding. If there are no free diaries left, Premvet 5 will display the following warning:

Problem: No free diaries - press RETURN

Adding a new diary
Over the next few paragraphs we will describe the process of adding a new diary. This process can summarised as follows:

Choose a name for your diary.
Indicate the length of the diary, i.e. the number of days it will contain.
Decide how the diary will be formatted, i.e.:
1. Whether you require spaces for additional notes ('Alternate Slots') supplemental to timed appointment slots.
2. When each surgery session will start and finish.
3. How long each appointment slot will be, in minutes.
Choose a starting date for your diary.
Copy 'standard block bookings' to the diary, if required.
Indicate whether you wish to set this diary as the default for the user creating it (i.e. when this user chooses to display a diary, the system will automatically display the diary created here.)

If you wish to add a diary to the list, press 'A'dd. The following prompt appears:

Name for new diary or <Q>uit

Choose the name for this diary's owner. The name must begin with a letter of the alphabet (A-Z). If a diary with that name exists already, you will receive the error message:

Problem: Name already exists - press RETURN

Premvet 5 will prompt you to make a different choice. Once the name has been accepted, you will see the prompt:

No. of pages in diary [91]

Choose a number divisible by seven so that the diary contains a whole number of weeks. If you enter a number that is not divisible by seven, Premvet 5 will substitute it for the nearest number that is (i.e. if you enter 44, the program will create a diary 42 pages long.) The minimum size for the diary is 42 days and the maximum is 994 days. It is not advisable to make the diary too big as this will increase the length of time taken during back up, and reorganisation will take longer.

You will then be asked if you wish to use alternate slots, and if so, how many (the maximum is 9). Some people use this technique to permit deliberate double booking by leaving a blank untimed slot, or slots, under each timed one.

Following this, you will need to enter the number of diary slots you want to have on each page. Include in this number any alternate slots if you have these. The minimum number of slots on a page is 24 and the maximum is 288. The number of slots must be an even number. If you do put in an odd number the program will choose the next even number.

You are then asked:

Enter start time or <Q>uit if finished

Enter the start time of the first group of appointments. This must be later than 2 a.m. Remember to use the 24-hour clock.

Note: If you are entering the second or subsequent group of slots (i.e. for different surgery sessions), you can add a gap between the sessions which will make the diary easier to read.

The following prompt will then be displayed:

Enter finish time of last slot of this group or the
number of slots

Here you can enter one of two figures, either:

The number of appointment slots you wish to set up for this surgery session.
The time at which you want to finish this surgery session.

If you enter a number less than 300 the program will assume you are typing in the number of slots; higher than 300, it will assume that you are entering the finish time. Note that the finish time is not the same as the start time of the last slot in the group.

Then you are asked for the period length of each appointment in minutes. The minimum period length is one minute; the maximum is 60 minutes. The period length must be a whole number of minutes, or half minutes.

If you enter a multiple of half minutes, e.g. '7.5', then the slot times will be rounded down to the nearest whole minute, e.g. 0900, 0907, 0915, 0922 etc.

According to your answer to the last question, Premvet 5 will fill in the number of slots you specified or fill in the maximum number of slots that will fit between the start and finish times of the session. You are then returned to the 'start time' question, where you can enter your next block of appointment slots: for the afternoon surgery, for instance, or press Q to quit. You are not permitted to enter duplicate times. Any slots you do not enter a time for, and any alternate slots, will be labelled with a number in brackets.

Alternatively, in order to assist those users who use alternate slots for multiple consulting rooms, these alternate slots can be marked with letters of the alphabet to distinguish them. The primary slot, i.e. the one marked with the time, is considered to be slot A. This continues to be marked with the time, but all subsequent slots for that time are marked (B), (C), (D) and so on. If you have a lot of slots which are untimed, this continues on after (Z) with (AA), (AB) etc. In order to implement this method of working, the 'diary slot letters' switch must be set in:

General Apps | Parameters | Field & Defaults | Options | 21

While setting up a diary you may encounter some of the following error messages:

Problem: You have run out of slots - press RETURN
Problem: Start time later than finish time - press RETURN
Problem: Period not divisible by interval - press RETURN
Problem: Diary extends beyond 2359 - press RETURN
You are then asked whether you wish to continue or not; this gives you the opportunity to abort from the set-up if you have had second thoughts. If you add different groups of times, i.e. for different surgery sessions, when setting up a diary, they are not just added one after another, they have a line between them. This appears on the index as a colon.

Next the system will prompt you for the start date of the diary. If this is not a Monday, the program will work out the preceding Monday and use that date instead.

The files will then be initialised with the page and index formats you require. This process may take some time if you have specified a diary that will contain a large number of days.

If you have set up standard block bookings, the system will prompt:

Copy standard block bookings? (Y/N) [Y]

If you have not previously set up block bookings, Premvet 5 will ask you if you would like to configure them at this point. Setting up block bookings will be covered later in this chapter.

The program will then ask if this is to be the default diary for the current user. You are also asked which surgeries are permitted to read it as a waiting room list. This defaults to the current surgery. Alternative entries are All - accessible from all surgeries; None - accessible from none, i.e. can only be read as a diary and not as a waiting room list. This setting may be altered using the Change permissions option.

The set-up of your diary is then complete.

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