Ocean automatically calculates the wait times for each of your Health Services Offerings on a nightly basis. A minimum of 6 referrals with an assigned Health Service Offering and a scheduled appointment date are required for Ocean to begin calculating your wait times.
To ensure that your calculated wait times are as accurate as possible as a referral recipient, it is important to account for periods of unavailability for patient reasons (e.g., patient vacations, missed appointments). The information below explains how to entirely exclude specific referrals from wait time calculations, and how to exclude specific date ranges within a referral.
For detailed information on wait time calculations and the inclusion and exclusion criteria for referrals, please refer to the following article: How are wait times calculated and displayed in Ocean?
How do I know if an appointment is included in wait time calculations?
- Within the 'Scheduling' area of the referral, a bar graph icon is shown when the scheduled appointment date will be included in wait time calculations.
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- If the bar graph icon is missing, the scheduled appointment date will not be included in wait time calculations.
Excluding a Referral from Wait Time Calculations
You may choose to exclude an entire referral from being used in your wait time calculations for a variety of reasons, such as a patient cancelling or missing the scheduled appointment.
If the patient would like to decline the referral, the referral recipient can mark the referral as 'Declined' with a specific reason, which automatically prevents it from being used in wait time calculations and ends the referrals lifecycle.
- Locate and open the eReferral in Ocean.
- Press the 'Decline' button at the bottom of the referral.
- Using the 'Reason for Decline' dropdown menu, select 'Patient declined', and press the blue 'Decline' button.
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- The referral will automatically be moved to the 'Declined' status folder.
Depending on your clinic policy regarding missed appointments, you may choose to completely decline a referral or simply rebook the appointment for a later date. In either scenario, it is important to action the referral appropriately to ensure accurate wait time information.
Option 1: Decline the Referral
If the patient missed a scheduled appointment, you can mark the referral as 'Declined' with a specific reason, which automatically prevents it from being used in wait time calculations and ends the referrals lifecycle.
- Locate and open the eReferral in Ocean.
- Press the 'Decline' button at the bottom of the referral.
- Using the 'Reason for Decline' dropdown menu, select 'Patient did not attend scheduled service/appointment (No-Show)', and press the blue 'Decline' button.
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- The referral will automatically be moved to the 'Declined' status folder.
Option 2: Rebook the Appointment
If the patient missed a scheduled appointment but you wish to rebook it for a later date, simply update the appointment dates within the 'Scheduling' area of the referral, and account for the delay by specifying Dates Affecting Readiness to Consult/Treat (DARC/DART) as described in the second half of this support article.
A referral can also be entirely excluded from wait time calculations without declining it. This is achieved by adding a note within the referral.
- Locate and open the eReferral in Ocean.
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Within the 'Notes' area, press the speech bubble icon, and select a pre-worded note from the list.
Note: Selecting the any of the following 'Note' options will exclude the referral from wait time calculations:
- • Several attempts to contact
- • Patient offered earlier date
- • Patient requested later date
- • Patient is an existing client
- • Original referral redirected
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- The pre-worded note will populate the text box with a reminder that this note will exclude the referral from wait time calculations.
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- Press the blue 'Save' button at the bottom of the referral to save your note.
Excluding Certain Days from Wait Time Calculations
Patients may delay appointments for various reasons such as being unable to be reached, missing consultations or requests to defer. These delays can be accounted for by specifying Dates Affecting Readiness to Consult/Treat (DARC/DART).
Dates specified using the DARC/DART functionality will be excluded from wait time calculations. Additional details on this functionality can be found in this article.
- Locate and open the eReferral in Ocean.
- Within the 'Notes' area, press the speech bubble icon, and select 'Add Dates Affecting Readiness to Consult/Treat'.
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- Specify the reason, start and end dates, and press 'OK'.
- Press the blue 'Save' button at the bottom of the referral.