Department of Veterans Affairs 1 

 

Better Mental Health Patient Scheduling

Peter F. Fore, M.D., MPH

Mental Health Service Line

Jesse Brown VAMC, Chicago, IL
Department of Veterans Affairs 2 

Problem Statement

VISTA Scheduling is antiquated and poorly suited to meet mental 

health scheduling needs.

Scheduling should: 

• Be organized around the clinician, not clinics,

• Use a single, shared, modern, GUI calendar, 

• Be accessible by both clinician and clerk, 

• Include both patient and non-patient appointments,

• Easily handle mental health group appointments,

• Eliminate any need for paper appointment books,

• Continue to have all appointments ultimately entered into the 

existing VISTA scheduling package.
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Description

Our team has created a locally developed a software system designed 

to work hand in hand with MS Outlook Calendar and VISTA.

A modern interface allows easy entry of the appointment information, 

which is then stored in a secure database.

The application simultaneously places a numerical placeholder 

representing the patient in the appropriate place in the clinician's 

Outlook calendar. 

Outlook Calendar becomes the main calendar for each clinician, and 

is shared with the supporting clerk(s). Both can schedule patients from 

their respective computers using the same modern calendar.

Security/privacy issues with Outlook are avoided by using random 

numerical placeholders generated by the local application.

The appointment is later auto-loaded into VISTA by a clerk using a 

second automated application. No retyping is required.
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 Step One: Clinician (or Clerk) Schedules

The clinician has the small program below on their computer. 

Outlook must also be open. The patient name is selected from a drop 

down box. The patient names are pulled from a database. The 

clinician selects the clinic name, date, time, and duration, then clicks 

on “schedule”.
Department of Veterans Affairs

 

 Description for the Next Slide

The next slide shows a clinician’s Outlook calendar with the local 

scheduling application open on top of it. The clinician can easily 

schedule appointments using the application. The application puts a 

placeholder in Outlook and sends the appointment information to a 

database.

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 Step 2: Patient Code is Automatically Placed in 

the Clinician’s Outlook Calendar
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 Reverse Look-up Feature. If clinician later wants 

to know the patient name. 
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 Reverse Look-up Feature. If clinician later wants 

to know the patient name. 
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Clinicians can view the scheduling queue.
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 Scheduling queue window. Clinicians can use this 

to check appointment status or correct errors.
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Step 3: Clerical Staff Later Use A Second 

Application to Enter the Appointment into VISTA.

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A clerk operates this second program and VISTA at the same time – 

ideally with two separate screens. 

The program automatically interacts with VISTA and schedules the 

appointment entering the appropriate information at each prompt. It 

takes about 5 seconds to schedule each appointment.

A single clerk can enter all pre-scheduled appointments for all mental 

health sites.
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Appointment has now been made in VISTA. 

Status field changes to “scheduled”.
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Mental Health Group Scheduler App

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There is a separate group scheduler application to easily schedule 

mental health groups. The clinician can set up, save, and modify 

patient lists for each group, then quickly schedule entire groups with 

one click.
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Current Issues

This system has been operational in all Mental Health Service Line 

(MHSL) clinics at all Jesse Brown sites, including CBOCs since mid 

2012. Over two hundred thousand appointments have been 

scheduled.

One lesson learned is that staff training in Outlook is essential. Staff 

ability to use Outlook varies greatly. Special training in Outlook has 

been helpful.

Efforts are underway to allow the system to be piloted at other VA 

facilities. There are technical problems that have not yet been 

resolved, though a possible solution is in sight and, with luck, could 

be available within the next few months.
Department of Veterans Affairs 43

 

Better Mental Health Patient Scheduling

Peter F. Fore, M.D., MPH

Mental Health Service Line

Jesse Brown VAMC, Chicago, IL 

Peter.Fore@VA.Gov