Your daily schedule in Doctora is the central hub for managing patient appointments, starting encounters, and tracking exam progress throughout the day. This guide walks through the key features you will use every day.
Viewing the Schedule
Doctora offers two ways to view appointments:
- Schedule list -- The main dashboard shows a scrollable list of the day's appointments, sorted by time. Each appointment card displays the patient name, age, date of birth, appointment time range, exam type, and current status.
- Calendar view -- The full calendar page (accessed from the Schedule tab) supports day, week, month, year, and agenda views. You can switch between views using the header controls. The calendar remembers your preferred view between sessions, and you can filter appointments by provider when multiple doctors are on staff.
How Appointments Sync from Your EHR
Appointments are pulled into Doctora from your EHR system automatically. How this works depends on your setup:
- Browser-based EHRs (RevolutionEHR, Eyefinity) -- The Doctora Chrome extension detects appointments when you are logged into your EHR and syncs them in the background.
- Desktop EHRs (CrystalPM, OfficeMate, and others) -- The Doctora desktop agent running on your office computer syncs the schedule on a recurring basis.
You can also trigger a manual sync at any time. Next to the date header, click the refresh icon to sync appointments for the current day. When you open the calendar picker, you will see a "Sync [Month]" button at the bottom to pull in an entire month at once. Dates that already have appointments are highlighted in the calendar so you can quickly spot which days have been synced.
If no appointments appear and the schedule has not been synced recently, the empty state will tell you when the last sync occurred and provide guidance on connecting your EHR.
What Each Appointment Card Shows
Every appointment card in the schedule list includes:
- Time -- The scheduled start and end time (e.g., "9:00 AM - 9:30 AM")
- Patient name -- First and last name from the EHR
- Age and date of birth -- Calculated from the patient's DOB on file
- Exam type -- The type of visit (e.g., "Comprehensive Eye Exam," "Contact Lens Fitting"), shown as a badge at the bottom of the card
- Status badge -- A color-coded badge in the upper right corner showing the current state of the encounter
Starting an Encounter
To begin an encounter, simply click on the patient's appointment card. This navigates you to the transcription page with the patient's information pre-loaded. From there, you can start recording the exam.
If you need to see a patient who is not on the schedule--for example, a walk-in--use the manual encounter option to create a new appointment. You will be prompted to enter the patient's information before proceeding.
Understanding Encounter Statuses
Each appointment card has a color-coded left border and status badge that updates in real time as the encounter progresses:
| Status | Color | Meaning | |---|---|---| | Scheduled | Gray | Appointment is on the schedule but the encounter has not started | | In Progress | Orange | The exam is actively being recorded | | Processing | Amber | Doctora's AI is generating the clinical documentation | | Ready for Review | Blue | Documentation is complete and waiting for the doctor to review | | Pending EHR Write | Red | The reviewed note is queued to be written back to the EHR | | Completed | Green | The encounter is fully documented and synced to the EHR | | Error | Red | Something went wrong during processing--click the card to investigate |
These statuses update automatically as the encounter moves through the pipeline. You do not need to refresh the page to see changes.
Navigating Between Days
Use the left and right arrow buttons flanking the date to move one day forward or back. You can also click the date itself to open a calendar picker and jump to any date. The schedule list animates smoothly as you navigate between days, and appointment data loads in real time from Doctora's database.
Viewing Past Appointments
You can navigate to any previous date to see completed encounters. Past appointment cards retain their status badges, so you can quickly see which exams were completed, which had errors, and which are still pending review. Clicking a completed appointment opens its encounter details, where you can review the AI-generated documentation, refraction data, diagnoses, and other clinical findings organized in expandable sections.
For supported EHR systems, Doctora can also pull in historical exam data from before you started using the platform. Look for the past exams icon on appointment cards to access prior visit summaries, including refraction history, special testing results, and previous diagnoses.