Appointment Data | Building and Amending Services

Appointment Data | Building and Amending Services


Overview of Service Configuration

Many of the Apex dashboards and reports are driven by the Service selected in the drop down menu at the top, such as Appointment Activity in Access & Demand. Each Service visible in the menu is associated with a pre-defined search or set criteria of appointment book activity within the Settings of Apex, to ensure the figures given accurately represent the appointment activity you are reporting on. For example, if you were wishing to report on appointment figures for Duty Doctor activity and eConsults complete by GPs, you may set up the Service configuration like the example pictured below. This Service filter will then activate whenever the Service is selected to populate the Dashboards/Reports with the desired specified data set according to the filter in place. 








The Services can be created, reviewed and amended by navigating to Settings > Services. When in the Service settings, you can create a new Service by clicking on the blue button in the top left corner, or you can amend an existing one by clicking on it. You can also quickly view how recently the Service was amended – bearing in mind that if this was long ago, the configuration within the Service may no longer accurately represent activity if newer slots or ways of working have been introduced.  Whether creating a new service or amending an existing one, there are three primary datasets that are relevant: 
1. Session holders
Which session holders (if not all) are relevant to your search?
2. Session Categories 
What session category (if not all) is relevant to your search?
3. Slot Types 
Which slot types are relevant to your search?
Step by step, you will select the relevant session holder, session category and slot type through a process of elimination. It is also essential to ensure any non-patient facing slots, such as admin or lunch breaks, are not included in the Service configuration when reporting on appointment figures to avoid skewing the data. The services then inform various parts of Apex, by utilising the filter in place to ensure the figures represented are accurate. 











Service Building Step by Step

If you have a new reporting requirement, a particular dataset you are interested in, or any other appointment data query that you would like to understand - follow the below steps to create a new Service in Apex. 

1. Navigate to Settings > Services. 
2. Click the blue 'New Service' button in the top left corner, choosing 'New Service' from the menu presented. 
3. Name the Service. This name will be visible in the drop-down Service menu in the dashboards and reports. 
4. Add a description if preferable. This description will only be visible in the Service settings and may be used to describe the data specified, e.g. 'all prescribing clinicians excluding administration and list slots'. 
5. Click the blue 'Add Filter' button. This will open up the Service builder which will allow you to specify the who and what of your data query.
Hint: the middle column of figures shows how many slots have been made available against that session holder/session category/slot type. The right hand column shows how many of these were then booked. This can be a useful indicator of whether any of your session holders/session categories/slot types are not patient bookable, or if they are utilised purely as lists. 
6. Session Holders: who is relevant to your search? 
      Is it all session holders? If not, click the option beneath 'all users' and choose from particular Category Groups, individual Categories or individual named users themselves. 
      Please note that this will contain two years worth of your appointment book data - there may be session holders shown in here who do not work with you anymore, but it is important to include them anyway to ensure your Service can be used accurately for historic reporting. 
      Once you have a session holder(s) selected, you will then only be able to see appointment activity that has been booked against that user in the Session Category and Slot Type options (as described in steps 7 and 8 below).
Hint: if you aren't sure what your session holders are categorised as in the clinical system, choose the 'individual users' option and search their name in the search bar, or search a particular role to see who is categorised as it. 
7. Once you are satisfied with the session holder selection, click 'Next' to view Session Categories. 
      Are you interested in all session categories or any particular one? If you choose a Session Category in this step, you will then only be able to see slots that have been utilised within that session category when moving on to the next stage (as described in step 8). 
8. Finally, choose the relevant slot types for your search, with the following considerations in mind: 
      What is the context of how the slot types are utilised? E.g. are any of these slot types exclusively managed by the PCN or external organisations? Do you want those figures to contribute toward your search when analysing the data in the dashboards and reports? 
      Are any offered as lists? If so, be aware that this way of working can create a false impression of unused appointments. 
      Are any of the slots non patient facing? E.g. Lunch, Meeting, Blocked, PLT, etc. These slots again may create a false impression of unused appointments. 
Hint: Apex will pull through at least 2 years worth of slot type activity - including archived slot types that are not utilised anymore. This is by design as it will allow historic reporting on practice activity. 
9. Once you are satisfied with the slot type selection, click 'Next' to view the summary. Click 'Finish'. 

Amending Service Configuration

1. To amend an existing Service, navigate into Settings > Services. 
2. Hover your mouse over each existing Service configuration to view the Edit, Copy and Delete options. 
Hint: if a considerable amount of time has passed since the Service was amended, bear in mind that your more recently added session holders and slot types will most likely not be included by default. It is therefore important to regularly update the service configuration to ensure your activity will not be undercounted. 
3. Click on the pencil icon/the Service title to make amendments. 
4. This will allow you to then make changes to the name, description, and the service filter displayed toward the bottom. 
5. Click on the pencil icon next to the filter to open the Service builder. This will look the same as when building a service from scratch, only with data already selected, which you can then make further changes to accordingly. 


Hint: Copying the service will allow you to keep the original configuration and make further tweaks. For example, if you want to create a Nursing service that excludes flu slot types - you can duplicate your existing Nurse service (providing that you are happy with this configuration), and then simply remove the flu slot types from the newly cloned service. This will save you the effort of starting from scratch with each service. 
Hint: you can add a second filter within one service if required. This can allow you to be both
specific and all-encompassing with your definition. 
10. Once you click 'Save and Close', that Service configuration is now saved and ready to utilise. Navigate into the dashboards and reports to select this Service from the menu and utilise for analysis, or navigate to Enterprise Services to share this service with other organisations that you have an active data sharing agreement with. 

System Services

System Services are used throughout a handful of reports and dashboards on Apex to define core services provided by your organisation. Configuring your system services is how we map your GP, Nurse and Flu Clinic services to Apex. You can configure these by selecting the second tab on the services setting.

Once you have selected the System Services tab, you will be presented with three services, namely, your GP, nurse and flu clinic. You will need to build these three services on the local services tab in order to configure them.



After you have built those three services, select the configure button. A pop-up window will appear providing you with a description of the service, the option to toggle if you provide the service at your practice and a drop-down box. Once you have selected the drop-down box, please pick the relevant service.



Select save once you have made your choices and repeat the process for the remaining services to complete the system services configuration.

If you would like to learn more about the Appointment Activity dashboard, we highly recommend you sign up to our Module 1 & 2 webinar session by clicking here: Book Your Core Training | Modules 1 and 2 | Introducing Demand Management & System Configuration

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