Real-Time Updates & Predictive Scheduling in DOCPACE® Manager

Real-Time Updates & Predictions

DOCPACE® receives updates from your athenahealth instance through a live API connection. In most cases, this occurs every 60 seconds. Each update automatically refreshes your DOCPACE® Manager with the latest information since the last sync.

These updates may include:

• Real-Time Tracking of patient flow.
• Time spent in each encounter stage.
• Changes to appointment start times.
• Visits added, removed, or moved to another schedule.
• Popups and alerts.
• DOCPACE® Engage details (if enabled).

Real-Time Tracking

A unique DOCPACE® feature is real-time patient flow tracking.

DOCPACE® considers an appointment “started” when the patient is no longer in the waiting room—typically at the With Staff / Intake stage or beyond. By this point, the patient is occupying two limited resources that most affect flow:

1. An exam room.
2. A provider’s time.

Key factors in DOCPACE®’s patented Appointment Stacking Algorithm:

• Average duration of each encounter stage for a provider and appointment type.
• Real-time tracking of each stage during the encounter.
• Limited resource tracking (room occupancy + provider availability).

Tip: Instead of viewing your day as a stack of static appointments, DOCPACE® treats it like a game of Tetris—shaping predictions based on both scheduled times and actual in-progress durations.

Tracking Time in Encounter States

• A patient becomes “active” on your Manager as soon as they start check-in.
• DOCPACE® tracks time in each stage until the patient moves to the next stage.
• The current stage duration appears above the stage icon in the appointment row.
• Once the stage ends, the full time is displayed in the filled stage icon.
• If a patient exceeds their average stage time, the number will highlight in red.

Averages are provider-specific and can vary by appointment type and department.

Hover over a stage to see its start time and the provider’s average for that appointment type.

For details on how these times are captured, see the athenahealth Timestamps Knowledge Base article.

Appointment Start Time Predictions

Real-time tracking enables DOCPACE® to predict—and continually update—future appointment start times.

In the Scheduled column:

• No Number: On-time start.
• Gray/Black Number: Minor delay.
• Red Number: Major delay.

Definition: A Major Delay is 30 minutes or more past the scheduled start time (estimated or actual).

Predictions change from estimated to realized delays once a patient reaches With Staff / Intake or beyond.

Schedule Changes

DOCPACE® refreshes schedules every 60 seconds for enabled providers:

• Added Visit: Appears in the queue with its scheduled time.
• Removed Visit: Shows per your configuration, with cancellation reason.
• Moved Visit: Appears on the new provider’s schedule and is removed from the original.

Note: Both provider schedules must be DOCPACE®-enabled to track patient movement between them. For dynamic schedules (e.g., rendering provider or walk-in schedules), DOCPACE® can be configured to track delays accurately as appointments shift. Contact your CSM for setup.

Popups & Alerts

Popups and alerts triggered by these real-time updates are explained in detail in the Alerts, Icons and Notifications Knowledge Base article.

DOCPACE® Engage Details

• If you use DOCPACE® Engage, the Pending Patient appointment row will also display:
• Predicted Start Time
• Suggested Arrival Time

Hover over the "Scheduled" column to see:

• Estimated start time.
• Suggested arrival time.
• Time the first DOCPACE® Engage message was sent.

Note: A Suggested Arrival Time does not simply equal the delay. For example, if a patient’s estimated start is 9 minutes late, the Suggested Arrival might be 4 minutes late—factoring in check-in time and resource availability.