Apple Tree's Twin Cities schedulers have the job of arranging full-day schedules for clinical staff at over 120 sites including an Out Patient Clinic. Schedulers develop daily lists of patients to be seen at each facility. They use Apple Tree Dental Office Software™ to store treatment plans for patients by facility and track the number of patients that are new, are undergoing treatment, are due for a recall exam, and/or who have urgent dental concerns. They combine this information to make a daily schedule for each provider. Each dentist and hygienist serves a consistent set of nursing homes to assure continuity of care and to establish stable dentist/patient relationships. Visits are scheduled with sufficient frequency to keep patient care up-to-date while effectively utilizing the time of dental personnel.

The demand for dental services drives the frequency of scheduling a facility. There must be a minimum number of patients available to be seen at a location before a visit is scheduled. The number will vary by provider, but is in the range of twelve to fifteen patients. Large facilities may need weekly visits, while small ones may need a combination of on-site visits and off-site referrals to assure that resources are used cost-effectively. A typical schedule at a long-term care facility will start at 9 am with a break for lunch while the residents eat, and finish at approximately 4 pm. Some days may end earlier so the assistants and coordinators can return to the central office at a reasonable hour.