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PPMP – Healthengine's Integration: Benefits & Troubleshooting

Healthengine integrates with PPMP on a cloud-based level or through the Healthengine Appointment Connector, a software installed on your practice server that syncs your PPMP calendar with Healthengine's online booking system.

Benefits of the PPMP Integration

The Healthengine integration with PPMP offers several advantages for your practice:

Automatic Availability Management

  • Your appointment availability is read directly from the PPMP appointment books
  • Changes in PPMP appear on Healthengine automatically
  • Occupied appointment slots are removed from Healthengine in real-time
  • New available slots are published automatically

Seamless Booking Management

  • Online bookings appear directly in your PPMP appointment book
  • Patient details are automatically added or matched to existing patient files
  • Reduce administrative workload with 24/7 online booking capability
  • Customise appointment colours to identify Healthengine bookings

Patient Matching

When a patient books online through Healthengine, the system attempts to match them to an existing patient file using:

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Date of birth

If an exact match is found, the appointment is added to that patient's file. If no match or multiple matches are found, a new patient file is created automatically with the booking details.

How the Integration Works

Integration Type

PPMP uses an Appointment Connector (AC) integration, meaning software is installed on your practice server that connects your PPMP database to Healthengine's systems.

What Syncs to PPMP

When a patient books online through Healthengine:

  • Patient's first name, last name and date of birth
  • Mobile phone number
  • Appointment date, time and practitioner
  • Appointment type
  • A unique booking reference (HE_MSG_ID) in the appointment comments

Please Note: Do not remove the HE_MSG_ID from appointment comments, as this is required for cancellations to sync correctly.

 

Setting Up the Integration

Before Installation

Ensure your PPMP system is configured correctly:

Configure Appointment Times

Your diary times must use one of these formats:

  • 24-hour format with two digits either side of the column, no am/pm suffix (e.g., 09:00, 13:30, 14:15)
  • 12-hour format with am/pm suffix and no spaces (e.g., 9:00am, 1:30pm, 2:15pm)

Please note: Times not in these formats will cause availability to be skipped or ignored. Check both your main diary times and alternate diary times.

Configure Staff Settings

Set all staff members to use 0 for slot duration:

  1. Go to Setup > Staff
  2. Select the 1st Available tab
  3. Set Slot Duration to 0
  4. Repeat for each staff member

Customise Appointment Colours (Optional)

If you're running PPMP version 8.22 or newer, you can set a custom colour for Healthengine appointments to easily identify them in your appointment book.

Installation Process

The Healthengine Appointment Connector will be installed by your Healthengine implementation team during your onboarding session. The installation includes:

  1. Downloading and running the integration installer
  2. Configuring the connection to your PPMP database
  3. Entering your unique Healthengine access key
  4. Testing the connection and starting the service

PPMP Cloud Customers

If you use PPMP Cloud, the installation process is managed differently. Contact Healthengine Support to arrange setup, as this requires coordination with PPMP's cloud infrastructure.

Troubleshooting

Some Practitioners Not Showing or Missing Availability

Check the following:

  • Verify diary times are in the correct format (both main and alternate diary times)
  • Ensure times include am/pm or use 24-hour format with no spaces
  • Confirm appointment slot lengths are consistent

Practitioner Has Multiple Columns But Availability Not Showing

If a practitioner uses multiple columns to see more than one patient at the same time slot, availability may not display correctly. 

Contact Healthengine Support to add a special configuration setting to your Appointment Connector.

Double-clicking New Patient Appointments Doesn't Open Patient File

This is a known issue in PPMP versions before 9.5. To resolve:

  • Upgrade to PPMP version 9.5 or newer, or
  • Contact Healthengine Support to apply a partial workaround

Cancellations Not Removing Appointments

When Healthengine inserts appointments into PPMP, a unique reference (HE_MSG_ID) is added to the appointment comments. 

If the practice staff remove this reference, cancellations from Healthengine will fail to sync.

Please Note: Do not delete or modify the HE_MSG_ID in appointment comments.

Appointment Connector Has Stopped

The Appointment Connector runs as a background service on your practice server. If it stops:

  1. Locate the Healthengine Systray Monitor in your system tray (Windows notification area)
  2. Right-click and select Restart
  3. If the issue persists, contact Healthengine Support

You can also access the Systray Monitor from Start Menu > Programs > Healthengine Open Appointments Sync > Systray Monitor.