Healthengine now provides practices with a choice as to whether they would like their patients to choose their appointment time first or their appointment type (or 'reason') first when making their booking via the website plugin. Note that this only applies to the website plugin product (booking calendar on your website), and not the Patient Match product (booking calendar on Healthengine website and/or app).
The first option, 'Appointment time first', immediately displays your practice's available appointment times to patients after clicking the 'Book Now' button, as per the image below:
Once they select their appointment time, they are directed to the following form which they must then fill out to progress in making the booking:
With the 'Appointment type first' option, however, patients will see this form first, immediately after clicking on the 'Book Now' button. This means that they must specify whether they are a new or existing patient before being presented with the appointment type options, such that appointment types that are specified as available only to new patients will show only for those who answer 'First Time' and appointment types that are specified as available only to existing patients will show only for those who answer 'Return Patient', etc.
Additionally, by selecting their desired appointment type before choosing a time, they will only be displayed with appointment times that are relevant to their selections, rather than seeing all appointment availability straight away. This can help to reduce the number of patients who choose an appointment time that doesn't quite match their needs.
Once the patient fills in this form, they are then presented with the relevant appointment times according to their selections, as per the image below.
They can then select which practitioner they would like to book with and what time they prefer, as per the usual booking flow.
If you would like to change the booking flow for your web plugin, you can do so at any time by visiting the 'Plugin Installation Instructions' page in Practice Admin as demonstrated in the below steps.
Simply click on the 'Bookings' button on the left navigation panel of Practice Admin, and click on 'Website Plugin'
From here, click on the button next to your preferred option and click on the 'Save and show instruction' button to save the changes, as illustrated in the image below.
Once you've clicked 'Save and show instruction', your web plugin should be updated. You can check this by visiting your website and clicking on the 'Book Now' button to see whether the times display first or the form. Note that you may need to refresh the webpage for the change to take effect.
NOTE: If you wish to use the 'Appointment type first' option and you currently have the old, 'embedded' plugin on your website (as opposed to the 'Book Now' button plugin), you will need to replace the code on your website as per the instructions in steps 2 and 3 of the 'Installation Instructions' page. This is because the 'embedded' plugin option does not support the 'Appointment type first' booking flow option. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please contact our friendly Customer Support team who will be happy to assist you.
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