Healthengine's Appointment Type Custom Session Set Up Follow

The Custom Sessions feature enables you to limit a time period to certain appointment types. This feature can solve for cases such as:

• When a Practitioner can only perform a specific appointment type for a specific time or date (e.g. can only do Telehealth appointments on Tuesday afternoons)
• Quickly block out availability if a practitioner is unwell but still taking telehealth appointments
• When a practitioner wants to restrict the appointment types that are available for booking at certain times (e.g. only Immunisations, Cervical Screening Test and New Patients in the afternoons)
• Ease of configuring of pricing and management of available appointment types for after hours, weekend and public holidays 
• Ability to copy settings from one practitioner to another 

This guide will walk you through how to set up a session and restrict other appointment types from being booked online during that time via Practice Admin. This feature works with integrated and non-integrated practices, and isn’t restricted to any PMS.

How to create a new practitioner session

Custom sessions can be created and edited from within Practice Admin, under the ‘Manage Practitioners’ tab. Once a session is created, it overrides all other availability and this is the only appointment type able to be booked at the selected times. If you wish for more than one appointment type to be available (for example, telehealth video and telehealth phone, you can do that by creating two separate sessions at the same time).

1. Log on to Practice Admin and select ‘Manage practitioners’ and select the practitioner you want to set up the session for and select ‘Edit Appointment Types’
   
   
2. Double-check that the practitioner you want to set up the session for is selected in the top right in the 'View appointment types for' dropdown. All the currently set-up appointments allocated to that specific practitioner should be visible.

3. Find the appointment type you want to add a session for and have it be the only available appointment type at that time, click the `⋮` 3 dots, then select 'Edit Custom Session'. 

4. A pop-up will appear with details for the session where you can set the start date, adjust the duration (in 24-hour time), choose how frequently this will repeat (daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly), and add an end date (or keep indefinitely).

5. If you want to create another session on a different schedule for the same appointment type, you can click 'Add session' to see another set-up screen.

6. Once you have finished, click 'Save'.
   Note: You will need to fill in all the relevant fields to be able to save and leave the page.

Note: If you want to restrict availability over a 2 day period (late night to early morning), you will need to create two sessions: one that ends at 12am for day one, and one that ends at your required time and starts at 12 am on day two.

How to edit your practitioner's sessions

If you want to edit any existing practitioner sessions, you can do so from the 'Manage Practitioners' Section and select the practitioner you want to change the session for. If the session has expired or the end date set has passed, you will need to adjust sessions.

1. Once on the relevant practitioner's page, scroll down to the ‘Appointment Types’ section. All the currently set-up appointments allocated to that specific practitioner should be visible.

2. Find the appointment type you want to edit and click 'edit'. All appointment types that have sessions created will have a message in the Custom Sessions column to indicate a session has been set up.

3. The pop-up will appear with details for the session where you can edit the start date, adjust the duration (in 24-hour time), choose how frequently this will repeat (daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly), and add an end date (or keep indefinitely).

4. Once you have finished, click 'Save'. You will need to fill in all the relevant fields to be able to save and leave the page.

How to stack sessions to make more than one appointment type available at one time

Healthengine’s Appointment type custom session feature allows you to restrict times to only take certain appointment types, and these can be stacked to ensure patients can book multiple appointment types that are only available at restricted times, such as telehealth when a practitioner works from home.

This can be done by creating duplicate appointment sessions for different appointment types. The times and dates don’t need to be identical for this feature, for example, telehealth video from 8am to 10am and telehealth phone from 9am-11am.

1. Scroll down to the ‘Appointment Types’ section on the page for the practitioner you want to set up availability for.

2. Find the appointment type you want to add a session for and have it be the only available appointment type, and click 'Add'. 

3. A pop up will appear with details for the session where you can set the start date, adjust the duration (in 24 hour time), choose how frequently this will repeat (daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly), add an end date (or keep indefinitely).

4. Once you have finished, click 'Save'.

5. Repeat the process for any other appointment types you want available at the same time and save each setting.

How to remove a practitioner’s sessions

If you want to delete any existing practitioner sessions, you can do so from the 'Manage Practitioners' Section and select the practitioner you want to remove the session for.

1. Click 'Manage practitioners' and the practitioner you want to remove the session for.
2. Double-check that the practitioner you want to set up the session for is selected in the top right in the 'View appointment types for' dropdown. All the currently set-up appointments allocated to that specific practitioner should be visible.
   
   
   
   
3. Find the appointment type you want to add a session for and have it be the only available appointment type at that time, click the `⋮` 3 dots, then select 'Edit Custom Session'. 
   
   
4. Locate the session you want to delete, and click the 'Trash' icon. 
   
   
5. Click Save

How to configure custom sessions for after-hours, weekends and public holidays 

If you are using our payment solutions and want to charge a different price for appointment outside of normal opening hours or control what appointment types are offered (e.g. telehealth only) this is done via custom sessions. Options within the settings makes it easy to set these rules and apply them to all e.g. weekends without having to create a custom session for each specific weekend. 

To set up a custom session for after hours

1. If you want to set a different price for the appointment then create an appointment type to be used specifically for that custom session (e.g. telehealth weekends, telehealth after-ours and set the fee to be charged when appointment is booked. The create a custom session for this specific appointment type.
   
   
2. Create a custom session for the appointment type you want to offer and use time and repeat frequency options to configure when these sessions are to be used. Not the specific hours are pre-sets only to speed up the process but can be modified to suit your specific needs in a subsequent step. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Not for public holidays the system will automatically recognise the public holidays in your state and apply the settings accordingly.    

If you have any issues or require assistance, please contact Healthengine support via live chat, email or phone.