The Calendar section in Practice Admin allows you to publish available appointments online in a familiar, calendar-style interface called Calendar.
Page Contents:
- Changing your Advanced Publishing Preferences
- How to Create Schedules
- Choosing a Schedule Length
- Editing and Deleting Schedules
- How to Add Availability Quickly (ad-hock basis)
- How to Delete Availability Quickly (ad-hoc basis)
To access your Calendar, navigate to 'Appointments setup' in your Practice Admin then click on 'Calendar'.
Once you are on the Calendar page, you will see the calendar layout that will default to the current day's view.
You can navigate to a different day by using the '< or >' arrow icons or select the calendar icon to the left of the arrows to select a specific date.
You can also zoom in and out of your daily view by clicking the + or - icons on the left.
Changing your Advanced Publishing Preferences
To change your advance publishing preferences, click on the gear icon at the top right-hand corner.
This will open a pop-up box that enables you to click a drop-down list of options for how far in advance you'd like to display your available appointments online.
Creating Schedules in Calendar
To publish your available appointments online, click on the 'Create Schedule' button in the top right-hand corner above your Calendar.
This will display a pop-up box as seen below:
To begin creating your schedule, start by clicking on the drop-down section and selecting the consultation room in which you wish to create available appointments.
Once you have selected the relevant consultation room, you can then pick the start date of your schedule. Please Note: This will immediately default to the date currently displayed in the Calendar day view.
Next, under the 'Specialty' section choose which service you wish to publish available appointments for. Please Note: This will always default to the first service listed.
The next step is to decide whether you wish to publish a single appointment or a block of appointments.
If you select 'Single appointment', you will only need to choose the start time and length, to create a singular appointment.
However, the most common way to create schedules is to add a 'Block of appointments', where you will now be able to select an end time.
When selecting a start and end time, you can free text the time you want (5:00) instead of scrolling all the way down to find 5:00 pm.
Use the free text feature to quickly select the time!
You can also make use of the repeat settings for the schedule by selecting weekly, fortnightly or every workday.
You also have the option to set a stop date for each repeat option as seen below:
Please Note: the default is always set to 'Doesn't repeat' and 'Never stop repeating' for weekly, fortnightly and every workday repeat options.
When you have filled out all the required information, you can select 'Add appointments' for this schedule to be added to your Calendar.
Please allow a few minutes to pass before checking this availability (especially if you have created them quite far in advance) as our system needs time to publish these!
Only the appointments that are within your advance publishing preferences (e.g. the next 28 days) will appear online for patients to book.
Choosing a Schedule Length
When creating a schedule, please factor in your service appointment length to avoid any scheduling complications.
Example 1: Appointment Type A, B and C are all 10 minutes, so this should be your default appointment length.
Example 2: Appointment Type A is 15 minutes and Appointment Type B is 30 minutes, your appointment length will be the lowest time of 15 minutes.
Example 3: Appointment Type A, B and C are 5, 20 and 30 minutes, your appointment length will be 5 minutes so each block can fit all required lengths.
If you prefer, you can create all your schedules in 5 minute blocks to accommodate all appointment lengths. However, please be aware that the same 5 minute block will be displayed online for patients to book.
It is the length that is set in appointment types that will determine how many of those blocks are booked.
E.g the below schedule length is set to 5 mins, and the appointment type is 15 minutes. A patient books a 15 min appointment at 10:00 am where 3 x 5 min blocks are allocated for the appointment.
The next available slot will now be 10:15 am.
Editing and Deleting Schedules
Once you have created some schedules, you may wish to go back and modify them. To do this, simply navigate to the schedule you wish to modify and click on the schedule to reveal the same pop up you saw when you originally created the schedule.
From there, you can amend any setting you wish by selecting the 'Edit Schedule' tab as seen below and selecting 'Update Appointments'.
Please Note: If it is a repeat schedule, this will also update all future schedules already published.
To delete a schedule, simply select the trash icon in this same section.
How to Add Availability Quickly (ad-hock basis)
Adding availability quickly is great for when you need to extend your regular schedule or add extra appointments for a particular day!
To do this, just select your date and create a single appointment on the day. Then choose your start time and the length you want the appointment to go for.
You can also choose to repeat the single appointment, weekly, fortnightly or every workday and set a stop date for each schedule.
How to Delete Availability Quickly (ad-hoc basis)
This functionality is fantastic for when you need to make quick amendments to your live appointments on particular days without affecting your regular repeating schedules. This is ideal for situations when a staff member needs to finish early for the day or for any ad-hoc breaks.
To learn more about hiding availability for Public Holidays or Lunch Breaks, read our Help Centre article, Creating, Editing and Deleting Block Schedules.
To do this, click on the schedule you wish to update and a pop-up default to the 'Manage availability' tab will appear. There will be a list of the individual slots within that schedule and you simply need to select the icon of the circle with the line through it to unpublish this slot online.
Once you have done this, the slots become greyed out with the option to republish again if you have made an error or changed your mind!
Adding Additional Calendar Rooms
To add additional consultation rooms, reach out to our friendly Support Team via chat, phone or email support@healthengine.com.au
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