What is the ‘First Available Queue’?

The 'First Available Queue' feature allows patients to choose a first available practitioner option, so that any practitioner at your practice can choose to action their Quick Consults request. 

This benefits practitioners by offering more care opportunities, especially during gaps caused by unexpected no-shows. Practitioners can manage these requests in the HotDoc Sidebar, similar to their own requests, by claiming and reviewing them.

If unclaimed, requests are marked as 'First Available' on the HotDoc Dashboard, where they can be assigned to a practitioner or rejected. Unclaimed requests are also included in the daily summary emails that are sent to your practice. 

How does it work for practitioners?

In addition to their own requests, practitioners can view and action these requests on the HotDoc Sidebar. Completing these requests is similar to managing their own requests:

1. In the HotDoc Sidebar, under Outstanding requests, click claim this request and confirm if they would like to review the request
   
   
2. Review and choose to approve, reject or reassign the request to another GP.
   
   
   

Note: If your practitioners do not have access to the HotDoc Sidebar, instructions are available here.

How are these requests managed on the HotDoc Dashboard?

1. Just like all Quick Consult requests, you can view these requests in the HotDoc Dashboard > Quick Consults > Requests. 
   
   

2. If a request has not yet been claimed by a practitioner, it will be marked as ‘First Available, from here you can click 'Assign' to the request to a practitioner.
   
   

    

3. For ease, you can filter for these requests by selecting ‘First Available GP’ in the ‘Practitioner’ filter.
   
   

    

4. Approving a ‘first available’ request: You cannot approve the request until it has been claimed or assigned to a practitioner.

    

5. Rejecting a ‘first available request’: Click Review > Decline.

    

What happens if no practitioner claims a request?

1. You can assign it through the above process to a practitioner, or reject the request.
   
   

2. You will also see these requests in the daily Requests summary email you already receive.
   
   

3. We will also be actively monitoring this given the feature is still in trials and would love any feedback on how you would like to best manage these requests.