Routine Requests is online healthcare from your doctor, powered by HotDoc. Patients can submit requests such as repeat prescriptions, referrals, and medical certificates online, which are sent directly to doctors through the Sidebar—reducing phone calls to reception and the administrative workload for your team.

With Routine Requests, clinics can:

• Provide better access and continuity of care for existing patients, even when appointment books are full

• Accept online requests for repeat prescriptions, referrals, medical certificates, and test result follow-ups

• Turn previously unpaid administrative work into billable consults, helping practitioners boost earnings

• Review, complete, or decline requests and communicate with patients directly from the HotDoc Sidebar

• Keep patient files accurate by easily copying request details into the PMS

• Respond to requests at a convenient time or reassign them to another practitioner if needed

• Automatically capture payments through HotDoc, reducing admin time and allowing control via the HotDoc Dashboard

• Access simple reporting and reconciliation to track requests and payments

If you are setting up or learning how Routine Requests works for the first time, you will be required to complete all sections below. 
 

1. The Patient Experience

We understand that using an online system to capture patient requests for things like scripts and referrals can be a different experience for your practice and patients.

By reviewing the patient journey, you and your team will be able to know what to expect and confidently preempt any concerns or questions. Here are some important things to know:
 

• When patients submit a request, they'll add their payment method, and we will pre-authorise the funds for 7 days to ensure there are enough funds on the patient's card. The payment may appear as 'pending' on the patient's statement.  
  
• Once the practitioner approves the request, the patient's card will be charged. 
• If the practitioner declines the request, the patient will not be charged

2. Routine Requests set up checklist

If you're setting up for the first time, you will be required to complete the self-onboarding checklist in the Dashboard under Routine Requests > Get Started > Start setting up. 

This will guide you through all the steps you need to complete before going live. 

2a. Set up your payment provider

To capture payments for requests, you will be required to create and set up an account with one of our payment providers, Stripe or Pin Payments. You can do this in the Payments > Payment Setup section of the Dashboard. 

If your practitioners want to receive direct payouts, they can set up and link their payment account in the Payments > Payment Set up > Practitioner Setup section. Their account will need to be the same as your chosen payment provider (e.g. Stripe or Pin). 

If you have already set up practitioners using Payments for bookings, you can skip this step, as they are already set up!

2b. Add your account settings and Routine Request types

Step 2 of the onboarding checklist, 'Go to Settings', will direct you to Routine Requests > Settings, where you can edit the General and Advanced Settings to configure your practice details, Routine Requests services/request types, costs, practitioners and terms and conditions.

Under General settings, you can: 

• Add your Practice details, including the email address we should notify when you've received a request and for a daily summary
  
  
   
• The type of Routine Requests services you would like for patients to request online, e.g. repeat prescriptions, referrals and medical certificates, as well as the costs and practitioners who offer these.
  
  
  
   
• Set up the ability to automatically create and receipt invoices for patient requests in your practice software (Best Practice and Medical Director customers only). 
  
  
  
  
• Review your Promotional settings. When this is enabled, it allows HotDoc to send a notification via push notification, SMS or email to patients (between 11am-3pm) when a practitioner in their 'Care Team' is enabled for a new Routine Request type, including when they're set up for the first time once you select 'Go live'. We recommend leaving this on if you would like notifications to be sent to patients to raise awareness that your practitioners offer this service. Read here for more about how this works.
  
  
  
  
• Temporarily disable requests for practice closure periods 
  

Under the Advanced settings, you can:

• Add any specific customised terms and conditions that your practice would like the patient to see when requesting a Routine Request.
• Any nominated pharmacies (prescription only if this is a delivery method you have selected). 
   

2c. Select your practitioners and set up their accounts
 

In the third step of the onboarding checklist, you can easily select which Practitioners accept online prescription and referral requests. You can also access this in the Routine Requests > Practitioner Setup section of the Dashboard.

1. In order for practitioners to action the request, you will need to create a Practitioner Sidebar account by clicking Send Invite. 
   
   
    
2. You'll need to select the practitioner you wish to invite and enter their nominated email address.
   
   
    
3. Once invited, they'll receive an email to create a password before they can log into the HotDoc Sidebar to action requests.
   
   
    
4. Select Enable services to enable them for a list of Routine Request types: 
   
   
    

Once they have created an account, they can:

• Approve, decline requests or reassign these to different practitioners  
• Open the patient's file in your practice software directly from the Installed HotDoc Sidebar
• Send a note directly to the patient via email, all within a few minutes!

2d. Go Live!

Congratulations! By now, you should have finalised your set-up and you should now understand how to use Routine Requests and its features!

If your payment provider has not been set up, you will need to complete this before you can go live.

Once you've done that, in the checklist, click 'Go Live' to launch requests on your bookings site and allow patients to start booking!

 

Once you've clicked 'Go Live', you will be shown a pop-up confirmation as below, which includes an estimate of how much extra you could earn completing just 4 requests at the lowest price point you've set.

It also includes an optional link to 'Notify your patients' that will take you to a broadcast template you can use to inform your patients they can now access repeat prescriptions and referrals online!

For more information about how broadcast works, please check out Using Broadcasts.

3. Email communications

It is important to understand the types of email communications your practice admin, practitioners and your patients will receive about your requests.

3a. Practice Admin Emails
 

The Practice Admin that you entered in the Routine Requests notification email address field in Routine Requests > Settings.

Will receive the following emails:

• An email each time a patient has submitted a request, titled "New Repeat [prescription/referral] request for [Practitioner]"
  
  
   
• A daily summary email titled "You have routine requests awaiting decisions", sent between 8am-10am each morning with information about pending requests and expired requests, which you will need to follow up manually. 
  
  

• If using Best Practice/Medical Director and have enabled automatic invoicing, we will send an email if we were unable to create an invoice.  
   

  

  
  
   

3b. Practitioner Emails
 

• An email is sent each time a patient has submitted a request, titled "Action required - You have a new patient request" 
  
  
   

• A daily summary email titled "Action required - review your outstanding patient requests", sent between 8am-10am each morning.

• If they haven't finished setting up their account, any displayed button will take them to the create a password page, which they will need to do before viewing and actioning any requests.
   

   

  Create a Password page.	The HotDoc Web Sidebar.

3c. Patient Emails

4. Invoicing and Reporting 

4a. Invoicing

When using Routine Requests, you'll need to create an invoice in your practice software for each request that your doctor approves. The amount you enter in the invoice should be the cost of the request (net amount, excluding fees). This will allow you to reconcile and balance your HotDoc Payments against the receipts in your practice software. 

• If using Best Practice or Medical Director, you can enable automatic invoicing so that HotDoc does this for you. We will enter the amount set for each request in your Dashboard, which is the 'net' amount (total amount excluding any fees).
  • Note: There may be times when we cannot create an invoice automatically, and you will need to do this, but you will clearly see this as 'Needs invoice' under Payments > Reporting > Routine Requests. Read more here. 
    
    
    
     
• If using Zedmed, you will need to manually create an invoice in your practice software (however your practice does this), each time practitioners complete a patient's request. 
  • You can view a list of completed payments in the Payments > Reporting > Repeats tab
    
    
    
     
  • Alternatively, you can also view a list of completed requests under Routine Requests > Requests to see which invoices to create. You will also receive an email each time a request is completed. See How to view repeat script and referral requests in the HotDoc Dashboard for more. 
    
    
     

4b. Reporting and reconciliation 

• The Payment Activity section allows you to reconcile your HotDoc Payments with the receipts in your practice software, to ensure you have balanced at the end of shift. Here you will see all HotDoc Payments and can filter by the request type, for example, Routine Requests. 
  
   
• The Payouts section allows you to view the payouts you've received from your payment provider (Stripe or Pin Payments), and view which patients payments made up this payout. 
  
  
• When reconciling your payments, we recommend using the 'subtotal net' amount to balance, as this is what you received from the patient. As the fee is covered by the patient, you do not need to account for this amount in your invoices or reconciling.  For example: 
  • Cost of a repeat request set in HotDoc is $15 
  • Patient pays $17.07 (fee automatically passed on to patient)  
  • You receive $15 - use this amount in the invoice, and to reconcile.  

5. Important Information 

Before getting started, it is important to know about the following settings and features:

• Practitioners will be required to action patient requests via the HotDoc Sidebar. We have the HotDoc Web Sidebar; however, for more features and a smoother experience, we recommend installing the HotDoc Sidebar by sending these instructions to your IT to complete: How to install the HotDoc Sidebar on Practitioners' workstations.
  
  

• Please note: Once you've gone live with Routine Requests, any practitioner with the status pending or active, and with either prescriptions or referrals selected, will begin receiving requests via email.
  
  

  If they are still pending, when a request comes through and they click to view the request, they will be prompted to create a password before being able to action the request.
  
   

• We recommended checking your HotDoc Dashboard regularly for pending requests in the Routine Requests > Requests section, just in case any issues arise with receiving emails or if practitioners cannot access the Sidebar. Please see How to view repeat script and referral requests in the HotDoc Dashboard for more. 
  
   

• In Routine Requests > Settings > General, you have the ability to temporarily disable requests and add a message for patients to see during periods your practice may be closed or unable to accept online repeat requests. See How to temporarily disable Routine Requests for more information.
   

6. Educate your team
 

Educate your team and ensure they are ready for online Routine Requests!

• Please ensure they are familiar with these guides: 
  • HotDoc Routine Requests - The Patient Journey - To view the patient experience
  • How to set up Practitioners to action repeat requests in the Sidebar - If you need to set up more practitioners, after you have gone live
  • What practitioners need to do when actioning Routine Requests in the Sidebar - Send this helpful guide directly to your doctors! 
  • How do I set up or edit Routine Request types? - To set up or edit your request types, pricing, or terms and conditions,
  • How to set up or edit your Routine Requests settings in the Dashboard - To edit the general and advanced settings in the 'Settings' tab
  • How to view Routine Requests in the HotDoc Dashboard - To view all your requests 
  • How do I reconcile my HotDoc payments to the receipts in my practice software? & How do I use Payments Reporting to reconcile payouts to my bank account? for your reporting and reconciliation needs. 
    
  • How do I reassign a Routine Request to another practitioner? - For both practitioners and admin staff
    
     
• Access our free digital and printable marketing resources at your practice to educate your patients about Routine Requests: Routine Requests Resources
  
  
• Make sure your reception team are notified about using Routine Requests for requests like prescriptions or medical certificates, before going live, so they can assist with educating your patients if there are questions.