HotDoc Bookings allows you to customise the appointment types that are shown online to your patients so that they are in line with the types in your clinical software.
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What is an Appointment Type?
Appointment Types are required to be set up in the HotDoc Dashboard so that a patient can choose a reason for their booking as they request an appointment.
Appointment types are helpful for guiding your patients to book appointments specific to their needs. Examples of common appointment types are:
- Standard Consult
- Long Consult
- Skin Check
- Travel Vaccination
- Cervical Screening Test
Once added, you will see them appear on your online bookings page under the What is the reason for your appointment? section:
How to add or edit an Appointment Type
- Login to the HotDoc Dashboard using your Clinic User.
- Select the Bookings then Appointments tab on the left of the screen then select New Appointment Type in the top right corner if you would like to make a new appointment type:
Alternatively select Edit if you would like to make changes to an existing appointment type:
- You will then be shown the New or Edit Appointment Type screen where you can add or change the details for your appointment type:
- Firstly add or edit the name of the appointment type, exactly as you'd like the patient to see it. Tick Enabled for online appointments if you would like patients to be able to book this type online. Leave this box unticked if you'd prefer to have the patient call the clinic directly to book in:
- You can choose to ask patients to provide a brief description of why they are booking this consult by ticking the box next to Ask patients to enter the reason for their appointment. See Pre-Consult Notes for more information.
- If you would also like to tell the patient more information about the appointment type, select Add a message to appear as soon as the appointment type is selected and enter your message in the space. This is useful in describing what the appointment type is for so the patient can go back and choose another type that might be more appropriate:
- The next section is only relevant if you wish to make the appointment type a Telehealth appointment type. If so, select the checkbox and the Patient eligibility options. See Telehealth Mode for further information:
- Under Templates for Practitioner Setup decide if that appointment type is for new and/or existing patients, choose the default appointment length, how far in advance patients can book an appointment, and enter any Terms and Conditions the patient agrees to when submitting the booking.
These default settings should be what the majority of your practitioners prefer for that appointment type. You can still adjust for individual practitioners in the Practitioner Setup. - Link the appointment type to the applicable appointment type in your clinical software:
- You can also select if you would like to accept cancellations for this appointment type (see Why is a patient unable to cancel their appointment? for more information):
- If you wish to make this a 'Tandem' appointment type (where two appointments are booked at the same time, select Add Supporting Practitioner. To learn more about setting up a Tandem type, see How to create a Tandem Appointment type:
- Next, you can activate the appointment type for any of your practitioners by checking the boxes next to their name for both new and existing patient types:
- Lastly, save any changes you have made by selecting the green Save button at the bottom of the screen:
How to remove an appointment type
- If you would like the delete the Appointment Type entirely, select the Bookings > Appointment Types then Delete on the type you'd like to remove:
- You will then see an 'Are you sure?' alert box. Click Yes, Delete if you still wish to go forward with the removal:
