Question
If a patient has booked an appointment, why are they unable to cancel this?

Solution

If a patient has unsuccessfully tried to cancel their appointment either in the HotDoc app or via their Reminder message, this could mean there are specific cancellation settings configured that are prohibiting appointment cancellations such as:

• Practice-wide reminder settings
  
• Individual practitioner reminder settings (Either for a specified time period or completely for that practitioner)
  
• Specific appointment type reminder settings (Standard, Care Plan, etc.)
  
• Specific reminder type settings (Regular, Immediate, Early, etc.)

Please note, not all of these settings are visible on your Dashboard, but if configured may stop patients from being able to cancel via their appointment reminder and any bookings they've made with their HotDoc account.

How to view practice-wide reminder settings?

1. Practice-wide automatic cancellation settings are located in the HotDoc Dashboard under Bookings > Settings.

How to view individual practitioner reminder settings?

1. Cancellation settings per practitioner are found in the HotDoc Dashboard under Bookings > Practitioner Setup then selecting Edit next to the practitioner whose settings you wish to change:

2. Scroll down to Online Bookings Settings and enter the time frame that patients can cancel their appointment before it starts:

3. Press the Save button at the bottom of the screen, to keep any changes.

How to view specific appointment type settings?

1. Cancellation settings per appointment type are located in the HotDoc Dashboard under Bookings > Appointment Types then selecting Edit next to the appointment type you wish to add the settings to:



2. Scroll down to Link to Appointment Type and select Yes or No under Accept cancellations online and via Reminder:

When set to Yes, the patient will be able to cancel this appointment type.

When set to No, the patient will not be able to cancel this appointment type, unless they call the practice directly. 

3. Press the Save button at the bottom of the screen, to keep any changes.

How to view specific reminder type settings?

1. Reminder settings can be located via the HotDoc Dashboard under

Reminders > Settings. 

2. For each reminder type, you can see which appointment types cannot be cancelled:  

Further information can be found on the following support article:  Smart Cancellation Replies

Best Practice Jade SP2 and above

Best Practice's Jade SP2 update prevents third parties from being able to cancel Recall appointments. In these cases, the request will go to the practice's Sidebar when a patient attempts to cancel so that it can be manually actioned.