If your practice is participating in the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, there will be a series of eligibility screening questions for patients to answer when booking a vaccine appointment. These questions are based on the federal government COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-Out Phase Strategy and are updated regularly due to changes in eligibility.

How does the vaccine eligibility screening work?

• Once you have completed the Vaccinations setup in the Dashboard and have enabled your COVID-19 Vaccine appointment types for online bookings, the screening questions will be active. 
  
  
• Patients will not be able to book more than one Dose 1, 2 or 3 appointments. If they're ineligible, they cannot proceed with a booking. 
  
  
• You can choose whether to allow patients under 60 years old to book an AstraZeneca appointment: Enable/Disable Dose 1 AstraZeneca appointments for patients under 60
  
  
• Dose 1: Patients will be asked for their age, and be asked screening questions. They will be allowed to book based on federal government guidelines. 
  
  
• Dose 2: If the "book follow up dose" feature is enabled, patients are asked to book their second dose and the date range will skip forward based on the brand:
  1. AstraZeneca: 12 weeks or less (you may edit this length here: How do I reduce the minimum wait time between AstraZeneca Dose 1 and Dose 2?) 
  2. Pfizer (12 years & over): 3 weeks
  3. Paediatric Pfizer (5-11 year olds): 8 weeks
  4. Moderna (12 years & over): 4 weeks 
  5. Paediatric Moderna (6-11 year olds): 8 weeks
     
  6. Infant Moderna (6 months - 5 year olds): 8 weeks
     
  7. Novavax: 3 weeks 
     
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• Dose 3/Booster: Currently the appointment type for Dose 3 and booster doses are the same. Depending on ATAGI recommendations per brand, patients will be asked if they are severely immunocompromised to book their third dose OR if they meet the booster dose eligibility criteria for their selected appointment date (different depending on whether it’s their first booster or second booster)
   
• You can still enable COVID-19 screening mode to screen patients of flu like symptoms. If a patient books an appointment more than 14 days in the future, we will bypass the screening questions. See COVID-19 Symptoms Patient Screening for more information. 
  

Eligibility screening 

Dose 1 Eligibility Screening Questions

• When booking a Dose 1 appointment, patients will be asked if they have a Medicare or Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) card before they proceed to book an appointment at your practice. 
  
  
  

Dose 1 eligibility age groups: 

This table explains eligible and ineligible booking scenarios for patients based on current guidelines if they answer yes to the screening questions. 

What do patients booking Dose 1 see if they are not eligible? 

• Patients 0-4 years old are not eligible for any vaccines and will see the following message:
  

• If patients select a vaccine appointment they are not eligible for, we'll direct them to book an appointment for a brand that they are eligible for at your clinic or to "search clinics" for places that have vaccines for their age group. For example, if a 5 year old patient who tries to book a Pfizer (12+ years) appointment type will see the following message:
  
  

Dose 2 Eligibility Screening Questions

Once the patient has completed their Dose 1 appointment, they will be asked to book a Dose 2 appointment. Dose 2 appointments can also be booked by new patients to your practice. 

• If the patient did book their Dose 1 appointment through HotDoc at your practice, we will recognise the date of this appointment and skip ahead the appropriate wait timeline to ensure patients book Dose 2 within TGA guidelines:
  • AstraZeneca: 12 weeks or less into the future (customisable)
  • Pfizer: 3 weeks into the future 
  • Paediatric Pfizer (5-11): 8 weeks into the future 
  • Moderna: 4 weeks into the future 
  • Paediatric Moderna (6-11): 8 weeks into the future 
    
  • Infant Moderna (6 months - 5 years): 8 weeks into the future 
  • Novavax: 3 weeks into the future 
• If the patient did not book their Dose 1 appointment through HotDoc at your practice, they will be asked a series of questions to ensure they book their Dose 2 appointment 12 weeks (AstraZeneca) or 3 weeks (Pfizer) into the future:
  
  
  1. The patient will select a date and time for their Dose 2 appointment.
     
     
  2. We will ask the patient if they have received their first vaccine dose.
     
     • If the patient selects no we will direct them to book a Dose 1 appointment.
     • If yes, they then select which vaccine they received.
       
       
       
  3. Based on the time and date selected in the booking flow, we will ask the patient to confirm the date they received their Dose 1 vaccine.
     
     
  4. If the Dose 2 appointment time/date they select is after the recommended timeframe after their Dose 1 appointment, they will be able to book successfully.

Dose 3/Booster Eligibility Screening Questions

Dose 3/Booster Questions:

Once the patient selects the date and time for their appointment, they will be asked the eligibility questions.

• The patient will be asked to select whether they're booking a third dose appointment, or a booster dose. 
  
  
  
• They will then be asked the following eligibility if they selected Dose 3 or Booster. If patients answer Yes, they will be able to book their appointment: 
  • Third dose question:
    
  • Booster dose question
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  • Note: The "on or before [date]" is based on the appointment time/date they selected in the booking, patients are expected to know the date they had their vaccine. 
    
    
• If they answer No to the questions above, they will see the following message:
  
  
  

Enable/Disable Dose 1 AstraZeneca appointments for patients under 60

What do patients see if you have enabled Dose 1 AstraZeneca under 60s? 

If your clinic has enabled patients 60 and younger to book a Dose 1 AstraZeneca appointment, patients 18+ can book this appointment regardless of the eligibility criteria.

What do patients see if you have not enabled Dose 1 AstraZeneca under 60s?

How will the booking appear in my Appointment Book?

Once a patient books a vaccine appointment, we will write back the patient's answers to the screening questions in the appointment notes/details. 

• For Dose 1 appointments, these answers will write back in the appointment notes/details in the following format:
  • Eligibility: Meets age requirement, Age: 18-59

Example of what a Dose 1 appointment looks like in Best Practice

• For Dose 2 appointments, we will write back the date of the patients Dose 1 appointment and the vaccine they received. Note that currently only second dose appointments where the patient hasn’t booked a first dose via HotDoc will write back information in the following format:
  
  • First Dose: 05/04/2022, Pfizer
    

Example of what a Dose 2 appointment looks like in Best Practice

• For Dose 3/Booster appointments, Dose 3 bookings will write back in the appointment notes/details in the following format:
  • Eligibility: Immunocompromised

Example of what a Dose 3/Booster (Immunocompromised) appointment looks like in Best Practice

How does the appointment look in the Dashboard? 

Once a patient books a Dose 1 or Dose 2 appointment, you will see the screening questions write back in the Bookings > Bookings History section of the Dashboard. Click the dropdown next to a patient's booking to see the details: 

Want to try it yourself?

Sometimes the best way to understand the patient's journey from their perspective is to try it out yourself!

• To view your bookings page and make a booking yourself, firstly setup your vaccine appointment types in your HotDoc Dashboard, make them live and select View my Bookings page:
  
  

• Alternatively, you can view the patient journey by viewing the article COVID-19 Vaccine - The Patient Journey