Explore our Flu Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions by the most popular themes. Select a section below to find the answers you're looking for.
Bookings
- Can my clinic use HotDoc's Flu Vaccine management solution?
- Will it be possible to book a nurse and doctor in the same appointment?
- Will it be possible to allow multiple bookings per one appointment slot?
- How do I add a Flu Vaccine appointment type or practitioner in my practice management software? (Best Practice, Pracsoft, Zedmed)
- How can I restrict online bookings by age range to ensure patients select the correct Flu Vaccine Appointment Type online? EG. 65+
- Will there be screening questions for flu vaccine appointments?
- Can I add a message with extra information for flu vaccine appointments?
- Can I use more than one flu vaccine appointment in the flu vaccine onboarding setup?
- Are flu and covid-19 vaccine appointments still required to be more than 14 days apart?
- Can I set up Flu vaccine appointments only for specific days or times of the week?
- If I have the "Stop Recall Sequence When Patient Has an Upcoming Appointment" feature enabled for HotDoc Recalls, will flu vaccine appointments stop recalls from being sent?
Can my clinic use HotDoc's Flu Vaccine management solution?
Yes, if your clinic is using Best Practice, Medical Director or Zedmed as your practice management software. Our Flu Vaccine management solution is not compatible with clinics using Helix or Genie.
Will it be possible to book a nurse and doctor in the same appointment?
Yes. We will have a tandem appointment option that allows nurses and doctors to be booked for the same appointment time. This feature is optional, see How to create a Tandem Appointment for my Flu Appointment Types for more information on how to set this up.
Will it be possible to allow multiple bookings per one appointment slot?
Yes. This will be an option to set up in the flu vaccine self onboarding flow or in your appointment type settings by following the instructions here: How do I allow multiple Flu vaccine bookings in one appointment slot?
Please note: It is not currently possible to accept Flu and COVID vaccine bookings in the same time slot.
How do I add a Flu Vaccine appointment type or practitioner in my practice management software? (Best Practice, Pracsoft, Zedmed)
Please view our Flu Kit and download the guide for your practice management software to see how to add a practitioner or appointment type for flu vaccines.
How can I restrict online bookings by age range to ensure patients select the correct Flu Vaccine Appointment Type online? EG. 65+
We recommend that you name the appointment types clearly when setting them up in your Dashboard to include any specific information such as age specifications. This will help ensure your patients book the correct appointment type. You can also add extra information to guide your patients.
Will there be screening questions for flu vaccine appointments?
No. If you want to add custom messaging to your appointment types, you can do so by following the instructions in the question below.
Can I add a message with extra information for flu vaccine appointments?
To add a message as soon as a patient clicks on the appointment type on your bookings page, follow the instructions in the article: Add a message to your appointment types.
You can add a message to appear in the pre-appointment information that a patient receives before their appointment using the steps in the article How do I edit the pre and post-appointment information for vaccine appointments?
Can I use more than one flu vaccine appointment in the flu vaccine onboarding setup?
Yes. If you have more than one flu vaccine appointment type in your practice management software, you can set this up in the Flu Vaccine self onboarding guide in your Dashboard. By doing this, it ensures both appointment types receive the appropriate flu vaccine appointment communications.
Are flu and covid-19 vaccine appointments still required to be more than 14 days apart?
No. The advice has changed and covid-19 & flu vaccines can now be administered on the same day. You may need to edit the copy in the pre-appointment information to remove this from your appointment types. Please see How do I edit the pre and post-appointment information for vaccine appointments? to edit this.
Can I set up Flu vaccine appointments only for specific days or times of the week?
Yes! You can customise the days or times that a patients can book a flu vaccine appointment at your practice. Please see How do I customise my flu vaccine appointment availability?for a step by step guide on how to do this.
If I have the "Stop Recall Sequence When Patient Has an Upcoming Appointment" feature enabled for HotDoc Recalls, will flu vaccine appointments stop recalls from being sent?
No, flu vaccine appointments will not stop recalls if they were created using the guided setup in the Vaccinations section of the Dashboard. The recall sequence will continue as usual.
Forms
- Will HotDoc have a process of capturing consent for flu vaccine appointments?
- Does HotDoc resend the consent form each year for existing patients?
- How do I preview or edit my consent form?
- What are the default influenza flu vaccine consent form questions based upon?
- If patients are new to the clinic, will they receive a New Patient form and a Consent form?
- When will patients receive a prompt to fill in the consent form?
- Will the consent forms save into my practice management software?
- Will consent forms come through to the Sidebar once submitted?
Will HotDoc have a process of capturing consent for flu vaccine appointments?
Yes. Once you set up your appointments via the Vaccinations > Flu section of the Dashboard, HotDoc can send all patients a digital influenza vaccine consent form after they book a Flu vaccine appointment.
See Getting Started with Flu Vaccinations for how to set up your appointments.
Does HotDoc resend the consent form each year for existing patients?
Yes! We will resend the Influenza Vaccine Consent form to existing patients if they book an appointment 6 months after their last flu vaccine appointment date.
Ensure you have set up our 'Influenza vaccine consent form' and linked your Flu appointment types by completing the Vaccinations > Flu setup, or manually from our template in the Forms > Forms section of the Dashboard. If set up correctly, it will look like this:
How do I preview or edit my consent form?
Once you've completed the setup in the Vaccinations > Flu section of the Dashboard, you can preview or edit the consent form in the Forms section of the Dashboard.Please see How to edit a Form for more information.
What are the default influenza flu vaccine consent form questions based upon?
The consent form is a combination of questions from sample forms available from various state departments of health in Australia.
If patients are new to the clinic, will they receive a New Patient form and a consent form?
Yes. If the patient is new, we can also send a New Patient Registration Form at the same time if your clinic has enabled these forms to send to patients.
When will patients receive a prompt to fill in the consent form?
Patients will receive multiple prompts to fill in their consent form, as well as their New Patient Registration Form if applicable. Please see What communications do patients receive for a Flu or COVID-19 vaccine appointment? for more information and screenshots.
Will the consent forms save into my practice management software?
Yes. The consent forms will be downloaded in the same place as new patient registration forms. See Downloading PDF form submissions to see where this will save depending on the practice management software your clinic is using.
Will consent forms come through to the Sidebar once submitted?
Yes. Any fields that could not write back into the patient file automatically will require your team to copy and paste these manually into the patient record. See Forms Sidebar Workflow for instructions including a video tutorial.
Reminders
- Will patients receive a specific flu vaccine appointment reminder?
- Can I customise the SMS reminder copy?
Will patients receive a specific flu vaccine appointment reminder?
Yes. Please review the following article What communications do patients receive for a Flu or COVID-19 vaccine appointment? to see how appointment reminders appear to patients.
Can I customise the SMS reminder copy?
No. However, you can customise the pre-appointment information that is sent out with the appointment reminder. This information will appear once they click the link in the SMS or Push Notification to confirm their appointment, and is also sent in the body of their email reminder. Please see How do I edit the copy in the pre and post-appointment information? for more information on how to do this.
Stock Management
Does HotDoc have a stock management solution for flu vaccines?
Yes. You can set appointment limits, as well as see the total number of flu vaccine appointments booked through the clinic or booked through HotDoc.
Please see How does the vaccine stock management feature work? and How do I add appointment limits to manage my COVID-19 or Flu vaccine stock? for more information.
Broadcasts
- Does HotDoc have a Flu Vaccine Broadcast?
- How can I include a booking link in my Broadcast message that directs patients to book a Flu Appointment Type?
- Can a Broadcast be staggered and sent in in batches?
Does HotDoc have a Flu Vaccine Broadcast?
Yes. Please follow the instructions in the following article How do I send a broadcast message to patients to inform them about flu vaccines? and choose the Flu Clinic template from the pre-existing Broadcast Templates section.
How can I include a booking link in my Broadcast message that directs patients to book a Flu Appointment Type?
We don’t offer direct links to specific appointment types. However, you can include a "Practitioner booking page" placeholder and select your practitioner profile that is associated with your flu clinic. This will redirect patients to book with your s flu clinic and select the appropriate appointment type when booking. For help, view this interactive guide.
Can a Broadcast be staggered and sent in in batches?
By default, we send broadcasts out over the space of an hour. This is to ensure that we are spreading out messages to avoid a bulk amount of patients all calling the clinic at the same time.
If you wish to send a Broadcast out in smaller batches, we recommend using the available filters to segment your customers. One way you can do this is by breaking your broadcast down into birthday date ranges; this will ensure that a broadcast is not sent to the same patient twice and allows you to segment and prioritise patients in higher-risk age brackets first.
Payments
- Can I capture pre-payment for private vaccine appointments?
- Can I accept a pre-payment for private flu vaccine appointments?
Can I ask patients to provide a payment method when booking for private vaccine appointments?
Yes! You can do this for your private vaccine appointment types (or for any appointment type) with HotDoc's Payments feature.
If you're not already using Payments at your practice, to get started, please follow the instructions in this article Getting Started with Payments.
If you've already set up HotDoc Payments and are using it for other appointment types, please follow the steps here to add a payment method request to your private flu vaccine appointment types.
Can I accept a pre-payment for private flu vaccine appointments?
Yes! You can use our pre-authorisation feature to place a temporary hold of funds on the patients card once a patient books their flu appointment online or directly through your practice and charge their card once they've had their appointment. Please see How do I enable payment pre-authorisation settings for my appointment types?
Billing
Is there an additional cost for setting up a flu practitioner?
No, If set up following the advice from within HotDoc's Flu Kit 2025. As per your PMS Set-up guide, we suggest setting up a flu practitioner as either a "Practice Nurse" or "Resource." This will prevent a licence from being used for your flu practitioner and incurring a cost. To learn more about how HotDoc determines what type of practitioner incurs a cost. Please see: How does HotDoc determine if a practitioner is on a Doctor rate or an Allied Health rate?