Appointments
The Appointments feature provides a modern, intuitive scheduling system designed for primary care practices. Built on healthcare interoperability standards (FHIR R4), it offers the flexibility you need while maintaining the simplicity your staff deserves.
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Overview
With Appointments, you can:
- Define practitioner schedules with customizable working hours
- Book patient appointments in just a few clicks
- View your calendar with a familiar Google Calendar-style interface
- Reschedule and cancel appointments effortlessly
- Block time for lunch, meetings, or administrative tasks
- Filter schedules to focus on specific practitioners
Key Features
Flexible Scheduling
- 5-minute time slots - Book appointments of any length (15min, 30min, 45min, etc.)
- No rigid appointment types - Choose the duration you need for each patient
- Automatic slot generation - Working hours automatically create available time slots
- 3-month planning horizon - Extend as needed with one click
Patient-Centric Design
- Quick booking - Select time slots, choose patient, enter reason - done
- Visual calendar - See your day/week at a glance
- Collision-free booking - Prevents double-booking automatically
- Smart rescheduling - Move appointments to new times easily
Calendar Views
- Week View (default) - See multiple practitioners across the week
- Day View - Focus on a single day with timeline detail
- Schedule filtering - Show/hide specific practitioner schedules
- Auto-scroll to current time - Jump to “now” automatically
Getting Started
1. Create Your First Schedule
Before booking appointments, you need to define when your practitioners are available:
- Navigate to Appointments in your dashboard
- Click Create Schedule (or the empty state prompt)
- Fill in the schedule details:
- Practitioner: Select from your team
- Schedule Name: e.g., “Dr. Smith - General Practice”
- Working Hours: Define days and times (e.g., Mon-Fri 9:00-17:00)
- Click Create
The system automatically generates time slots based on your working hours.
2. Book Your First Appointment
- In the calendar view, drag to select consecutive time slots
- A booking dialog opens automatically
- Fill in the appointment details:
- Patient: Select from your patient list
- Reason for visit: Brief description (optional)
- Notes: Additional information (optional)
- Click Book Appointment
The appointment appears immediately in your calendar.
3. Navigate Your Calendar
- Week/Day toggle: Switch between views using the buttons in the header
- Previous/Next buttons: Navigate through time
- Mini calendar: Click dates in the sidebar to jump to specific weeks
- Today button: Return to current week instantly
Common Operations
Viewing Appointment Details
Click any appointment block in the calendar to view:
- Patient information
- Appointment time and duration
- Reason for visit
- Notes
- Quick actions (Reschedule, Cancel, Delete)
Rescheduling an Appointment
- Click the appointment to open details
- Click Reschedule
- Select new time slots in the calendar dialog
- Click Reschedule Appointment
The appointment moves to the new time, freeing up the old slots.
Cancelling an Appointment
- Click the appointment to open details
- Click Cancel
- Optionally enter a cancellation reason
- Confirm the cancellation
Cancelled appointments remain in the system for record-keeping but free up the time slots.
Blocking Time
Need to block time for lunch or meetings?
- Select the time slots you want to block
- A dialog opens asking what you’d like to do
- Click Block Time
- Select Unavailable and add a comment (e.g., “Lunch break”)
- Confirm
The slots become unavailable for booking and display in the calendar.
Filtering Schedules
When multiple practitioners have schedules:
- Look at the Schedules sidebar panel
- Check/uncheck practitioner schedules
- The calendar updates instantly to show only selected schedules
This helps focus on specific practitioners without visual clutter.
Managing Schedules
Updating Working Hours
- Navigate to the Schedules list
- Click the schedule you want to update
- Click Update Working Hours
- Modify the days/times
- Choose a Start Date (when the new hours take effect)
- Confirm
Important: The system deletes future slots from the start date onward and regenerates them with new hours. Make sure no appointments are scheduled during this period.
Extending Your Schedule
Schedules have a planning horizon (default: 3 months). To extend:
- Navigate to the end of your schedule
- You’ll see an “Extend Schedule” prompt
- Click Extend Schedule
- The system generates slots for an additional month
You can extend as many times as needed.
Deleting a Schedule
- Navigate to the schedule details
- Click Delete Schedule
- Confirm the deletion
Note: You can only delete schedules that have no active appointments. Cancelled appointments are okay.
Best Practices
Schedule Setup
- Descriptive names: Use names like “Dr. Smith - General Practice” instead of just “Schedule 1”
- Plan ahead: Create schedules at least 2-3 months in advance
- Update carefully: When changing working hours, choose a future start date to avoid disrupting existing appointments
Booking Workflow
- Check patient history: Before booking, review the patient’s recent appointments
- Add context: Use the “Reason for visit” field - it helps practitioners prepare
- Double-check time: The duration is shown before you confirm
Calendar Management
- Use filters: When your practice has many practitioners, filter to relevant schedules
- Block recurring time: Set up regular lunch breaks and administrative time blocks
- Check conflicts: The calendar shows overlapping appointments visually
Rescheduling vs. Cancelling
- Reschedule: When the appointment will happen at a different time
- Cancel: When the appointment won’t happen at all
- Delete: Only for mistakes - cancelled appointments keep important history
Understanding Time Slots
How Slots Work
The system breaks your working hours into 5-minute slots. When you book an appointment:
- A 15-minute appointment uses 3 slots (5min × 3)
- A 30-minute appointment uses 6 slots (5min × 6)
- A 45-minute appointment uses 9 slots (5min × 9)
This granular approach gives you maximum flexibility without complex appointment type configurations.
Slot Status
Slots can have different statuses:
- Free: Available for booking (shown with light background)
- Busy: Fully booked (shown with appointment)
- Unavailable: Manually blocked (shown as blocked)
Tips and Tricks
Keyboard Navigation
- Use Tab to navigate through dialogs
- Enter to confirm actions
- Escape to close dialogs
Quick Actions
- Double-click an appointment to view details
- Drag to select multiple slots for booking
- Click mini calendar to jump to any week
Visual Cues
- Different colors for different practitioners (schedule-based)
- Overlapping appointments display with slight offset
- Current time indicator in day/week view
- Appointment height reflects duration visually
Troubleshooting
”Slots are not consecutive”
You selected time slots with gaps. Make sure you select adjacent slots without breaks.
”Slot is no longer available”
Someone else just booked this slot. Refresh and choose different slots.
”Cannot update working hours - appointments exist”
Active appointments are scheduled during the period you’re trying to change. Either:
- Choose a later start date (after existing appointments)
- Reschedule or cancel conflicting appointments first
Appointment doesn’t appear after booking
Check your schedule filters - the schedule might be hidden. Also verify you’re viewing the correct week.
What’s Next?
The Appointments feature is continuously improving. Upcoming enhancements include:
- Patient self-booking - Public booking pages for patients
- Appointment reminders - SMS/email reminders to reduce no-shows
- Recurring appointments - Book weekly therapy sessions or monthly check-ups in one action
- Waiting lists - Notify patients when slots open up
Need help? Contact our support team or check the Getting Started guide for general platform setup.